Dongguk University Wins Series of Large Government-Funded Projec...

Dongguk University Wins Series of Large Government-Funded Projects Selected for Lifelong Education System Support Project and Early Start-up Package Project, among others.Dongguk University (President Sung-Yee Yoon) has recently been selected for a series of government-funded projects. The University announced on the 1st of this month that the school was selected for the 2019 Early Start-up Package Project under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Lifelong Education System Support Project under the Ministry of Education and the National Institute for Lifelong Education.The Early Start-up Package Project supervised by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups supports a package consisting of a government grant of up to 100 million KRW, education, and mentoring for the efficient start-up business of preliminary founders and young companies within 3 years of establishment through the supervising organizations, such as universities and public agencies equipped with excellent start-up infrastructure.This project has combined the existing Start-up Leadership College, Smart Venture Campus, and Generation Convergence Start-up Campus; the organization will commence operation for the first time later this year. Since 2011, when it was selected first for the Startup Leadership University Cultivation Project, Dongguk University has been named a startup leadership university for eight consecutive years. The university was appointed as a supervising organization for the “2019 Early Startup Package Project” based on its 2018 performance evaluation result.Dongguk University has made an effort to create a startup-centered university culture. The startups that the university has supported for the last three years have created total sales of approximately 75.8 billion KRW, hired 662 employees, and earned more than 25 investments for start-ups, thus proving once again that it is a university with strength in business start-ups. For this project, Dongguk University aims to “create a start-up campus where the youth and community work together” and plans to specialize in ▲ university and research institute start-ups, ▲ youth startups, and ▲regional bases.Dae-Young Kim, Head of the Dongguk University Startup Support Center said, “We will discover excellent startups based on our long experience of startup support and success know-how. We will take the leadership in spreading the start-up culture to the community beyond the boundary of the university.” Meanwhile, the Lifelong Education System Support Project under the Ministry of Education and the National Institute for Lifelong Education will support lifelong education degree courses for adult learners. The selected universities will pursue joint activities, such as the development of K-MOOC courses (Korean online open lectures), by forming a mutual consultation body.Adult learners that satisfy the qualifications for each university type, such as graduation from Meister and specialized high schools, can apply for the lifelong degree courses. The students are selected by customized screening instead of the college scholastic ability test score.Dongguk University is operating the Future Convergence College as a lifelong education college, which comprises the Convergence Security Department, Social Welfare Consulting Department, and Global Trading Department.Chang-Han Lee, Dean of the Future Convergence College, said “The Future Convergence College of Dongguk University aims to become an open college for the career design of adult learners. We will continue to strive to provide the best educational programs to assist adult learners in earning degrees and redesigning their careers.”

Selection Finalized for our University’s Participation in LINC+ ...

Selection Finalized for our University’s Participation in LINC+ ProgramApproximately 11 billion KRW over the next three years Our university stated on Thursday 11th that it had been selected as the final choice for the second-phase program of a Leaders in INdustry-university Cooperation + (LINC+) announced by the Ministry of Education on Wednesday 10th. The Ministry of Education and the Korea Research Foundation announced a total of 75 universities promoting the second-phase program of the "LINC+" project, which will run from 2019 to 2021. The LINC+ business aims to induce co-prosperity between universities and local communities by exploring and promoting various industry–academic cooperation models based on university conditions and characteristics. Although our university had to go through a second round of evaluation, it was listed on the final list after fierce competition with leading universities such as Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Korea University. In the Seoul Metropolitan Area, 11 schools were selected for the industry–academic cooperation models along with Sungkyunkwan University, Hanyang University, and Chung-Ang University. Additionally, five schools, including Gachon University, were selected for the social-tailored department-occupancy models. In particular, industry–academic cooperation is a track that supports the development of talented people who are highly workplace-adaptable and regional (industrial) competitiveness by discovering various industry–academic cooperation models and spreading industry-linked curricula that meet the demand for new industries. Meanwhile, in a dramatic turn of events, our university was seen to have been selected through achieving excellent performance in terms of vision, business composition, and efficiency during the document and presentation screening. In addition, it has been reported that Lee Eui-soo, the head of LINC+ Business Group; Lim Eui-woon, the head of the Industrial–Academic Human Resources Development Center; Cho Kyung-eun, the head of the Center for Corporate and IT Specialization; and Park Hyuk-sang, the head of the LINC+ Administration Support Division, played a major role in our school’s selection for the project. Through the project, the university will receive an annual 3.7 billion KRW (approximately 11 billion KRW over three years) in national funding until 2021. It will be used for employment, startups, and programs to strengthen the career capabilities of students linked to the industry and other communities. "Based on the achievements we have made in carrying out this project over the past 10 years and our strong performance, we received this assessment as best we can," said Yoon Sung-yee, president of the university. "We will make efforts to further upgrade the industry–academic cooperation program so that students can become more competitive."

