SKKU RANBIZ

Chemical Engineering Prof. BHANG, SUKHO Prof. Jeeheon Jeong (Medicine) A research team at Sungkyunkwan University, led by Professor Suk Ho Bhang of the Department of Chemical Engineering and at Gachon University, led by Professor TaeIl Lee of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has developed a novel 3D cell culture platform using a ‘Free-Standing (FS) Device,’ signaling a transformative leap in next-generation tissue regeneration and stem cell therapy. This technology enables rapid and highly efficient cell compaction and spheroidization, with its therapeutic potential validated in animal models. To overcome the complexity and time-consuming limitations of conventional 3D culture methods, the team engineered a levitated cell culture system using acoustic standing waves within a liquid medium. The FS Device suspends cells in mid-air, facilitating their autonomous assembly into dense, uniform spheroids. The foundational studies were previously published in Bioengineering & Translational Medicine (2022) and Biomaterials Research (2023).

2025-06-18

Convergence Prof. KIM, JANGHYUN Professor Jang Hyun Kim, Dr. Hae-In Lee This study presents a significant advancement in Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) evaluation by addressing critical gaps in transparency, consistency, and industry-specific relevance. The ESG-Keyword integrated bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (ESG-KIBERT) model, developed using advanced natural language processing (NLP) techniques, enhances ESG classification performance and sets a new standard for automated ESG analysis. With robust performance metrics, it supports reliable and consistent assessments across industries. Additionally, incorporating Sustainability Accounting Standards Board's materiality map offers a customized evaluation framework that accounts for industry-specific factors affecting corporate sustainability. Furthermore, the integration of sentiment analysis enriches ESG evaluations by capturing market and investor perceptions, contributing to a more transparent assessment. This study offers a comprehensive, standardized ESG evaluation framework that improves both the methodological rigor and practical utility of corporate sustainability assessments, enabling more informed decision-making for companies, investors and policymakers.

2025-06-13

Physics Prof. CHOI, WOOSEOK Most materials around us retain their properties once formed, but SrFeOx (strontium iron oxide) is an exception. This material drastically changes its properties depending on the amount of oxygen it contains — with x ranging from 2 to 3 — making it a highly intriguing subject of study. Professor Woo Seok Choi’s research team in the Department of Physics has developed this material in the form of thin single-crystal films and reported a series of significant findings. For instance, SrFeO2.5 adopts a layered structure called brownmillerite, which forms when oxygen is partially removed from SrFeO3, a material with a perovskite structure. The resulting structure features alternating layers of FeO6 octahedra and FeO4 tetrahedra and exhibits a distinctive electrical polarity — that is, a directional asymmetry. In this study, it was revealed that this structure shows ferroelectricity even at ultra-thin scales, down to a single atomic layer (as shown in the Figure below, see the first reference). Ferroelectricity is a key physical property for applications in memory and energy devices. This ferroelectric behavior originates solely in the FeO4 tetrahedral layers, while the FeO6 layers in between act like insulating spacers, minimizing interference between neighboring layers. As a result, each thin layer can switch its electric polarization independently — like stacking atomically thin electric switches — opening up exciting possibilities for next-generation ultra-compact memory devices.

2025-06-10