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

• 2022~Present    Professor, Department of Physics, KAIST

• 2021~2022        Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST

• 2011~ 2021       Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST

• 2009~2011        Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST

• 2019~2020        Visiting Professor, California Institute of Technology

• 2019                  Visiting Researcher, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology

• 2014~2015        Visiting Professor, Seoul National University

• 2010~2016        Joint Professor, Department of Physics, KAIST

• 2009~2012        KAIST Institute for Optical Science and Technology

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.