Professor Jung Woo-shik of the School of Chemical Engineering receives 'Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning for Contributions to Technology Commercialization' award
College of Pharmacy Professor Jang Hyun-wook selected for 'Excellent Performance in Basic Research'
Recognized for contributions in leading science technology in the '2014 MSIP R&D Performance Expansion Contest'
[November 7, 2014]

YU Professors received minister-level citations and plaques for their contributions in leading science technologies at the '2014 MSIP R&D Performance Expansion Contest'.

At this event, which was held at KINTEX in Ilsan of Gyeonggi-do on the 5th being sponsored by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (Minister Choi Yang-hee, hereinafter 'MSIP') and hosted by the Institute for Information & Communication Technology Promotion (Director Lee Sang-hong) and the National Research Foundation (President Jung Min-geun), Professor Jung Woo-shik of the School of Chemical Engineering received the 'Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning for Contributions to Technology Commercialization' award and College of Pharmacy Professor Jang Hyun-wook selected for 'Excellent Performance in Basic Research' award. This event was designed to show the performance of creative economy by the MSIP and to spread the performance of the R&D results, promote the commercialization of technologies, and to promote industry-academic-research technology exchange to share business information.

Professor Jung Woo-shik received national funding from the MSIP and succeeded in commercializing 'aluminum nitride powder manufacturing technologies' that was possessed by Professor Jung. He was recognized for his contributions in the development of the world's best technologies after over 20 years of persistent research.

Last year, the MSIP carried out the 'Research Performance Commercialization Support Project to utilize and spread basic research performance and to support the creation of jobs and new businesses. First, 10 'hidden techs' with bright prospects for commercialization were announced and Professor Jung's new technology received the highest amount of national funding at 340 million won for two years. At the time, Professor Jung's technologies had already completed technology transfer contracts with a relevant company. In 2013, Professor Jung signed a technology transfer contract with LTC (CEO Choi Ho-seong), which is a precision chemical product manufacturing company. In addition to 300 million won for technology transfer fees, Professor Jung agreed to receive ordinary technology fees of 1-1.5% (approximately worth 20 billion won) of the annual sales.

Professor Jung said, "Heat from electronic devices such as LEDs and semiconductors result in the shortened life of the devices. Therefore, companies are actively developing heat-resistant substrate materials. Aluminum nitrate has excellent heat resistance and has been receiving a lot of attention from electronics industries around the world, and it also has a very high industrial value." He added, "This new technology that was developed can simplify processes more than the technologies of the existing Japanese company so it can lower production costs and it has high quality so it will be competitive."

Meanwhile, YU College of Pharmacy Professor Jang Hyeok-wook received the 'Excellent Performance in Basic Research' award for the 'Allergy and Inflammation Control Path Research'.

The MSIP and National Research Foundation selects and announces 'Excellent Performance in Basic Research' every year to find excellent performances with high scientific, technological, economical and social ripple effects to motivate researchers and to promote the performances to help raise the national interest and understanding of R&D projects. This year, a total of 50 were selected including Professor Jang Hyeok-wook's study for 30 in the basic research sector, nine in the humanities and social research sector and 11 in the national policy research sector.

Professor Jang's study was the first in the world to discover new allergy and inflammation control paths and it is expected to help procure national competitiveness in the pharmaceutical and bio industries. Also, it is expected that it will be used as basic material not only for diabetes and metabolism related diseases, but also for the development of treatments for allergic and inflammation diseases.

Professor Jang's thesis was published in the September 2013 issue of the worlds' top academic journal on allergies and immunity, <Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI, IF 12.05).

Professor Jang said, "The discovery of proteins that control the activation of AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase), a sensor protein to maintain energy homeostasis in the body, and the research on the investigation of cellular control networks by these will be published as a thesis in the near future." He added, "We will continuously carry out research to discover AMPK activation materials to procure the necessary materials to development treatment for allergy and inflammation related diseases."