POSTECH Graduate Institute of Ferrous Technology (GIFT) Professor Chong Soo Lee has received the Distinguished Article Award from the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan (ISIJ) for his contributions to the advancement of the global steel industry.

The Distinguished Article Award is conferred to the best paper of the past decade published in the SCI journal, a publication of ISIJ and the Japan Institute of Metals and Materials (JIM). The selected paper must demonstrate excellence in academic and industrial aspects.

Professor Lee has been awarded this prize for pioneering the field of hydrogen embrittlement research by quantifying the activation energy of hydrogen and various defects contained in TWIP steel by systematically studying the hydrogen delay destruction in TWIP steel for the first time in the world.

It is significant that this award – launched for the first time this year – was awarded to a foreign scholar, which indicates that Korea’s steel research is highly regarded in the global academic circles.

ISIJ awards outstanding research papers at its annual conference and the Sawamura Award, given to an excellent paper presenter, was conferred to five POSTECH GIFT professors out of total six Korean recipients so far.