Tenured SNU professor Lee joins LG Chem
For Lee Jin-kyu, his guaranteed status as a tenured professor for the rest of his life at Seoul National University (SNU), the nation’s top school, really did not matter.
Life is always going to be a challenge, he said. A life without risk would probably be boring, as risk is the spice of life.
LG Chem said the world’s biggest battery supplier in electric vehicles has recruited Lee, 52, in a bid to develop new patents in battery materials.
The outgoing SNU professor has been named as the research chairman at the company’s research and development center.
Lee’s decision to join LG Chem came with much surprise as this is rare in Korean society for a SNU professor to drop his or her famed title.
“This was a very tough decision. At SNU, I’ve studied basic principles in petrochemical materials. But I’ve wondered how companies develop ideas into commercialization,” Lee said.
From next month, Lee will handle all business projects of the firm’s R&D center in Daejeon, some 150 kilometers south of Seoul, LG said.
LG Chem President Yoo Jin-nyoung said the company will spend more on projects to develop new materials.
Lee, who owns 100 patents, earned a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995. He was one of the key confidants of Richard R. Schrock, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2005 for discoveries that let industry create drugs and advanced plastics in a more efficient and environmentally friendly way.
Lee returned home in 1998. The main areas of his study at SNU — the effect of hybrid nano-technology on products — is an emerging field of research that still requires more scientific research. In 2003, SNU allowed him to conduct his research projects under a lifelong contract.
“LG Chem President Yoo contacted Lee to jointly develop new technologies and the professor accepted that offer,” said an LG Chem spokesman.
The spokesman said LG Chem will increase its spending for the development of patents on eco-friendly energy materials and those to be used in next-generation displays.