Mentors

Soojung Claire Hur is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Oncology at Johns Hopkins University. She earned her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA in 2005, 2007, and 2011, respectively. Following her doctoral studies, she became one of two Rowland Fellows at the Rowland Institute, Harvard University, with five years of research funding.

Prior to her current position, Soojung managed clinical studies funded by Vortex Biosciences, Inc. as an assistant researcher at UCLA Department of Bioengineering. Her research at JHU spans various domains, including intrinsic cellular deformability measurement, CTC-derived ex vivo tumor model construction, and high-throughput single-cell assay development for early cancer diagnosis.

Soojung's accolades include the Edward K. Rice Outstanding Doctoral Student award, the inaugural 2018 Johnson and Johnson WiSTEM2D scholar award, the 2019 Susan G. Komen Career Catalyst Research Award, the 2023 JHU Catalyst Award, among others. She has co-authored 23 peer-reviewed journals, with four featured as journal covers, and holds 3 US and two international granted and 6 pending patents.

Dr. Gloria Kim is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at the University of Florida (UF). She is also an affiliate faculty in UF's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She received her B.S. in chemistry from Seoul National University, M.S. in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.

She was awarded several grants from the National Science Foundation (IUSE Level 1, IRES Track 1, I-Corps, and I-Corps for Learning) as principal investigator. She transitioned to tenure track in Fall 2022 to pursue her research interests in convergence in engineering education and global engineering education.

She has taken on new NSF projects to broaden participation in quantum engineering (IUSE Level 3), research abroad (IRES Track 1), use-inspired research (Convergence Accelerator Track I), and workforce development in semiconductors (NSF Regional Innovation Engine). In 2023, she won the UF International Educator of the Year Award for her contributions to the internationalization of the UF and the impact of those contributions on students, international partners, and university stakeholders.

Having grown up in Australia, Canada, Korea, and Germany, she speaks three languages. Dr. Kim has served in leadership positions in KSEA, Korean Society for Engineering Education (KSEE), American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES).

Prof. Dong-Hyun Kim is an Associate professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering at the Northwestern University. He is the director of Biomaterials for Image Guided MEDicine Lab (BIGMed lab) and the co-director of Molecular and Translational Imaging Core (MTIC) at R.H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received his B.S. in materials science and engineering and Ph.D. in medical science, Yonsei University. He got postdoc trainings in chemical and biological engineering at University of Alabama and Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory. He and his group's research has focused on image guided medicine using multifunctional therapeutic carrier platforms to treat cancers for 20 years and published over 100 papers on international refereed journals. Dr. Kim is working closely with clinicians, medical scientists, biologist, engineers, and imaging professionals to translate new cancer therapeutic approaches to clinics. He has been working on NIH research projects and published papers focusing on image guided medicine in high impact scientific journals. He recently got awarded 2020 Distinguished Investigator from the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research.

Harold Kim is a Professor of Physics at Georgia Institute of Technology. He majored in physics at KAIST and earned his PhD from Stanford University with a thesis entitled “single-molecule studies of dynamic biological processes." He then did postdoctoral research at Harvard University on quantitative gene expression in budding yeast. In 2010, he joined the physics faculty at Georgia Tech. His NSF- and NIH-funded research has focused on the extreme mechanics of DNA, which underlies packaging, regulation, and repair of the genome inside the cell. Since 2012, he has been a core faculty member of the NSF-funded Physics of Living Systems (PoLS) student research network. His awards include the Grigorio Weber International Prize in Biological Fluorescence (2005) and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface (2007). He is a lifetime member of the Association of Korean Physicists in America (AKPA) and will serve as its president beginning in 2023. Outside his profession, he loves watching sports, playing golf, and going hiking with his wife, dog, and two kids.

Dr. Jaekyung Kim is an Assistant Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) since July 2023. Prior to this appointment, he earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering in 2017. Following the completion of his PhD, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco.

