Our Group

Meet the Principal Investigator!

Dr Seong Kim

Dr. Kim’s career path has been unconventional, but quite innovative and impactful. His educational background was physical chemistry; but he now teaches and works in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Penn State. His research during his PhD and postdoctoral works focused on ultra-high vacuum surface science studies related to heterogeneous catalysis; however, his current research at Penn State explores different frontiers – tribology (a subject perhaps more known in mechanical engineering), silicate glass (usually considered in materials science disciplines), and plant cell walls (also called lignocellulose biomass by engineers). The crux of these seemingly disparate programs is a fundamental understanding of surface science and characterization principles and the application of those principles to research fields that need such expertise, even though they may be outside the comfort zone of his past education and training. In doing so, he has questioned assumptions that others have taken for granted in each field, proposed new alternative hypotheses, listened to criticisms, and improved the proposed theories. Through these efforts, his team has established fundamental knowledge in molecular tribology, glass surface science, and biological materials, which is critically needed for engineering applications.

 

Meet the Graduate Students!

Jongcheol Lee

PhD Candidate, Department of Chemical Engineering

Cellulose Structure and Development

Juseok Choi

PhD Candidate, Department of Chemical Engineering

Cellulose Structure and Development

Seokhoon Jang

PhD Candidate, Department of Chemical Engineering

Tribology: Origin of superlubricity of hydrogenated diamond-like carbon

Yu-Sheng Li

PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering

Tribology

Andrew Ogrinc

PhD Candidate, Department of Chemical Engineering

Glass Surface Science

Yiwen Guo

PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering

Polymer Coatings

Jihyeong Ryu

PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering

Spider Silk

Mason Link

PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering

Glass Surface Science

Ruichuan Yuan

PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering

Tribology of thermally-produced carbon

Mehmet Arda Ozay

PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering

Nucleation in glass

Nahian Siddique

PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering

Tribology