(From left) Professor Hak-Rin Kim of Kyungpook National University, Yong-Kuk Yoon, Head of Optronics Korea Business at Merck, and Professor Soo-Yeon Lee of Seoul National University.

Professor Soo-Yeon Lee received the Merck Young Scientist Award at the 2026 Merck Awards.

The Merck Awards started as a technical paper award established at the International Meeting on Information Display (IMID) in 2004 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Merck’s liquid crystal research and to recognize outstanding scientific achievements in display technologies. In 2006, the awards were expanded to include the Merck Young Scientist Award.

Professor Lee, this year’s recipient of the Merck Young Scientist Award, has contributed to the advancement of next generation display and semiconductor technologies through her research on oxide thin film transistor (TFT) devices and related circuit technologies. She has identified the mechanism of the optical reliability and instability of oxide TFTs, developed a novel device structure to suppress the short channel effect, and developed device-degradation modeling along with panel compensation technologies. She has also conducted research on ultra-high-resolution, low-power display driving technologies through the design of OLED and micro-LED pixel circuits. More recently, she has expanded her research into low-power synaptic devices and neuromorphic systems by utilizing the low off-current and multi-level operating characteristics of oxide semiconductors.

Professor Lee stated, “This award is a joyful recognition of my efforts so far and a great encouragement to go even further. By gaining a deep understanding of devices and connecting that knowledge to circuits and systems, I hope to produce outcomes that are both academically meaningful and practically useful.”

Source: https://ece.snu.ac.kr/ece/news?md=v&bbsidx=58010

Translated by: JungHwan Kim, English Editor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, onzdavid@snu.ac.kr