Kim Myung-hwan has been officially appointed as the Director General of the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, the first national special appointment researcher at government-funded research institutes in the field of science and technology.
The national special appointment researcher is a new system introduced to enable government-funded research institutes to attract talent to enhance research competitiveness, in accordance with the 'Regulations on the Operation of Government-Funded Research Institutes' established on 4th. Under the existing management system for public institutions, there were limitations in recruitment procedures and salary levels, making it difficult to recruit top experts or scholars both domestically and internationally.
In this regard, the Ministry of Science and ICT has made it possible to offer special recruitment not through public solicitation and to provide exceptional salaries without applying tenure through the introduction of the national special appointment researcher. This system allows government-funded research institutes to recruit necessary experts in a timely and appropriate manner.
The newly appointed Director General Kim Myung-hwan is a leading battery expert who has served as the president of LG Chem and LG Energy Solution. He will lead the next-generation battery strategy research team, which has been selected as a global TOP strategy research team starting this year.
Director General Kim Myung-hwan was appointed as the first head of the battery development team at LG Chem in 1996, where he succeeded in developing and commercializing the country's first lithium-ion battery core technology. He laid the groundwork for localizing lithium-ion batteries, which had been 100% reliant on imports. In the 2000s, he pioneered the medium and large battery sector, leading to the successful commercialization of the world's first electric vehicle lithium-ion battery, surpassing Japan, the birthplace of secondary batteries, and propelled South Korea to become the global leader in secondary batteries.
Additionally, he achieved results such as the development of safety-enhanced separators (SRS), which have become the global industrial standard, the development of the world's first three-component NCM523 cathode material with application in cylindrical batteries, the application of the world's first high-nickel cathode materials for automotive batteries, and the development and mass production of electric vehicle batteries for major global automotive companies.
Lee Chang-yoon, the first deputy minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, noted, "To avoid missing the golden time in the global technology supremacy competition, it is time to consolidate all the capabilities we have, and for this, government-funded research institutes should become a hub for various innovation entities to cooperate as national research and development institutions. I will spare no support to ensure that the top experts in each field can create remarkable achievements together with the excellent research personnel and infrastructure possessed by our government-funded research institutes as national special appointment researchers."