The American business magazine Forbes has recently announced the ‘2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia’ on March 27. In the Health Care and Science categories, two Korean Scientists were nominated, both Postechians.
Professor Jeon Hyung-kook (ME, Division of Mechanical Engineering for Creative Emerging Technologies) and senior research scientist Woo Seong-hoon (KIST, Center for Spintronics) were nominated as being young and effective leaders in the Health Care and Scientific fields. Forbes stated; the reason for selecting Professor Jeon was for his contribution in developing a monitoring technique which mimics a spider’s sensory system, and the development of a system for communication between general paralysis patients based on the Morse code system. Professor Jeon graduated from POSTECH both as an undergraduate and graduate student, and showed great academic success, having more than 12 domestic patents, and published papers in more than 10 academic journals. Thanks to these achievements, he was awarded the ‘2016 Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers (KSME) Excellent thesis award’, 3rd place in ‘Samsung’s 12th annual Electro-Mechanics Best Paper Award’, and the ‘2017 KSME Excellent Dissertation Award’, proving excellence and dedication in his career. Woo Seong-hoon also graduated from POSTECH’s undergraduate school, majoring in Material Science & Engineering and earned his Ph. D. from MIT. He is an expert in spintronics, which focuses on the electron’s spin characteristics and magnetic field movements. He was nominated for his contribution to discovering the principle of using ultra-low power, basically using virtually no power, to drive an electronic device.
Forbes announces the ‘Forbes 30 under 30 Asia’ every year. They nominate 30 people in each category and there are a total of 10 categories, so a total of 300 people are nominated each year. Thousands of candidates are thoroughly researched online by Forbes reporters, and a panel of expert judges are responsible for vetting the nominees. Forbes’ goal is to nominate, and “Feature 300 young innovators and disruptors who are re-inventing their industries and driving change across the Asia-Pacific.”
Until now, a total of five Koreans were nominated in the ‘Forbes 30 under 30 Asia’ Health Care and Science categories. The other three nominees are Kim Min-joon, who is the founder of the company Baobab, Kim Sung-hyun, the cofounder of Zikto, and Lee Ji-soo, the cofounder of Dano. They were all nominated in 2017.
