Associate Professor

Hyun-Seok Cho (Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 2013), is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Sogang University (www.sogang.ac.kr). He earned his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina (www.sc.edu) in 2013. His research focuses on analyzing degradation mechanisms through modeling and experimental work related to hydrogen production via electrochemical water electrolysis cells, fuel cells, corrosion, electrodeposition, and e-fuel production by electrochemical systems.
From 2016 to 2023, he was a senior and principal researcher in the Hydrogen Research Department at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) (www.kier.re.kr) in Daejeon. His research at KIER focused on low-temperature water electrolysis cells and stack design, including polymer electrolyte membrane and alkaline-type electrolysis cells. He also worked for Hyundai Motor Company as fuel cells engineer in  2015 and involved in NEXO project.  He joined Samsung SDI (www.samsungsdi.co.kr) in Yongin in August 2005 and worked as an associate research engineer for the Portable Fuel Cell Project in the Energy Lab of the Corporate R&D Center.  While at Samsung SDI, he optimized and developed automated roll-to-roll MEA fabrication units and analyzed the rheological properties of Pt catalyst paste slurry for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells. In April 2007, he left Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. and joined
Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI) in Seongnam (www.keti.re.kr). Later, he pursued graduate studies in Chemical Engineering at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC, USA. During his time at KETI, he was involved in the development of a carbon nanotube-backlight unit using the writing method. In August 2008, he started his Ph.D. studies. His research topic was modeling and experimental work on contamination studies in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell System. After completing his Ph.D., he worked as a post-doctoral fellow for Prof. John W. Van Zee in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. The research topic covers modeling and experimental work on corrosion in high-temperature Concentrating Solar Power systems.