Educations

• 2006: California Institute of Technology (Ph.D. in Applied Physics)

• 2003: California Institute of Technology (M.S. in Applied Physics)

• 2001: Seoul National University (M.S. in Electrical Engineering)

• 1999: Seoul National University (B.S. in Electrical Engineering)

Experiences

• Professor, Department of Physics, KAIST (2022.6.20 - Present)

• Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST (2021 - 2022.6.19.)

• Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST (2011 - 2021)

• Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST (2009 – 2011)

• Visiting Professor, California Institute of Technology (2019 - 2020)

• Visiting Researcher, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (2019)

• Visiting Professor, Seoul National University (2014 – 2015)

• Joint Professor, Department of Physics, KAIST (2010 – 2016)

• KAIST Institute for Optical Science and Technology (2009 – 2012)

LAB

Sub-wavelength Optics Laboratory

Research Interest

One of the most recent achievements in condensed matter physics is the unified understanding of symmetry and topology. Inspired by this advancement, new light is now being shed on the field of electronics, photonics and phononics. Notably, these macroscopic effective matter platforms have also proven their efficacy by emulating key features of non-Hermitian physics.

For example, the central idea of PT symmetric quantum theory has been tested in all lossy or gain-loss balanced coupled photonic resonators and waveguides and more generalized non-Hermitian physics is now being experimented on these artificial effective matter platforms.

In principle, various quantum systems, which are described with tight-binding Hamiltonians, can be realized in classical platforms. With artificial effective matter platforms, in the form of electronic, photonic or phononic structures, one can realize such a Hamiltonian and investigate it in a more controllably way. Furthermore, these effective matter platforms can be engineered and configured in such a way that even a hypothetical physical system can be implemented and investigated straightforwardly.

Therefore, it is certain that the artificial effective matter platforms become crucial for the investigations of fundamental physics and engineering applications. In our group, we aim to highlight the potentiality of artificial effective matter platforms by experimentally demonstrating novel physical phenomena hard to be observed in real matter.