Jiyeon Kim, who earned her Combined M.S.-Ph.D. degree in chemistry at UNIST under the supervision of Professor Wonyoung Choe, has been awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. 

Jiyeon Kim, who earned her combined M.S.-Ph.D. degree in chemistry at UNIST under the supervision of Professor Wonyoung Choe, has been awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Dr. Kim is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Professor Bettina Lotsch at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (MPI-FKF). Beginning next year, she will continue her independent work at the institute through the fellowship, one of Germany’s most internationally respected programs supporting outstanding early-career researchers.

The Humboldt Research Fellowship supports exceptional scholars from around the world in conducting independent research at leading German institutions. Fellowship recipients join the global “Humboldtian” academic network, which includes more than 30,000 researchers and numerous Nobel laureates, including Omar Yaghi and Susumu Kitagawa.

Dr. Kim entered UNIST in 2013, majoring in chemistry and energy engineering, and completed her doctoral studies in 2024. During her graduate studies, she was selected for Korea’s Global Ph.D. Fellowship program and received the Yebong Best Dissertation Award, one of UNIST’s highest honors for doctoral research.

This fellowship follows another major international recognition earlier this year, when Dr. Kim was selected for the Elisabeth Bauser Fellowship at MPI-FKF. Named after the institute’s first female tenured scientist, the fellowship recognizes promising early-career women researchers demonstrating exceptional academic achievement and leadership potential.

Her work focuses on advanced materials design and catalyst systems for sustainable energy and carbon-neutral technologies. She has drawn attention for bridging fundamental materials chemistry with catalytic applications, particularly through innovative design strategies involving metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs).

Dr. Kim also contributed to the development of the “Up-Down Approach,” a materials design strategy featured in Nature’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry collection. Her research further explores quasiperiodic moiré phenomena and crystallographic materials systems, connecting inorganic chemistry, structural science, and catalytic reaction control.

At MPI-FKF, she is extending these approaches toward controlling chemical reactions within porous COF architectures. By engineering nanoscale reaction environments, the research aims to advance next-generation catalyst platforms for carbon dioxide reduction and sustainable energy production.

“It is a tremendous honor to pursue independent research in an environment that strongly values scientific autonomy,” Dr. Kim said. “The materials design experience I gained at UNIST has become an important foundation for my current work at the Max Planck Institute.”

She also expressed gratitude to Professor Wonyoung Choe and her collaborators in Korea and Germany for their continued mentorship and support, adding that she hopes to further strengthen academic exchange and collaborative research between the two countries through the fellowship.

Dr. Kim previously received the Rising Star Award from the International Union of Crystallography at the Asian Crystallographic Association Conference 2024 in recognition of her contributions to innovative materials design strategies in crystallography and framework chemistry.