About PI MinJun Kim

Intrigued by bacterial motility and transport phenomena across bacterial cell membranes, Dr. Kim performs research in “biologically-inspired nanoscale engineering,” which will lead to develop extraordinary technologies in a diversity of fields spanning single molecule analysis to nanorobotics.

MinJun Kim Ph.D.

Principal Investigator

Short Biography

Dr. MinJun Kim presently holds the Robert C. Womack Endowed Chair Professor of Engineering position at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Southern Methodist University. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Yonsei University in Korea and Texas A&M University, respectively. Dr. Kim completed his Ph.D. degree in the Division of Engineering at Brown University, where he was a recipient of the prestigious Simon Ostrach Fellowship. Following his graduate studies, Dr. Kim served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Rowland Institute at Harvard University. In 2006, he joined Drexel University as Assistant Professor and later earned a promotion to Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics. Dr. Kim has been dedicated to exploring biological transport phenomena, encompassing cellular/molecular mechanics and engineering in novel nano/microscale architectures, with the goal of advancing new types of nanobiotechology. This includes groundbreaking work in nanopore technology and nano/microrobotics. Throughout his career, Dr. Kim has garnered numerous accolades, including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2008), Drexel Career Development Award (2008), Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator Award (2009), Army Research Office Young Investigator Award (2010), Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (2011), KOFST Fellowship (2013 & 2015), International society of Bionic Engineering Outstanding Contribution Award (2013), Louis & Bessie Stein Fellowship (2008 & 2014), ISBE Fellow (2014), ASME Fellow (2014), UNESCO/Netexplo Top10 Technology Innovation Award (2016), KSEA & KOFST Engineer of the Year Award (2016), IEEE Senior Member (2017), Gerald J. Ford Research Fellowship (2018), Protégé of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (2019), Brain Pool Fellowship of the National Research Foundation of Korea (2023), AIMBE Fellow (2024), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2024), Moody Outstanding Mentor Award (2024), and Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (2025).

Contact Information:

MinJun Kim, Ph.D.
Robert C. Womack Endowed Chair Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
PO Box 750337, Dallas, TX 75275-0337
Tel: 214-768-3972
Fax: 214-768-1473
mjkim@lyle.smu.edu

A. PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Rowland Institute at Harvard, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.

Ph.D., Division of Engineering, Fluid, Thermal, Chemical Processes (FTCP), Brown University, Providence, RI, U.S.A.

M.S.M.E., Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, U.S.A.

B.S., Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Whimoon High School, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

B. HONORS & AWARDS

Senior Member, The National Academy of Inventors (2025)

The Moody Outstanding Mentor Award, Southern Methodist University (2024-2025)

Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Royal Society of Chemistry (2024)

AIMBE Fellow, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (2024)

Brain Pool Fellowship, The National Research Foundation of Korea (2023-2025)

Best Paper Award Finalist, The 18th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (2021)

Protégé, The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (2019)

Best Paper Award, The 15th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (2018)

Professor With the Coolest Research, Lyle School of Engineering, Southern Methodist University (2018)

Gerald J. Ford Research Fellowship, Southern Methodist University (2018)

Sam Taylor Fellowship, The United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (2018)

Senior Member, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (2017)

Engineer of the Year Award, Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association and Korean Federation of Science Science and Technology Societies (2016)

UNESCO-Netexplo Award, Global Observatory on Digital Society in partnership with the French Senate, the French Ministry for the Digital Economy, and UNESCO (2016)

Best Conference Paper Award, The 12th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (2015)

Brain Pool Fellowship, Korean Federation of Science Science and Technology Societies (2015)

MEM Outstanding Research Award, Drexel University (2014)

ISBE Fellow, International Society of Bionic Engineering (2014)

Best Paper Award Finalist, The IEEE International Conference on CYBER Technology in Automation, Control, and Intelligent Systems (2014)

ASME Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2014)

Stein Fellowship, Louis and Bessie Stein Family Foundation (2014-2015)

Best Paper Award Finalist, The IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (2013)

Best Application Paper Award, The 10th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (2013)

Bionic Engineering Outstanding Contribution Award, International Society of Bionic Engineering (2013)

Brain Pool Fellowship, Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies (2013)

Gold Award, James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation (2013)

Humboldt Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2012 - 2013)

ARO Young Investigator Award, U.S. Army Research Office (2010 - 2013)

Silver Award & Merit Award, James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation (2010)

Best Paper Award, ASME IMECE: Fluid Engineering in Micro- and Nanosystems (2009)

HFSP Young Investigator Award, Human Frontier Science Program Office (2009 - 2012)

Drexel University Faculty Career Development Award, Drexel University (2008 - 2009)

NSF Fellowship, NSF Summer Institute on Nanomechanics, Nanomaterials and Micro/Nanomanufacturing (2008)

Stein Fellowship, Louis and Bessie Stein Family Foundation (2008 - 2009)

NSF Faculty Early CAREER Award, National Science Foundation (2008 - 2013)

Best of Program Award, James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation (2007)

Simon Ostrach Fellowship in Fluid Mechanics, Brown University (2004 - 2005)

C. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERSHIP

Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), (2022 – present)

Editor, Journal of Intelligent Service Robotics , (2014 – present)

Editor-in-Chief, 15th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots, (2018 – 2019 )

Associate Editor, The 8th IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, (2020)

Associate Editor, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, (2017 – 2020)

Associate Editor, Journal of Korea Robotics Society, (2017 - present)

Associate Editor, International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, (2014 – present)

Editorial Board Member, Advanced Bionics, (2024 – present)

Editorial Board Member, Micromachines, (2020 – present)

Editorial Board Member, Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization , (2011 – 2013)

Editorial Board Member, Journal of Bionic Engineering , (2009 – present)

Editorial Advisory Board Member, Recent Patent on Nanotechnology, (2008 – present)

D. WORKING EXPERIENCES

Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX. Aug. 2016 – present. - Robert C. Womack Endowed Chair Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. Aug. 2006 – Jul. 2016. - Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics - Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering, Science & Health Systems

Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, Jan. 2013 - May 2015 - Adjunct Professor, Department of Computer Science

Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Republic of Korea, Jun. 2013 - Sep. 2013 & Jun. 2015 - Sep. 2015 - Brain Pool Fellow, Center for Bionics

Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, Germany, Aug. 2012 - Jan. 2013 - Humboldt Fellow, Nanophotonics and Biosensing Laboratory

Harvard University, Rowland Institute at Harvard, Cambridge, MA. Jul. 2005 - Jul. 2006. - Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Samsung Electronic Corp, Semiconductor Division, Suwon, Korea. Jan. 1997 - Aug. 1999. - R&D Engineer

E. RESEARCH INTERESTS

Micro- and Nanoscale Robotics/Soft Robotics

Single molecule Biophysics/Single Cell Analysis

Biological Transports Phenomena

Fluid Mechanics at Low Reynolds Number

Biomaterials

F. TEACHING COURSES

Advanced Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics

Intermediate Thermodynamics

Thermal and Fluid Science Laboratory

Microscale Diagnostic Techniques

Fundamentals of Nanomanufacturing

Introduction to Nanoscale Metrology