Dr. Kim's research is centered around unraveling the intrinsic neural networks underlying motor learning and memory processes. His work also involves the integration of brain-machine interfaces into the motor cortex of rodents. These endeavors have deepened his fascination with exploring the fundamental principles of sleep-dependent processing and its role in forming motor memory during long-term periods of learning.

Over the past five years, Dr. Kim has acquired several prestigious grants and awards, including the POSCO Science Fellowship from POSCO TJ Park Foundation, K99 Pathway to Independence Award from the NIH NINDS, and the Excellent Research Award from the South Korean Ministry of Education. He has significantly contributed to the field by publishing cutting-edge research in high-impact journals such as Nature, Cell, and Cell Reports. 

Dr. Chi Hwan Lee is the Lesli A. Geddes Professor at Purdue University, holding positions in both the Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering departments and contributing to Materials Engineering by courtesy. After earning a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, Dr. Lee continued his research journey at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a postdoctoral fellow before joining Purdue University in 2015. Drawing upon his expertise, he has spearheaded innovative wearable devices that address clinical needs with simplicity and effectiveness. He has been recognized for his efforts with awards, including the 2021 Sensors Young Investigator Award, 2020 Purdue CoE Early Career Research Award, and 2019 NIH Trailblazer Award. Dr. Lee has published over 80 journal papers and 6 book chapters, secured 6 U.S. patents, filed 11 utility patents, co-founded 4 startup companies, and spearheaded efforts to secure over $15M in research funding.

Inhee Lee earned his B.S. and M.S. in electrical and electronic engineering from Yonsei University in 2006 and 2008, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. in electrical and electronic engineering at the University of Michigan in 2014. From 2015 to 2019, he served as an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan before joining the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant professor in 2019. At the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Lee leads the PITT Circuit Lab, where he focuses on the development of adaptive, energy-efficient analog, mixed-signal, and digital circuits and systems. His research interests cover various areas, including machine learning accelerators, energy harvesters, power management circuits, sensor interfaces, and reference circuits. Additionally, he works on creating millimeter-scale or smaller sensing/computing systems for applications in ecology, biomedicine, and AI-of-things. Dr. Lee's notable achievements include the development of the world's smallest computers, which have been featured in prestigious venues such as the Computer History Museum. He received the Best Paper Award from the ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom) in 2021.He currently serves as a TPC Member for IEEE VLSI Symposium, CICC, A-SSCC, CAS Analog Signal Processing, and ISLPED.

2007 PhD in Bioinformatics, Ewha Womans University

2007 - 2010 Postdoctoral research in Genetic Medicine, University of Chicago

2010 - 2015 Assistant Professor (Research Associate), School of Medicine, University of Chicago

2015-2022 Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah.

2017-2022 Director, Graduate Program of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah Asia campus

2022- Present Assistant Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University

Gene Moo Lee is an Associate Professor (with tenure) of Information Systems at UBC Sauder School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UT Austin. His AI and business analytics research has been published in MIS Quarterly (MISQ), Information Systems Research (ISR), and Journal of MIS. He is an AIS Distinguished Member and received the Reviewer of the Year Award from MISQ and ISR. Currently, he serves as an Associate Editor of ISR. He has worked with Samsung, Hyundai/Kia, AT&T, Intel, and Goldman Sachs, and holds 11 patents in mobile technology. He is the Director of UBC Data Analytics & AI Research Group.

Dr. Woo Hyoung Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, FL, USA. He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from The University of Cincinnati, USA in 2009. Before joining UCF, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMLR) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To date, his professional work and research have encompassed the development and use of electrochemical sensors for water quality monitoring, greywater reuse, bioenergy production from wastes, and smart water and wastewater treatment using environmental nanotechnology and biotechnology. Dr. Lee has been an Office of Naval Research (ONR) summer faculty at the Naval Surface Warfare Center–Carderock Division (NSWCCD) for 7 years. He is a registered professional engineer (P.E.). He currently serves as a member of the U.S. EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) Social and Community Science Subcommittee.

