MoU signing ceremony and workshop with Korea University

On the afternoon of February 20 (Mon.), five faculty members from Korea University, Korea, visited NIMS and held the MoU signing ceremony and joint workshop to promote future international collaboration between two institutions.

Korea University is one of the top three universities in Korea (Seoul National University (S), Korea University (K) and Yonsei University (Y)) and is known as a member of the ‘SKY’, the three most prestigious universities in Korea, from the initials of the top three Universities. Korea University is ranked 74th in the QS World University Ranking 2023 and 13th in the Asian University Ranking. It is a prestigious private university with a strong presence in the global community with a total student population of approximately 25,300, of which approximately 4,000 are international students (84% undergraduate, 16% graduate). It is also known as the alma mater of figure skater and Olympic gold medalist Ms. Yuna KIM.

NIMS' main research areas are in materials science, chemistry, physics, and computer science, and Korea University has published more than 57% of all Korea University's published papers from those four research areas (according to SciVal analysis). Therefore, Korea University is considered to be one of suitable universities for NIMS to develop global collaborations.

Five faculty members from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of Korea University visited NIMS and after the MoU signing ceremony, a joint workshop was held for match-making with five NIMS researchers who were nominated by Korea University as potential collaborators for future collaborations with Korea University faculty.

The joint workshop for match-making between both institutions' members was held after the signing ceremony according to the following program.

Prof.　Young Keun KIM
　Presentation title: Materials quest for spin-orbitronic memory devices: β-W alloys
Director Dr. Seiji MITANI (Research Center for Magnetic and Spintronic Materials)
　Presentation title: Exploring new spin Hall materials for spin-orbit torque application
Prof.　Woong KIM
　Presentation title: Development of ultrafast supercapacitors
NIMS Special Researcher Dr. Dines Chandra SANTRA(Electronic Functional Macromolecules Group, Research Center for Functional Materials)
　Presentation title: Metallo-supramolecular polymer synthesis driven by data-science
Prof. Joonho LEE
　Presentation title: Prediction of phase stability of nanoparticles: A case study of Bi-Sn system
Group Leader Dr. Ryoji SAHARA(Computational Structural Materials Group, Research Center for Structural Materials)
　Presentation title: Theoretical investigation of oxidation mechanism in Ti and its alloys
Prof. Soo Young KIM
　Presentation title: Ligand engineering in halide perovskites
Senior Researcher Dr. Soshi IIMURA(Electroceramics Group, Research Center for Functional Materials)
　Presentation title: Room temperature hydride ion conduction and the applications
Prof. Yong-Mook KANG
　Presentation title: Enhancing the reaction dynamics of Li-O2 cells by rediscovering the role of heterogeneous catalyst and cell structure
Senior Researcher Dr. Shoichi MATSUDA(Solid-State Battery Group, Center for Green Research on Energy and Environmental Materials)
　Presentation title: 500 Wh/kg class lithium-air batteries

It is highly expected that the start of international joint research by the above five groups of ten scientists will lead to further strengthening of cooperation between the two institutions through the visits of Korea University doctoral students to NIMS and the exchange of young post-doctoral researchers, and then many valuable research outcomes will be published.