Our University Has Been Selected for the “Project for Nurturing ...

Our University Has Been Selected for the “Project for Nurturing Innovative Growth and Young Talent,” Which Will Be Supported with 2.4 Billion Won for 3 Years Prof. Joo Has Also Been Selected as Project Director of the “Big Data Young Talent Fostering Campus Project” Our university has been selected for both the “Project for Nurturing Innovative Growth and Young Talent,” sponsored by the Ministry of Science and ICT and organized by the Institute for Information and Communications Technology Promotion (IITP), and the “Big Data Young Talent Fostering Campus Project” hosted by the Korea Data Agency.The Project for Nurturing Innovative Growth and Young Talent is one of the key government projects that provides college graduates-to-be and young job seekers with project-oriented software education for the top eight innovative growth industries. This is expected to relieve labor shortages in industry while addressing the youth unemployment problem by nurturing talent in preparation for the coming era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.Appointed as project director, Prof. Joo Hae-jong of Computer Engineering at Dongkuk University will focus on fostering young talents in the big data field who will lead the new technology era with 2.4 billion won of full subsidies from the government over three years.The curriculum will consist of a total of 900 hours (about six months) of “nurturing experts in intelligent software based on big data analysis,” including 450 hours of theory education in big data analysis and artificial intelligence algorithms required for corporate projects and 450 hours of hands-on training to experience projects in the field with corporate mentors.Prof. Joo said, “While the youth unemployment problem is serious, 25 participating organizations and corporate partners are complaining about the lack of adequate workforce; it is imperative to solve this job mismatch issue.” He added, “This project is expected to provide trainees with the opportunity to develop project-oriented problem-solving skills sought after by companies as well as to meet new challenges to become the leaders of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”Since 2012, Dongguk University has produced experts in the interdisciplinary field of “Big Data + Intelligent Software,” through the Executive Program on Big Data, the Humanities Program for Planning and Analyzing Big Data, BIC School for Nurturing Talent for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the Big Data Talent Fostering Leading University Program.Prof. Joo Hae-jong has also won “The Big Data Young Talent Fostering Campus Project” and will receive 116 million won this year. Through this project, data science-based intelligent software courses will be established, which will provide participating students with a total of 300 hours of education.

Breaking down barriers of untranslatability in translational lit...

