□ Members of the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST; President Kunwoo Lee) were awarded the Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Citations for Science Month in April. The awardees include Professor Youngsik Kim (Distinguished Contributions to Information and Communication) and Professor Jinho Chang (Distinguished Contributions to the Promotion of Science and Technology) at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Senior Researcher Daehwan Kim (Distinguished Contributions to the Promotion of Science and Technology) at the Division of Energy & Environmental Technology.
□ Professor Youngsik Kim at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science was awarded the Prime Minister Citation for Distinguished Contributions to Information and Communication for his contributions to advances in cryptographic technologies, including the development of commercializable fully homomorphic encryption for AI security and the advancement of quantum-resistant cryptography.
□ Professor Jinho Chang at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science was awarded the Minister of Science and ICT Citation for Distinguished Contributions to the Promotion of Science and Technology for his contributions to academic and industrial advances in biomedical engineering by developing, registering patents in Korea and abroad for, and transferring critical original technologies, including novel medical ultrasound imaging and treatment technology and the interdisciplinary imaging technology that can improve the accuracy of disease diagnosis by combining ultrasound and light.
□ Senior Researcher Daehwan Kim at the Division of Energy & Environmental Technology was awarded the Minister of Science and ICT Citation for Distinguished Contributions to the Promotion of Science and Technology for his contributions to the development of copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) general-purpose thin-film solar cells while achieving the highest efficiency, and the creation and mass production of MESH capacitors, which overcame the limitations of DRAM capacitors.
□ Meanwhile, DGIST, which marks the 20th anniversary of its foundation this year, recently ranked 7th in the world in citations per paper per faculty member, an indicator for research excellence in the QS World University Rankings. Lately, DGIST is also preparing a foothold to become a world-class university as it successfully won the bid to host the World Engineering Education Forum - Global Engineering Deans Council 2025 (WEEF-GEDC 2025), the world’s largest conference in engineering education.
