We are proud to note that Nature, the world’s leading multidisciplinary science journal, in its latest issue highlighted key experts from Korea University, including Korea University’s Global Research Director Yong Sik Ok for his role as the leader of the APRU Sustainable Waste Management Program. Read the full post on Nature, today.
The program, inaugurated at Korea University in December 2019, focuses on the technical challenges for the recycling and recovering of waste materials while paving the way towards a circular economy, land reclamation, and water and wastewater treatments. It will feed into the Nature Conference on Waste Management and Valorization for a Sustainable Future, to be hosted by Ok in Seoul in October 2021.
“Waste management on the land and the seas has become a major national, regional, and global challenge,” Nature quoted Ok as saying.
“We need to develop better strategies for more effectively managing our waste, which not only seek to reduce waste but also seek to derive value from the waste we generate through, for example, the conversion of waste to energy and value-added products such as biochar,” Ok added.
Nature went on to highlight Korea University’s success in creating the next generation of solar cells and helping the world transition to more efficient and cleaner renewable energy technologies. Research by Korea University’s Associate Professor in Architectural and Social Engineering Jun Hong Noh has been focused on developing solar cells made from perovskite, a mineral with a hybrid organic-inorganic structure. Perovskite solar cells are not only more efficient, lighter, cheaper, and easier to produce than conventional silicon-based cells, they can also be made into flexible devices.
Nature also featured Korea University’s research on atrial fibrillation; the pioneering work of Young-Hoon Kim, Vice President, Professor and Executive Director of the Cardiovascular Center at Korea University Anam Hospital, has led to improved diagnoses and treatments.
Nature furthermore highlighted Korea University’s prowess in developing state-of-the-art imaging techniques, such as coherent multidimensional spectroscopy, which has allowed scientists to capture real-time images of the high-speed chemical reactions that occur at the molecular level.
APRU Sustainable Waste Management Program leader Ok was the first Korean to be selected as a Highly Cited Researcher (HCR) in the field of Environment and Ecology by the Web of Science’s HCR index with 60 Highly Cited Papers and Hot Papers.
Korea University has been ranked the top private university in Asia — for the fourth consecutive year — on the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) world rankings list.