Breaking down barriers of untranslatability in translational literatureLiterature is the window to a culture. However, there are concepts and ideas that may be untranslatable because they are unique to that culture. In such a case, what does a translator do? This is the basis of the four papers, written by Prof. Youngmin Kim from Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea, that looks at the impact of translated literature at local and global levels and the challenges experienced by translators when they encounter ‘untranslatable’ material.When translated from the language it was originally written in, literature transcends the boundaries between nations and cultures, creating transnational world literature. Sometimes these bridges become passages that help create something new. Prof. Kim’s papers on transnational literature collectively reflect upon the phenomena of connecting the dots between other literatures and cultures, and the attempts to articulate the sense of ‘strangeness’ one encounters when discussing world literature, which then transforms into an exchange of ideas between the cultures creating a “World Republic of Letters”However, when one is involved in translating, there are often multiple occasions when one finds it difficult to translate a particular word, sentences, a paragraph, or a series of statements. It is a basic assumption of cultural translation that what appears to be initially untranslatable because of cultural differences can be overcome if the translator becomes attentive to the nuances and the other’s voices, and challenges the cross-cultural venture beyond the space of untranslatability. In order to convey the accurate meaning, the translating process needs the translator to feel and endure the original text. Thus, the core question is: How can a translator approach a literary text with the concepts of the familiar and that of the foreign while attempting a faithful translation of literary texts?Prof. Kim suggests an interactive map of world literature studies. In his papers he has demonstrated how the very concepts of ‘scale’ and ‘distance’ are related to the literary landscape, and how this helps in mapping the scale of the politics of representation. He believes that “Glocalization” is a convenient theoretical lens with which one can view this world. According to Prof. Kim “Glocalization is a double movement of the up-scale and down-scale: the simultaneous and contested shift up-scale towards the global and down-scale to the local in response to ever changing economic, political and cultural pressures”. He calls this the ‘poetics of scale’. The rationale for this poetics of scale comes from the poetics of “cultural translation” in world literature. Translation of literature works from one language to another will be most accurate and representative, when the translator works within a glocal framework i.e. balancing the familiar with the unfamiliar. They need to liberate the original work from the trappings of exact language translation, and allow it to communicate the essence of the work based on human intellect, emotion, and understanding. Professor Kim adds “untranslatability is simply positioned in the mind of original language user. The contact zone or border zone of untranslatable original language has to be transgressed and translated by way of enduring and sustainable collaboration of translation studies and world literature scholars as well as engaging with colleagues in other disciplines,”ReferenceAuthor:Youngmin KimTitles of original paper:1. Cultural Translation and World Literature in Korea. Comparative Literature Studies. Vol. 54, No. 1, Special Issue: Comparative Literature in East Asia (2017), pp. 89-106. DOI: 10.5325/complitstudies.54.1.0089 (A&HCI).2. Yeats’s Noh and World Drama:Foreign Form in Tandem with Local Materials. Neohelicon Dec. First on Line, 2019. DOI 10.1007/s11059-018-0470-9 (A&HCI)3. Scale, Untranslatability, Cultural Translation, and World Literature The Journal of English Language and Literature. 64.3 (September 2018): 469-82. DOI:10.15794 /jell.2018.64.3.002 (Distinguished KCI)4. Border Crossing, Cultural Translation, and Ethnic Identity in Transnational Literature. Foreign Literature Studies 39.1 (February 2017): 90-99. (A&HCI)Affiliations:Department of English, College of the Humanities, Dongguk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea About Dongguk UniversityDongguk University, founded in 1906, is located in Seoul, South Korea. It comprises 13 colleges that cover a variety of disciplines and has local campuses in Gyeongju, Goyang, and Los Angeles. The university has 1300 professors who conduct independent research and 18000 students undertaking studies in a variety of disciplines. Interaction between disciplines is one of the strengths on which Dongguk prides itself; the university encourages researchers to work across disciplines in Information Technology, Biotechnology, Culture Technology, and Buddhism. Website:http://www.dongguk.edu/mbs/en/index.jsp About the authorDr. Youngmin Kim is a Professor at the Department of English, Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea. He is also Distinguished Research Professor and the Director of Trans-Media World Literature Institute of Dongguk University. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of English Language and Literature (2013-2020), the Vice-President of Ethical Literary Criticism (IAELC, 2012-Present), and the Vice-Chair of International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures (IASIL, 2009-2020). He is also the President of Deans’ Association of Private University Humanities Colleges of the Republic of Korea (2017-2019). He was an advisory committee member of the Harvard University Institute of World Literature (IWL) (2013-17). Prof. Kim has written books on Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Lacanian Psychoanalysis, World Literature, and Transnationalism. His current interest includes transnationalism and cultural translation, world poetries in English, and interdisciplinary border-crossing humanities, and digital humanities and digital culture. He has attempted to investigate the humanities, based upon this genealogy of emerging transnational cultural logic. Prof Kim has shown how 21st-century cultural phenomena around the world have transformed itself into the cultural logic of transnationalism, hybrid cultural identities, diasporic life-styles, cross-national commodification of cultural products, and flexible citizenship. His ongoing 3-year project (2017-2020) on “Trans Media, World Literature, and the Digital Humanities” is a continuation of his efforts to enhance the transnational and translational spirit of the liminality and converging technology with humanities. In this project he aims to identify a method for materializing/articulating/visualizing the interface between new media and world literature in the context of the digital humanities and postmodern sublime.

