The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Industrial Technology Promotion Association held the 2024 First Half Korea Engineer Awards Ceremony on the 19th.

The 'Republic of Korea Engineer Award' is an award ceremony that promotes technological innovation in industrial sites and creates an atmosphere that favors engineers. It selects △one engineer each month from a large corporation and a mid-sized or small company, △six female engineers (per year), and △three young engineers (per year) and awards them the Minister of Science and ICT Award and a cash prize of 5 million won.

At this awards ceremony, awards were given to a total of 16 engineers in 3 categories, including 11 winners from large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises in the first half of the year, including the June winners, 3 female engineers, and 2 young engineers.

LG Chemical Research Fellow Jeon Sang-jin was selected as the recipient of the 2024 Korea Engineer Award in June, and the female recipients were Samsung Electronics Senior Research Fellow Park Mira, Energy Saving Business Research Institute Director Lee Soon-i, and LG Electronics Research Fellow Jeong Hye-seon.

The Young Engineer Award, newly established in 2024 to support the growth of next-generation leaders, includes: △Kim Su-ji, Chief Researcher at Cosmax △Cho Ho-yong, head of Doosan Energy, was called.

LG Chemical Research Fellow Jeon Sang-jin, an expert in organic synthesis and polymerization catalyst manufacturing, was recognized for his contribution to improving domestic synthetic resin technology by securing the world’s third vapor-phase process-based film-use high-impact LLDPE (linear low-density polyethylene)* manufacturing technology. High-impact LLDPE is expected to reduce plastic use by up to 20% as its impact strength has been improved by two times compared to existing materials.

Female engineer Park Mira, a senior researcher, is an expert in semiconductor metrology processes and has applied artificial intelligence to the semiconductor MI (Metrology & Inspection) process to enhance precision measurement and defect inspection. In recognition of her contribution to improving semiconductor yield and quality, the MI process is gaining attention as an essential step to prevent semiconductor performance degradation and defects in advance.

Senior Researcher Park developed an inspection technology that combines optical and E-beam technologies and an AI-based measurement technology. Through this, he secured the world’s first source technology for the EUV miniaturization circuit process for the third-generation 10nm DRAM memory, improving mass productivity by 20% compared to the existing second-generation memory, while improving data transmission speed by 30%.

Lee Soon-i, head of the Energy Conservation Research Institute, was recognized for her contribution to strengthening domestic ESG business and sustainable growth by establishing an air drying system and energy-saving equipment for the acid treatment process based on information and communication technology (ICT) as an expert in the energy conservation field.

He led the project to localize air drying control equipment, and in particular, developed a temperature control system for air drying equipment, achieving an energy saving effect of approximately 10%. It is expected to be applicable to various fields such as manufacturing steel plate sensor process, air pneumatic drying equipment, and food drying.

Jeong Hye-seon, a researcher at LG Electronics, was recognized for her contribution to leading the era of customized home appliances by developing a technology that changes the color of the exterior of a refrigerator for the first time in a large home appliance, as an expert in implementing the exterior of home appliances. The 'Mood Up' refrigerator, to which this technology is applied, has 170,000 color combinations possible by emitting light from the LED elements on its four doors.

In addition, in the Young Engineers division, Sooji Kim, head researcher at Cosmax, developed a 'cationic liposome skin delivery system' using chitosan, a natural polymer extracted from mushrooms, and Hoyong Cho, senior researcher at Doosan Energy, developed an eco-friendly technology to recover lithium, a key raw material for secondary batteries, by recycling waste batteries.

In his acceptance speech, Researcher Jeon Sang-jin said, “We will continue to develop sustainable materials through the technological capabilities and experience we have accumulated over a long period of time, and we will strive to develop the domestic petrochemical industry and market with the world’s best technological competitiveness.”

Senior Researcher Park Mira said, “I am honored to receive this award on behalf of my colleagues who have worked hard to develop the technology together with me. I will continue to conduct research to develop measurement technology that can contribute to the advancement of the ultra-gap technological competitiveness of the semiconductor industry in the Republic of Korea.”

Lee Chang-yoon, First Vice Minister of Science and ICT, said, “In this era of global technological hegemony competition, technology is the core of economy, diplomacy, and security,” and emphasized, “The technological innovation of companies and the challenging spirit of engineers are the forces that will allow our country to overcome the era of global technological hegemony competition.”