Dong-hyun Kim, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Smart Farm at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU), recently received the Young Professional Award at the 2025 PAWEES International Conference held in Morioka, Japan.

The award is presented to early-career researchers who have contributed to the advancement of paddy agriculture and water environment fields in the Asia region. Research Assistant Professor Kim was internationally recognized for his academic capabilities and research achievements.

PAWEES (The International Society of Paddy and Water Environment Engineering) is an international society established in 2003 with the goal of promoting academic exchange in the fields of paddy, hydrology, irrigation, and the agricultural environment and of realizing sustainable agriculture. Each year, it holds international symposia mainly in the Asia-Pacific region and recognizes researchers who have contributed to the development of the agricultural environment field.

Research Assistant Professor Kim earned a Ph.D. in the Department of Rural Construction Engineering at JBNU and is currently on the faculty of the Department of Smart Farm. Through research titled "Improving wheat yield and water use efficiency through soil water-guided furrow irrigation and hydraulic simulation," he proposed a precision agriculture water-management strategy that combines soil-moisture-based irrigation technology with hydraulic modeling to simultaneously improve agricultural productivity and irrigation efficiency.

This research achievement was published in the most recent issue of the internationally renowned journal Agricultural Water Management (IF 6.5, top 2% in JCR). In addition, he has published papers in numerous international journals such as PAWE and Agricultural Systems, attracting attention from the international academic community. He is continuing research aimed at establishing sustainable agricultural production systems through precision water-management technologies and digital agricultural modeling capable of responding to climate change.

Research Assistant Professor Kim said, "This award is the result of collaboration with Professors Taegon Kim and Tae-il Jang and fellow researchers. I will continue to do my best to ensure that Korea's precision irrigation and open-field smart-farm technologies are recognized globally."

Taegon Kim, Chair of the Department of Smart Farm, said, "Our department has been steadily working to recruit outstanding talent and continuously strengthen our research capabilities, and we are doing our utmost in student mentoring and development. We hope this achievement will provide further momentum for the advancement of smart-agriculture research in Korea and the training of future professionals."