PhD candidate Minwoo Lim (Department of Nano Convergence Engineering, supervisor Professor Kwangwoon Jeong) was selected in 2023 as an outstanding participant in the 4th Phase BK21 Project and received a commendation from the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education.

The 2023 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Commendation for Outstanding Participants in the 4th Phase BK21 Project is awarded to graduate students and early-career researchers participating in education–research teams who have produced outstanding achievements. It was presented to 29 individuals out of approximately 19,000 master's and doctoral participants from a total of 579 education–research teams.

Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) PhD candidate Minwoo Lim was recognized for his potential for future development based on his continuous efforts to strengthen his capabilities in scholarly publications and patents.

Since 2019, Lim has participated in the BK21 Plus program and the 4th Phase BK21 Project, conducting research on the development of smart materials using reactive liquid crystalline molecules.

Through this work, he has published papers as first author in prominent journals in the field of materials engineering such as Advanced Functional Materials (IF=19.0) and ACS Nano (IF=17.1). During his doctoral studies he has published a total of 15 SCI papers, including five as first author and ten as co-author. He has also filed and registered eight patents, demonstrating excellent performance in publications and patents.