The Fight Against Cancer:The Promise of HIF-1 Inhibitors

The Fight Against Cancer:The Promise of HIF-1 Inhibitors Tumor hypoxia is a characteristic feature of advanced solid tumors that is considered as a potential therapeutic problem for cancer therapy. Scientists at Dongguk University have put together an exhaustive summary of what we know about the small chemicals that inhibit the action of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), a protein that is master regulator of tumor microenvironment. A better understanding of how these inhibitors work, could be used to develop potent anti-cancer drugs that would increase the effectiveness of existing treatments. Tumors in cancer grow quickly, using up available oxygen, becoming “hypoxic” i.e., lacking enough oxygen. To survive and continue growing, a protein called hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1) is increased in tumor cells, which boosts biochemical reactions involved in energy production and angiogenesis, etc. When this occurs, cancers become resistant to standard treatments like radiation and chemotherapy. One way to improve cancer therapy then might be to prevent HIF-1 from functioning. A group of scientists led by Dr. Kyeong Lee collected and organized existing studies on HIF-1 inhibitors to understand how these molecules function depending on their chemical structure. Right now, none of the known inhibitors are available as clinical treatments, and the scientists hope that knowledge gleaned from this body of work—covering a full decade of research—will change this scenario in future. Their conclusions are presented in Medicinal Research Reviews.Dr. Lee observes, “there are two ways to inhibit HIF-1. One is to directly interfere it from functioning, i.e., prevent its transcriptional activation. The other is to indirectly block its activation through interactions with other molecules. We’ve mostly seen indirect inhibitors, and the idea is to figure out what they directly target to block HIF-1.” Based on their own work and findings of other researchers, the investigators split HIF-1 inhibitors into 10 groups of differing chemical scaffolds with structure-activity relationships (SAR) study. Of these, adamantyl-based and boron-based inhibitors are among the most studied. They appear to inhibit HIF-1 by targeting mitochondrial proteins and heat shock proteins involved in stress responses. Another highly studied compound is YC-1, a rare direct and indirect inhibitor that suppresses HIF-1 through diverse molecular pathways. Dr. Lee is optimistic about the prospect. “We think these SAR-based data are the invaluable springboard for developing effective and safe drugs that can target specific proteins in tumor microenvironment and really improve existing therapies.”The findings of this review are particularly profound since all the inhibitors investigated here show immense promise for further development of anti-cancer drugs.ReferenceAuthors:Deepak Bhattarai, Xuezhen Xu, and Kyeong LeeTitle of original paper:Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) inhibitors from the last decade (2007 to 2016): A“structure–activity relationship” perspectiveJournal:Medicinal Research Reviews DOI:10.1002/med.21477Affiliations:College of Pharmacy, Dongguk University-Seoul, Goyang, Republic of Korea*Corresponding author’s email:kaylee@dongguk.eduAbout Dongguk UniversityDongguk University, founded in 1906, is located in Seoul, South Korea. It comprises 13 colleges that cover a variety of disciplines and has local campuses in Gyeongju, Goyang, and Los Angeles. The university has 1300 professors who conduct independent research and 18000 students undertaking studies in a variety of disciplines. Interaction between disciplines is one of the strengths on which Dongguk prides itself; the university encourages researchers to work across disciplines in Information Technology, Biotechnology, Culture Technology, and Buddhism. Website:http://www.dongguk.edu/mbs/en/index.jsp About the authorProfessor Kyeong Lee received her Ph.D. from the College of Pharmacy, University of Georgia, in 2000 and did her postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the USA. After joining as a senior research scientist of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology (KRIBB), Korea, she became a Principal Investigator in 2009. She was later appointed as an Associate professor at the College of Pharmacy, Dongguk University, Korea, and was promoted to full professor in 2014. She has licensed out several technologies on preclinical candidates in the areas of anticancer therapeutics and anti-inflammatory agents and has continued to focus on drug discovery and chemical biology as director of a medical research center supported by National Research Foundation (NRF 2018R1A5A2023127), Korea. Website:http://imrctr.dongguk.edu

Vital clues for leveraging word-of-mouth marketing through socia...

