Undergraduate students from the laboratory of Professor Kim Geon-woo in the Department of Organic Materials and Textile Engineering at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) have attracted attention by consecutively publishing research outcomes in internationally renowned academic journals. Because these students directly participated in the complete research process at the undergraduate level and achieved world-class academic results, it is assessed that JBNU's practice-oriented system for cultivating research talent is yielding tangible results.

According to JBNU, student Go Dong-wan (senior) was listed as the first author of the paper 'Infrared selective emitter with molecular-geometric engineering for effective radiative cooling under extreme heat' published in the international journal Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Kim Min-seok, another student from the same laboratory, also participated as a co-author in the study.

This paper deals with a surface material that selectively emits heat only in the atmospheric window region of the far-infrared wavelength range while blocking heat emission in other wavelength regions. This enables effective radiative cooling performance even under extreme high-temperature conditions such as heatwaves, and the technology is attracting attention as applicable to various fields, including mitigation of urban heat island effects.

Another achievement followed. Student Yoo Jun-young participated as a co-author on the paper 'Adaptive metafilm with scalable phase-tunable emissivity for energy-efficient thermal management' published in the international journal Small. The study developed a phase-change-based metafilm whose surface emissivity actively switches in response to temperature changes, representing a next-generation thermal management technology with the potential to improve energy efficiency.

What makes these achievements stand out is that the undergraduates did not remain in simple support roles; they directly participated in the entire research process, from topic selection to experiments and data analysis.

Through the Undergraduate Research Program (URP) system within the Advanced Materials Convergence Talent Development initiative of the JBNU RISE Project, they conducted research in Professor Kim Geon-woo's laboratory from their third year. That experience led to the fruition of publishing papers in international SCIE journals this year as fourth-year students.

The JBNU RISE Project supports undergraduates through URP to experience graduate-level research in actual laboratory environments during their undergraduate studies. Based on this, its core goal is to help students not only advance to graduate school but also develop into high-level research personnel. This case is regarded as a representative example demonstrating that such programs can lead to substantive strengthening of students' research capabilities and the production of international academic outcomes.

Professor Kim Geon-woo, who supervised them, said, 'We will continue to develop research specialized to the region and pursue differentiated advanced materials research that cannot be developed elsewhere.'