- Professional Experiences  -

Associate Adjunct Professor, Dep. of Mater. Sci. and Eng., University of California, Davis, March 1st, 2026 – current

Career Staff Scientist, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, December. 1st, 2023 – current

Career-Track Staff Scientist, Materials Sciences Division, LBNL, March. 21st, 2019 – November 30th, 2023

Postdoctoral Researcher, Materials Sciences Division, LBNL, March. 14th 2016 – March. 20th 2019 (Ceder group)

Postdoctoral Researcher, Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Seoul National University, March. 15th 2015 – Feb. 29th 2016 (Kisuk Kang Group)

 

̶  Education  ̶

Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Ph.D., Department of Materials Science and Engineering, March. 1st 2011 – Feb. 26th 2015 (Advisor :Prof. Kisuk Kang)

(The Best Graduate Thesis Award)

KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

M.S., Graduate School of EEWS, Sept. 1st 2009 – Feb. 1st 2011 (Advisor : Prof. Kisuk Kang)

Hangyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

B.S., Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Feb. 27th 2006 – Aug. 21st 2009 (Summa Cum Laude)

​

̶  Summary of research outcomes  ̶

• Total 111 papers (including research articles and review articles) published

• 6 patents granted and 3 patents in pending

• Total citation: 23,669 and H-index: 65 (based on Google Scholar)

​

̶  Research highlights and interests  ̶

• Next Generation Battery: I have designed and developed inorganic functional materials for Li-ion and beyond Li-ion batteries, including Na-/K-ion, Mg-/Ca-ion, and solid-state batteries, based on the fundamental understanding of “structure-property” relationship. Diverse compounds, spanning from simple oxides to multicomponent oxides and polyanions, have been developed.

• Synthesis Science: Time- and temperature-resolved characterization techniques are used to understand material synthesis mechanisms, enabling “synthesis by design”.

• Advanced characterization: I leverage operando structure characterization techniques to understand chemical and electrochemical reactions in battery cells. Cryo-FIB/SEM/TEM techniques have been used for interface investigations in battery cells.

 

̶  Selected Lists of Honors & Awards  ̶

• Chemical Communications Emerging Investigators (2026)

• Director's Award for Exceptional Early Scientific Career Achievement, LBNL (2024)

• Batteries Young Investigator Award (2024)

• Journal of Materials Chemistry A Emerging Investigators (2024)

• Energy and Fuels Rising Stars (2024)

• Scialog Fellow (2024, Topic: Automating Chemical Laboratories)

• Highly Cited Researcher (Cross-field), Web of Science (2019, 2021-2023)

• Rising Star in Materials Science, ACS Materials Au (2023)

• The Young Scientist Award, International Society for Solid State Ionics (2022)

• ECS Battery Division Postdoctoral Associate Research Award (2017)

• ECS Energy Technology Division Graduate Student Award (2015)

• The Best Graduate Student Thesis Award, Seoul National University (2014)

 

̶  Active Research Funds and Fellowships as a Principal Investigator (PI)/co-PI  ̶

• DOE/BES/Energy Storage Research Alliance (ESRA) Hub, co-PI (FY26) [$62.5M, Share: $150K]

• DOE/EERE/VTO Lab call, PI “Solid state batteries with long cycle life and high energy density through materials design and integration.” (FY22-FY26) [$9.375M, Share: $1.525M]

• LBNL’s LDRD (Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program), PI “Understanding and controlling mechanochemical reaction mechanisms to develop novel inorganic compounds” (FY25-26) [$550K]

• DRX+ project under DOE/EERE/VTO, co-PI (FY23-FY25) [$10.2M, Share: $900K]

• Na-ion Consortium under DOE/EERE/VTO, “LENS Consortium: Low-cost Earth-abundant Na-ion Storage Consortium”, co-PI (FY25-FY29) [$50M, Share:$1.25M]

 

̶  Teaching Experiences  ̶

Guest Lecture (EMS172- Optical Properties) at University of California, Davis (2025)

Guest Lecture (Electrochemical Analysis for Battery Applications) at University of California, Santa Barbara (2019)

Department Seminar Research Presentation at University of California, Davis (2025)

Department Seminar Research Presentation at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) (2025)

Department Seminar Research Presentation at University of Texas at Dallas (2024)

Department Seminar Research Presentation at San Jose State University (2024)

Mentoring/advising postdocs in Haegyum Kim’s lab (2019-current)

Co-advising graduate students/postdocs in the lab, Ceder Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2016-2023)

Mentoring undergraduate/graduate students, Kisuk Kang’s group, Seoul National University (2013-2015)

Training visiting students from Daegu Science High School (29 June 2015 – 2 July 2015)

 

̶  Service and Outreach  ̶

Advisory, Editorial, Mentorship:

• Editorial Board member in Energy & Fuels (ACS journal, since 2024)

• Editorial Board member in Journal of Solid-State Electrochemistry (Springer Nature, since 2026)

• Early Career Advisory Board, Materials Chemistry Frontiers (RSC journal, since 2025)

• Materials Horizons Community Board (RSC journal, since 2023)

• Young Editorial Board Member of Battery Energy (Wiley, 2022-2025)

• Editorial Board member in Electrochem (MDPI journal) (since 2019)

• Korea Technology Advisory Group (K-TAG) member (since 2023)

• Mentor at MESA (Mentoring program in Energy Science Area) at LBNL (2022-2023)

• Safety committee member, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (since 2018)

• Strategic planning committee ESA (Energy Science Area) Charter Hill visioning, LBNL (2020-2022)

IDEA (Inclusive, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability) activity:

• Advancing STEM Pioneers In Research In Energy Sciences (ASPIRES) taskforce (2025, 2026)

• Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) committee, MSD, LBNL (2021-2023)

• National Lab Fair (Jan. 19th 2022)

• Berkeley Lab Ambassador (Since 2021)

• Judge for 2021 Contra Costa County (CCC) Science and Engineering Fair (March 12th, 2021)

• Berkeley Lab Teaching Scholar (2021-2022)

Symposium organizers:

• ECS (2022, 2023), MRS (2022, 2023, 2025), ACS (2025, 2026) meetings

• Charter Hill Accelerated Discovery and Synthesis Focus Session (August, 2021)

• In-situ Electron Microscopy workshop, Energy Science Area, LBNL (June, 2021)

Guest Editor for:

• RSC Materials Horizons and Nanoscale Horizons themed collection on beyond Li-ion batteries (2026)

• Journal of Materials Research (JMR) Focus Issue (Topic: Multiscale Characterization and Analysis for Understanding Energy Storage Mechanisms in Rechargeable Batteries) (2021)

• Frontiers in Chemistry (Topic: Beyond Li-ion Batteries for Mid/Large Scale Energy Storage Applications: Opportunities and Challenges) (2019)

Review panel for:

• DOE/BES, DOE/EERE, and NSF research programs

• American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) Scholarship (since 2022)

• VFP (Visiting Faculty Program) of LBNL (since 2021)

• Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (since 2021)

• Estonian Research Council (Research funding organization) (since 2019)

• Israel Science Foundation (ISF) (since 2021)

Workshop Panelist at:

• ANL-LBNL-PNNL Joint Energy Storage Workshop (October 20-22, 2021)

• National Energy Storage Summit’s Roundtable: Circularity in Battery Recycling for a Sustainable Future  (March. 9th 2022)