Vital clues for leveraging word-of-mouth marketing through social mediaIn collaboration with researchers in the USA and New Zealand, Dongguk University’s Professor Yung Kyun Choi has identified what influences young Koreans to share advertisements (ads) on social media. Social networking users are more likely to share promotional content with close friends than the general public. And among friends, sharing is more likely for picture ads of products that might be purchased sooner or textual ads of temporally distant purchases. For digital marketers to harness the power of social networking, it is vital to understand how to encourage communication about products, brands, and companies. Most studies of so-called “electronic word-of-mouth” (E-WOM) have focused on how it influences recipients of promotional messages. Professor Choi and his team wanted to explore why and how an individual might share promotional messages in the first place.“We devised our study to test whether sharers consider how soon a purchase might occur,” explains Professor Choi. “We also anticipated that the design of the ads, specifically whether it uses images or text, could influence whether it is shared.” Since social media users can select the message recipient for their sharing behavior, the researchers focused on the effects of the strength of social ties on E-WOM.The team selected undergraduate students to participate in their research, recognizing that social media use in Korea is highest among people in their 20s. At the start of the experiment, students read a scenario about moving either next week or next year. They were then shown furniture ads, either in pictures or words, and asked whether they were likely to recommend it to their friends and the general public via social media.The team found that consumers were more likely to share promotional messages with their strong ties. Furthermore, purchase timing, as well as ad format, also influenced whether the user would share the message. The study’s findings provide valuable insights for marketers in the digital age. As users are more likely to share ads with friends, one strategy is to foster online communities of consumers to develop stronger relationships between them. Marketers should also focus on matching advertising designs with how soon the product might be purchased. As Professor Choi explains, “Product photos should motivate sharing for frequent and imminent purchases, whereas ads for infrequent and delayed purchases are more likely to be shared if they feature abstract text.”Appearing in the journal Internet Research, the study’s contribution was recently recognized by the publisher, with Professor Choi’s work being Highly Commended in the 2018 Emerald Literati Awards. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2014S1A5-A2A0101-5688).ReferenceAuthors:Yung Kyun Choi1, Yuri Seo2, and Sukki Yoon3Title of original:E-WOM messaging on social media: Social ties, temporal distance, and message paper:concretenessJournal:Internet ResearchDOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IntR-07-2016-0198Affiliations:1 Dongguk University, Republic of Korea 2 University of Auckland, New Zealand 3 Bryant University, USA About Dongguk UniversityDongguk University, founded in 1906, is located in Seoul, South Korea. It comprises 13 colleges that cover a variety of disciplines and has local campuses in Gyeongju, Goyang, and Los Angeles. The university has 1300 professors who conduct independent research and 18000 students undertaking studies in a variety of disciplines. Interaction between disciplines is one of the strengths on which Dongguk prides itself; the university encourages researchers to work across disciplines in Information Technology, Bio Technology, CT, and Buddhism. Website : http://www.dongguk.edu/mbs/en/index.jsp About the authorYung Kyun Choi (PhD, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA) is a professor in the Department of Advertising and PR at Dongguk University, Seoul, South Korea. His research interests include message congruency effects, consumer behavior in virtual social environments, and cross-cultural advertising effects. He received the Best Reviewer Award from International Journal of Advertising and more recently was Highly Commended in the 2018 Emerald Literati Awards. His work has appeared in leading advertising and marketing journals. He served as President of Korean Scholars of Marketing Science (KSMS) from 2016 to 2018.

Development of manganese-based high capacity anode materials for...

Development of manganese-based high capacity anode materials for sodium ion batteries for low cost energy storage systems Developed by professor Yong-mook Kang of Dongguk University and his research team Professor Yong-mook Kang and his research team have successfully developed a stabilization technology for anode materials in sodium secondary batteries with excellent price competitiveness using widely available resources compared to current lithium secondary batteries. The energy storage system (ESS) and electric vehicle (EV) industries will be essential to power storage and distribution in the era of renewable energy but require the emergence of secondary batteries capable of simultaneously realizing high output, high energy density, and low unit costs. In particular, interest in sodium ion secondary batteries with low unit cost and resource utilization has grown due to limited resources and the high price of the lithium precursor used in lithium ion secondary batteries. For many years professor Yong-mook Kang and his team have studied manganese oxides for sodium ion secondary battery anodes and hard carbon for cathode, to developed comparable performance to lithium ion secondary battery cathodes and anodes but with lower costs. First, the group succeeded in eliminating critical structural factors such as Jahn-Teller distortion and phase separation that destabilize Mn oxides with layered structures by substituting Zn at the sodium ion position of the layered Mn oxide (P2). They confirmed the effects predicted by Ab Initio calculations through cutting-edge analyses via electron microscopy and synchrotron radiation X-ray, achieving remarkably improved electrochemical and lifetime characteristics of the materials. Professor Kang said, “In many countries including the United States where the sharing economies of Uber and Grab are spreading, the transition to EVs with fewer malfunctions and lower charging costs has rapidly progressed. At the end of the day, concerns regarding the unit price of EVs and charging systems have been industrially important. Considering these aspects, this research team has focused on Mn-based anode materials and hard carbon-based cathode materials with the low unit costs for studies on sodium ion secondary batteries. In particular, for anode materials, research has focused on only the crystalline phase which is the path through which alkaline ions such as sodium and lithium can move. However, I believe that the transition to quasi-crystalline and non-crystalline materials will be necessary in the future to overcome material limitations while maintaining a low unit cost.”. Dr. Kai Zhang of Dongguk University who is supported by a “Korea Research Fellowship (KRF) of National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)” participated in the research and has published as a first author. This research was jointly conducted by the research groups of Professor Doo-ho Kim of Kyung Hee University, Professor Si-young Choi of POSTECH, and Maeng-hyo Cho of Seoul National University with support from the "Korea Research Fellowship (KRF) and Mid-career Research of National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)". The results of their research were published online in Nature Communications on January 7th.