My research projects have been supported by Gates Foundation, AIChE, and 13 governmental funding agencies (26 grants), and I have secured >$10M ($38M for the teams since 2012). These projects and my prior efforts have resulted in 92 publications (81 as the PI), 188 invited talks, 170 contributed conference presentations, and 10 patents. My achievements have also been recognized with many awards, including a Langer Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence, a B&B Daniel I.C. Wang Award, an NSF CAREER award, an ONR Young Investigator Award, etc. I have been organizing many international conferences as a co-chair. I have also served as a reviewer, editor-in-chief of New Biotechnology, editor for 8 journals, or editorial member for 6 journals, including Nature/Science/Cell journals and PNAS. Notably, my global leadership efforts include 1) my role as an EBRC Council Member to provide the vision to address national and global needs through synthetic biology and 2) my service to SynBYSS as the Chair to provide a weekly, virtual, and multi-year forum where a global thought leader gives an opening 5 min talk, followed by a 45 min, rising star’s talk, for >1,000 global audiences.

Dr. Estelle Park is an Assistant Professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. Dr. Park’s lab leads pioneering research at the intersection of stem cell biology and tissue engineering. Drawing upon recent advances in stem cell research, Dr. Park's research focuses on the development of human adult stem cell and pluripotent stem cell-derived organoid model systems. These sophisticated in vitro models faithfully recapitulate the developmental trajectories of human organs, resulting in complex multicellular tissue constructs that closely mimic the structure and function of living organs. Simultaneously, her lab explores the capabilities of organ-on-a-chip technology to engineer tissue constructs that emulate human organs with an unprecedented level of tissue complexity. Her laboratory is interested in integrating these two innovative methodologies and developing organoids-on-chips to elucidate the biochemical and biomechanical cues that govern tissue morphogenesis and maturation during development, and to identify biomarkers involved in this process for testing potential therapeutic targets in regenerative medicine.

Dr. Park received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Kyung Hee University, South Korea, 2013. His graduate work mainly focused on developing therapeutic strategies for Parkinson’s disease (PD) by regulating transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1, pain receptor) in microglia, astrocytes, and neurons. His initial postdoctoral training was achieved at Rutgers University. He focused on elucidating the mechanisms of α-Synuclein propagation and α-Synuclein-mediated neurotoxicity in PD. He examined the effective medical management of levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) by modulation of the dual k-agonist/m-antagonist opioid receptor in the macaque monkey PD model. Afterward, he received postdoctoral training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine to study the role of microglial colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R) in brain development and CSF1R-haploinsufficiency-caused dementia. In 2018, he joined UTHealth Houston to uncover the underlying pathology of brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM) and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). He contributed to establishing the novel mouse model of AVM/ICH and trying to develop the therapeutic strategy for the AVM and preventive strategy for the ICH. Since 2022, Park’s lab has been interested in dissecting the multicellular neurovascular unit to explore the role of glia and cells related to blood-brain barrier (BBB) formation in the microvascular side of AVM, PD and aging.

Dr. Jinkyoung Yoo is the co-leader of Quantum Materials Systems thrust of The Center for In¬tegrated Nanotechnologies (CINT), a National Nanoscience Research Center supported by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is also a member of the Quantum Science Center, a DOE Quantum Information Science Center. He received his Ph. D. (Materials Science) from the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in Korea. He worked at CINT as a post-doctoral researcher from 2010 to 2013. He then joined CINT as a technical staff member in 2013. His research encompasses synthesis of semiconductor nanow¬ire heterostructures, 2D/3D heterostructures, electrical/optical characterizations, and device fabrication to integrate fundamental understandings of nanoscience into applicable devices. He is a principal editor of Journal of Materials Research and a review panel of Materials Research Society Outstanding Young Investigator Award. He has served as panelists for DOE BES core program, NSF DMR, LANL Postdoc Program Commit¬tee, and LANL Laboratory Directed Research & Development Program’s Exploratory Research Review Committee.