Yonsei University said on the 26th that Jhoon Kim, professor of atmospheric sciences (Yonsei Lee Yoon-jae Fellow), was selected as a recipient of the Humboldt Research Award given by Germany's Humboldt Foundation.
The Humboldt Research Award is given to overseas scientists and scholars whose lifetime research and teaching achievements have been recognized internationally. It goes to scholars who have had a significant impact on their fields through fundamental discoveries or new theories and insights, or who are expected to achieve sustained academic results in the future. Since it was established in 1972, a total of 63 awardees have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize, underscoring the award's global prestige.
In Korea, awardees have included Jinwoo Cheon, a Yonsei University professor and head of the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) Center for Nanomedicine, and Nam-Gyu Park, a distinguished chaired professor at Sungkyunkwan University.
This award recognizes the international standing of Professor Jhoon Kim's work developing and applying Satellite Remote Sensing technologies for the formation of Earth's atmospheric environment, including fine dust, air pollutants, ozone and greenhouse gases.
Kim has played a key role not only in measurements from the ground, aircraft, and low Earth orbit, but also in achieving, for the first time in the world, successful measurements from geostationary orbit. Building on these results, he has continued basic research in satellite-based atmospheric composition observations and significantly contributed to the advancement of the field by expanding international joint research.
Kim said, "This award is meaningful not so much as a personal achievement as for the fact that domestic researchers' satellite remote sensing capabilities for addressing the atmospheric environment and climate have been recognized by the international academic community," adding, "I am deeply grateful to the government ministries that have supported our research—the Climate, Environment and Energy Ministry's National Institute of Environmental Research, the Korea meteorological Administration, and the Ministry of Science and ICT—as well as to the research support institutions such as the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI), and the Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology, and to my students and fellow researchers who have worked with me."
He added, "Going forward, we will strengthen cooperation with global research institutions such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to contribute to the development of a global environmental satellite network and continue research that contributes to human safety and improved quality of life."