Splitting water molecules for a greener future? Design of a nove...

Splitting water molecules for a greener future?Design of a novel catalystShort description:Scientists at Dongguk University developed a novel nickel-based hydroxide compound that can be used as a powerful catalyst for the electrolysis of water. This material could be useful for developing renewable energy sources. Nowadays, people acknowledge the importance of finding and improving renewable energy sources. One strategy to generate energy is breaking water molecules (H2O) apart in an electrochemical reaction known as electrolysis. This process allows us to convert energy from the sun or other renewable sources into chemical energy. However, electrochemically splitting water molecules requires an overpotential—an excess voltage that has to be applied in addition to the theoretical voltage (1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode or RHE) so that the necessary reactions can occur.Electrocatalysts are materials that, because of their electrical and morphological features, facilitate electrochemical processes. Researchers have been searching for electrocatalysts that can aid in the electrolysis of water, and some of the best catalysts are noble-metal oxides, which are rare and costly. Nickel-based hydroxide (Ni(OH)2) compounds are, fortunately, a better alternative. A team of scientists, including Profs. Hyunsik Im and Hyungsang Kim from Dongguk University, intercalated polyoxovanadate (POV) nanoclusters into Ni(OH)2 arranged in ordered layers and found that doing this improves its conducting and morphological properties, which in turn enhances its catalytic activity. They employed a promising method called chemical solution growth (CSG), wherein a highly saturated solution is prepared, and the desired material structure naturally forms as the solutes precipitate in a predictable and controlled fashion, creating a layer-by-layer structure with POV nanoclusters intercalated between the Ni(OH)2 layers.The team demonstrated that the resulting house-of-cards-like structure greatly reduced the overpotential needed for the electrolysis of water. They attributed this to the morphological features of this material; the POV nanoclusters increase the spacing between the Ni(OH)2 layers and induce the formation of micropores, which increases the surface area of the final material and the number of catalytic sites where water molecules can be split. “Our results demonstrate the advantages of the CSG method for optimizing the pore structure of the resulting material,” explains Prof. Im. Facilitating the electrolysis of water using novel catalysts is a step toward achieving a greener future. What’s more, the CSG method could be useful in many other fields. “The facile CSG deposition of nanohybrid materials may be useful for applications such as the production of Li-ion batteries and biosensors,” states Prof. Kim. Only time will tell what new uses CSG will find.ReferenceAuthors:Jayavant L. Gunjakar1,2, Bo Hou3, Akbar I. Inamdar1, Sambhaji M. Pawar1, Abu Talha Aqueel Ahmed1, Harish S. Chavan1, Jongmin Kim1, Sangeun Cho1, Seongwoo Lee1, Yongcheol Jo1, Seong-Ju Hwang4, Tae Geun Kim5, SeungNam Cha3, Hyungsang Kim1*, and Hyunsik Im1*Title of original paper:Two-Dimensional Layered Hydroxide Nanoporous Nanohybrids Pillared with Zero-Dimensional Polyoxovanadate Nanoclusters for Enhanced Water Oxidation CatalysisJournal:Small DOI:10.1002/smll.201703481Affiliations:1Division of Physics and Semiconductor Science, Dongguk University 2D. Y. Patil Education society 3Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford 4Center for Intelligent Nano-Bio Materials (CINBM), Department of Chemistry and Nano Sciences, Ewha Womans University 5School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University*Corresponding author’s email: H. Kim (hskim@dongguk.edu); H. Im (hyunsik7@dongguk.edu) About Dongguk UniversityDongguk University, founded in 1906, is located in Seoul, South Korea. It comprises 13 colleges that cover a variety of disciplines and has local campuses in Gyeongju, Goyang, and Los Angeles. The university has 1,300 professors who conduct independent research and 18,000 students undertaking studies in a variety of disciplines. Interaction between disciplines is one of the strengths on which Dongguk prides itself; the university encourages researchers to work across disciplines in Information Technology, Bio Technology, Culture Technologys, and Buddhism. About the authorProf Hyungsang Kim and Prof Hyunsik Im completed their PhD and D.Phil degree from Kӧln in 1994 and from Oxford in 1999 respectively, and are currently full time academicstaff in the department of Physics and Semiconductor Science, Dongguk University, Seoul, South Korea.

