[Best researchers honored by the most prestigious journals in materials science and engineering]

Hyeonseok Kwon, a postdoctoral researcher from the Center for Advanced Aerospace Materials, and Rae Eon Kim, a PhD candidate from the Graduate Institute of Ferrous & Eco Materials Technology, at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) have been honored with the “Acta Student Award” given by the most prestigious journals in materials science and engineering.

This award is presented annually to an exceptional researcher selected from papers published in the four Acta journals: Acta Materialia, Scripta Materialia, Materialia, and Acta Biomaterialia. The selection is made by a dedicated review committee.

In 2013, Dr. Jae Hoon Jang (advisor Dong-Woo Suh) from POSTECH’s Graduate Institute of Ferrous Technology became the first student from a Korean university to receive the Acta Student Award. This achievement was followed in 2018 by Dr. Jae Wung Bae (advisor Hyoung Seop Kim) from the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at POSTECH.

Hyeonseok Kwon who has been developing high-entropy alloys was recognized for his research on high-strength high-entropy alloys, published in “Acta Materialia” last year. Rae Eon Kim who has published four papers on heterostructures in “Scripta Materialia,” an esteemed journal in structural materials, was also honored. Both researchers are students of Professor Hyoung Seop Kim from the Graduate Institute of Ferrous & Eco Materials Technology and the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at POSTECH.

The award ceremony will take place at the TMS 2025 in Las Vegas next March. Each winner will receive a plaque and a $2,000 cash prize.