{"338691":{"#nid":"338691","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Alumni spotlight: Kwanghun Chung (Ph.D. \u002709)","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech is 7,114 miles from Seoul National University in South Korea. But when Kwanghun Chung completed his degree in chemical and biological engineering in Seoul in 2005, he made the long trek to Atlanta to earn his Ph.D. and work in Hang Lu\u2019s research group.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI chose Georgia Tech ChBE because I had deep faith in the breadth and the depth of the program,\u201d said Chung, now an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. \u201cMoreover, I found Dr. Lu\u2019s research fascinating and really wanted to work with her.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe appeal of Lu\u2019s research, which involves studying the neurological systems of C. elegans (a tiny transparent roundworm) and developing microfluidic devices to serve as micro biological systems, made it tricky to land a spot in her research group. Fortunately, Chung had a plan.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTo impress her, I gave her a thick folder including my standard operating procedure, all the papers that I read that were relevant to her research, and silly proposals. Luckily, she decided to work with me,\u201d Chung said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EChung continued to impress throughout his work in Lu\u2019s group. His work included developing a sorting device for the worms, a cell ablator and embryo traps. In 2009, he became the first of Lu\u2019s mentees to earn a Ph.D.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELu said Chung stands out not only because he was her first student to earn a Ph.D.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cKwanghun has always struck me as being extremely curious, creative and focused,\u201d she said. \u201cThese are great traits for being a scientist.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany ChBE graduates go on to successful careers in industry, but Lu believes it is important to encourage students to become the next generation of academic leaders.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EChung is an example of a student who was inspired by a faculty member and took the baton.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMy experience working with [Lu] was absolutely crucial in my career development,\u201d he said. \u201cShe helped me fall in love with science. Once you get to love something at such a level, everything else follows naturally. The most important takeaway from her was the pure passion for science. I decided to stay in academia because it\u2019s undoubtedly one of the best places to do real science.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EChung also patterns his interaction with students after the way he was treated during his years at Georgia Tech \u2014 particularly his experience working with Lu.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cShe really cares about her students and respects them. She treated me like a friend and a colleague back at Georgia Tech and still does,\u201d he said. \u201cI know from my short experience as a professor that it\u2019s not easy to treat your students in such a way. It requires true passion in educating the next batch of scientists. This is something that I try not to forget every moment in my life these days.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EChung\u2019s time at ChBE brought many successes. One accomplishment of which he is especially proud is the Ziegler Award for best research paper, on which he collaborated with Jae Kyu Cho of Victor Breedveld\u2019s research group.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut even the setbacks provided opportunities to learn, he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI got scooped twice during my Ph.D. Actually, both of my two main Ph.D. projects were scooped,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably one of the most depressing things that can happen to Ph.D. students. However, when it happened to me, I felt surprisingly OK. In fact, it made me realize how much I enjoyed doing research itself and not the reward afterward.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAlso, I learned that if you believe in the value of your science, it doesn\u2019t matter who does it first. As Dr. Lu helped me find the true joy of doing science, I am trying to help my students have fun in the lab to boot.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe also is teaching his students not to see limitations to chemical engineering. Chemical engineers can bring new perspective to decades-long problems in fields such as biology and medicine, including neuroscience, he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cChemical engineers are exceptionally well-trained for studying complex biological systems because we have expert understanding of core concepts \u2014 such as mass\/heat transfer, kinetics and chemistry \u2014 that govern the biological world,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe chemical engineers can make a big impact in biology and medicine.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Assistant professor at MIT credits ChBE mentor with instilling love of science"}],"field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The assistant professor at MIT credits his ChBE mentor, Hang Lu, with instilling his love of science."}],"uid":"28045","created_gmt":"2014-10-30 14:53:35","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:23","author":"Amy Schneider","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-10-30T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-10-30T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"338681":{"id":"338681","type":"image","title":"Kwanghun Chung","body":null,"created":"1449245216","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:06:56","changed":"1475895053","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:53","alt":"Kwanghun Chung","file":{"fid":"200590","name":"kwanghun_chung2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/kwanghun_chung2_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/kwanghun_chung2_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":46635,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/kwanghun_chung2_0.jpg?itok=ZjR_mQSW"}}},"media_ids":["338681"],"groups":[{"id":"1240","name":"School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAmy Schneider\u003Cbr \/\u003ESchool of Chemical \u0026amp; Biomolecular Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E(404) 385-2299\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:news@chbe.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Enews@chbe.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}