Synthesizing crystalline films that neatly arrange themselves

Synthesizing crystalline films that neatly arrange themselvesScientists at Dongguk University (Prof. Ki Kang Kim) in collaboration with scientists from other institutes (KIST (Dr. Soo Mim Kim), Sungkyunkwan University (Prof. Young Hee Lee) found a method for synthesizing hexagonal boron nitride films with a nearly perfect single-crystalline structure. This structure consistently self-assembles on top of liquid gold and can be used as a platform for synthesizing other crystalline thin-film materials. Crystalline structures are ideally composed of repeating identical units in a perfectly ordered fashion. As one would expect, crystals have found applications in a multitude of fields, such as optics, electronics, and chemistry, and have helped researchers understand the mechanics behind complex physical phenomena. However, synthesizing perfect crystalline structures is very challenging, with most methods yielding crystals with defects or with multiple different basic units (called polycrystals).Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), also called white graphite, can be synthesized in the shape of crystalline films with the width of a single atom. They have an insulating effect that has found uses in various types of scientific research. However, these films are polycrystalline and not single-crystalline. Therefore, a research team set out to find a method for synthesizing single-crystalline hBN films on a small scale.The synthesis method they developed consists of letting the thin hBN film self-assemble on top of a liquid gold substrate. Because of the surface tension of liquid gold and the characteristics of its interaction with boron and nitrogen, circular hBN grains form automatically over time. These grains grow to a specific diameter and eventually form a lattice. They can easily rotate when they are about to come into contact with another grain so as to assume the best possible orientation before joining the lattice (ref. video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI1ZhI0Qml8&feature=youtu.be) The final product of this process is a nearly perfect single-crystalline hBN film, as the team demonstrated in many different experiments and via multiple measurements. A very promising application of such films is using them as a substrate for synthesizing other crystalline thin-film materials on top of them, such as graphene. Their applications go beyond that, as Prof. Kim explains, “We demonstrated that our hBN films can serve as a protecting layer against metal oxidation and as a gas-diffusion barrier for water vapor transmission.”This innovative synthesis method could be exploited further as well. “Our strategy for the synthesis of single-crystalline hBN films opens a new horizon for the single-crystal growth of other diatomic 2D materials,” explains Prof. Kim. This would make many single-crystalline materials easier to fabricate, allowing them to naturally find a multitude of applications. ReferenceAuthors:Joo Song Lee1,2, Soo Ho Choi3, Seok Joon Yun4, Yong In Kim5, Stephen Boandoh6, Ji-Hoon Park4,5, Bong Gyu Shin4,7,8, Hayoung Ko1,5, Seung Hee Lee2, Young-Min Kim4,5, Young Hee Lee4,5*, Ki Kang Kim6*, Soo Min Kim1*Title of original paper:Wafer-scale single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride film via self-collimated grain formationJournal:ScienceDOI:10.1126/science.aau2132Affiliations:1Institute of Advanced Composite Materials, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)2Applied Materials Institute for BIN Convergence, Department of BIN Fusion Technology and Department of Polymer-Nano Science and Technology, Chonbuk National University 3Department of Physics, Dongguk University-Seoul 4Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics (CINAP), Institute for Basic Science (IBS) 5Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University 6Department of Energy and Materials Engineering, Dongguk University-Seoul 7Center for Quantum Nanoscience (QNS), Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Ewha Womans University 8Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University *Corresponding author’s email:kkkim@dongguk.edu, kkkim@dongguk.edu, kkkim@dongguk.edu About Dongguk UniversityDongguk University, founded in 1906, is located in Seoul, South Korea. It comprises 13 colleges that cover a variety of disciplines and has local campuses in Gyeongju, Goyang, and Los Angeles. The university has 1,300 professors who conduct independent research and 18,000 students undertaking studies in a variety of disciplines. Interaction between disciplines is one of the strengths on which Dongguk prides itself; the university encourages researchers to work across disciplines in Information Technology, Bio Technology, Culture Technologys, and Buddhism. About the authorDr. Ki Kang Kim received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Department of Physics of Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea, in 2008 under the supervision of Prof. Young Hee Lee. After completing his postdoctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Jing Kong at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, he joined the Department of Energy and Materials Engineering at Dongguk University in Republic of Korea in 2012 as an assistant professor. His current research interests include the synthesis of 2D materials and engineering the electronic structure of low-dimensional materials.

