Merck Korea (CEO Dr. Woo-Kyu Kim), the Korean subsidiary of the leading science and technology company Merck, has selected Professor Seung-Hyup Yoo of KAIST as the recipient of the Merck Award this year for his contributions to the development of flexible and wearable electronics technology.

Merck Korea will present the 18th 'Merck Award' and the 'Merck Young Scientist Award' at the 2021 International Meeting of Information Display (IMID).

In addition, at this International Society for Information Display (ISID) marking its 20th anniversary, Merck Electronics Chairman Kai Beckmann delivered a keynote speech on the theme of 'Shifting the Display Paradigm in Electronics,' and Dr. Woo-Kyu Kim of Merck Korea delivered a keynote speech at the 20th Anniversary Special Session on the theme of 'Seamless Collaboration for Advancing Digital Living.'We plan to share insights.

Kim Woo-kyu, CEO of Merck Korea, emphasized, “As Merck celebrates its 32nd anniversary in Korea, the electronics industry, led by displays and semiconductors, is developing rapidly worldwide as the demand for digital devices and technologies increases. Merck will continue to strive for scientific advancement not only in business but also in new areas such as healthcare and life sciences through internal innovation and collaboration with the scientific community, and we intend to share these insights at the Merck Science Connect online panel discussion at IMID 2021.”

In addition, “Through the dedication of the Korea Institute of Information Display (KIDS), which has led cooperation between academia and industry for the past 20 years, and the International Institute of Information Display (IMID), which has successfully served as a network platform, we have experienced tremendous development in the global display industry and are now facing an advanced digital life.” “The past 20 years will be the driving force of the data-driven industry that will be realized over the next 20 years,” he said, commending the efforts of the International Society for Information Display and the Korea Society for Information Display on their 20th anniversary.

The Merck Award is a technical paper award established in 2004 at IMID, organized by the Korean Information Display Society (KIDS), to commemorate outstanding scientific achievements in the field of display technology, marking the 100th anniversary of Merck's liquid crystal research. It was expanded into the Merck Young Scientist Award in 2006, and starting from the 10th Merck Award ceremony in 2013, the 125th anniversary of the discovery of liquid crystals, it has provided a turning point for the development of the Korean display industry by changing the award categories and prizes from paper awards to academic awards in collaboration with KIDS.

Professor Seung-Hyup Yoo of KAIST, a recipient of the 18th Merck Award, has conducted research with excellent academic depth and industrial impact in the fields of Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) displays, lighting devices, and flexible and wearable electronics. In particular, he has carried out systematic research to achieve the ultimate efficiency of OLEDs, including results that brought OLED efficiency to the level of inorganic LEDs. Recently, he has been pioneering a new field where wearable IT, optical technology, and medical technology converge to expand the application areas of OLEDs and organic electronic devices into healthcare. Furthermore, he has made significant contributions to the development and dissemination of display technology through his service at relevant international academic societies, such as the Korean Society of Information Display and OSA.

Jeon Soon-ok, a principal researcher at Samsung Electronics Advanced Institute of Technology and a recipient of the Merck Young Scientist Award, is an expert in blue OLED materials and devices. In 2021, she developed a deep blue delayed fluorescence device with the world's highest efficiency through the development of a new concept device structure. During his tenure at Samsung Electronics, he filed 81 domestic and 100 overseas patents to secure core patents, contributing to the localization of material technology, including the potential for future application in mass-produced products. He is also contributing to the creation of technological synergy in the OLED field between academia and industry by conducting various industry-academia research to secure innovative OLED technologies through technical cooperation with leading domestic universities such as Sungkyunkwan University.

The exhibition held during the conference shares information on OLED, liquid crystal, patterning, quantum, coating, and packaging material technologies that can overcome the technological limitations of companies accelerating digital life, as well as on the display, smart window, smart antenna, and lighting industries to which these technologies are applied.

In addition, considering the COVID-19 situation, in addition to Merck's offline booth, we prepared a virtual exhibition via our YouTube channel for one hour from 14:00 to 15:00 on August 27, allowing people to hear about all of Merck's material technologies from Merck's experts remotely.