Semiconductor for making the thin-film transistors that everyone...

Semiconductor for making the thin-film transistors that everyone’s been looking for!Scientists at Dongguk University have found a way to create printed p-channel thin-film transistors by using the abundantly available and environmentally friendly copper(I) iodide semiconductor at room temperature. Their energy-efficient and cost-effective fabrication method for these transistors may pave the way for developing low-cost and novel optoelectronic devices. Transistors are the building blocks of most of the electronic devices we use every day, and research on fabricating new types of semiconducting materials for thin-film transistors (TFIs) has been ongoing for decades. Whenever new transistors or novel fabrication methods are discovered, many previously impossible applications become feasible, such as ultrahigh-definition transparent displays and flexible electronic devices. Nowadays, there is a huge demand for p-type transparent semiconductors (which are conductive due to the movement of charge carriers called “holes”) for making p-channel transistors, but when compared to the n-type counterparts, their use is limited by chemical instability and poor electric properties. To overcome these limitations, a research team at Dongguk University led by Prof. Yong-Young Noh focused on developing a p-type transparent semiconductor for TFTs using a metal halide like copper(I) iodide (CuI), instead of metal oxide. “The naturally abundant and environment friendly constitutional elements of CuI make it more appropriate for large-scale printed transparent electronics. More importantly, CuI has a higher hole mobility than other p-type oxide-based semiconductors,” explains Prof. Noh.However, CuI had been barely used as a semiconductor for TFTs because its hole concentration is so high that it results in uncontrollable conductivity (transistors are generally meant to be easily turned on and off at high speeds, that is, they are meant to be switchable from a conductive to a non-conductive state). Moreover, standard solution-based processing for making thin films generally requires a heat treatment called “annealing,” which is energy and time consuming.The researchers found out that it is possible to reduce the conductivity of CuI-based thin films by making them even thinner and thus suitable for fabricating TFTs with the performance that is currently in demand for many applications. Additionally, these CuI thin films do not require annealing at all and can be processed at room temperature. This saves energy and makes them more cost-effective. The team tested multiple processing conditions and fabricated various different TFTs to determine the origin of the enhanced device properties and to demonstrate the potential uses of CuI as a thin-film p-type semiconductor. “We believe that this work opens the floodgate for room-temperature, low-cost, printed transparent p-type transistors for diverse optoelectronic devices,” concludes Prof. Noh.ReferenceAuthors:Ao Liu1, Huihui Zhu1, Won-Tae Park1, Seok-Ju Kang1, Yong Xu*1, Myung-Gil Kim*2, and Yong-Young Noh*1Title of original paper:Room-Temperature Solution-Synthesized p-Type Copper(I) Iodide Semiconductors for Transparent Thin-Film Transistors and Complementary Electronics Journal:Advanced Materials DOI:10.1002/adma.201802379Affiliations:1Department of Energy and Materials Engineering, Dongguk University 2Department of Chemistry, Chung-Ang University*Corresponding authors’email:yynoh@dongguk.eduAbout Dongguk UniversityDongguk University, founded in 1906, is located in Seoul, South Korea. It comprises 13 colleges that cover a variety of disciplines and has local campuses in Gyeongju, Goyang, and Los Angeles. The university has 1300 professors who conduct independent research and 18000 students undertaking studies in a variety of disciplines. Interaction between disciplines is one of the strengths on which Dongguk prides itself; the university encourages researchers to work across disciplines in Information Technology, Bio Technology, CT, and Buddhism.