Kimoon Kim

Kim Kimoon (; born 1954) is a South Korean chemist and professor in the Department of Chemistry at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH). He is the first and current director of the Center for Self-assembly and Complexity at the Institute for Basic Science. Kim has authored or coauthored 300 papers which have been cited more than 30,000 times and he holds a number of patents. His work has been published in Nature, Nature Chemistry, Angewandte Chemie, and JACS, among others. He has been a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in the field of chemistry in 2014, 2015, 2016.

His research has focused on developing novel functional materials and devices based on supramolecular chemistry. In particular, his research group has worked on a various functional materials based on cucurbiturils (CBs), pumpkin-shaped macrocyclic molecules, and metal-organic porous materials for catalysis, separation, and gas storage. His discovery and isolation of new members of the CB family reported in 2000 had a major impact in expanding the field. Additionally, his paper published in Nature in 2000, His research has been recognized by a number of awards, including the Izatt-Christensen Award in 2012. The center focuses on non-equilibrium self-assembly, molecular recognition in complex systems, and emergent materials.

Cucurbiturils Cucurbiturils were first synthesized in 1905 by Robert Behrend, by condensing glycoluril with formaldehyde, but their structure was not elucidated until 1981. The field expanded as cucurbituril homologues CB5, CB7, and CB8 were discovered and isolated by Kim Kimoon in 2000, which laid the foundation for the development of cucurbituril-based chemistry and supramolecular chemistry. Cucurbituril homologues display unique chemical properties as macrocyclic host molecules with exceptionally high binding affinities, and they have found use in host-guest chemistry and formation of supramolecular structures/assembly. This brought more attention to the field, allowing CB10 and CB14 to later be discovered. The first CB-dedicated workshop was held in Maryland in 2007 with support from National Science Foundation which paved the way for the International Conference on Cucurbiturils to be been held every two years from 2009 which was first organized by Kim and hosted at POSTECH. His research on supermolecular chemistry, especially his work on cucurbituril, led him to receive the Izatt-Christensen Award. In 2018, Kim co-authored the first textbook on cucurbiturils.

Metal-organic framework Kim has also focused his research on multifunctional modular porous materials, such as metal-organic frameworks and porous organic cages. Using an enantiopure organic building block and metal ion, his team was able to synthesize a homochiral metal–organic porous material, POST-1, and demonstrate that it works as a chiral catalyst.

Self-assembly via irreversible covalent bonds Unlike conventional nanostructures built by reversible interactions/bonds, Kim discovered that the irreversible thiol-ene polymerization of rigid, disk-shaped building blocks resulted in robust hollow polymer nanocapsules with a narrow size distribution. He was able to control the size, shape, property and functionality of the nanostructured materials, including spheres, film, toroids, and tubular structures. They have applications in therapeutics, catalysis, separation, and electronics. The research demonstrated an alternate route for construction of nanostructured materials with specific morphology via self-assembly.

Awards 1995: Yonam Fellowship, Yonam Foundation 1997: Best Paper Award, Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies 1998: Outstanding Research Award, Division of Inorganic Chemistry, Korean Chemical Society 1999: Distinguished Research Award, Korean Chemical Society, Korean Chemical Society 2000: Korean Academy of Science and Technology, elected member 2000: Scientist of the Month, Ministry of Science and ICT 2001: Korea Science Award, Ministry of Science and ICT and National Research Foundation of Korea 2001: Doyak Medal, the Order of Science & Technology Merit, Korean Government 2002: TWAS Prize, Third World Academy of Sciences 2002: Korea Science Prize, Korean Government 2003: Korean Academy of Science and Technology, elected Fellow 2005: Visiting Professorship, University of Strasbourg 2006: Named as a Role Model Scientist, Ministry of Science and Technology 2006: Ho-Am Prize in Science, Hoam Foundation, Samsung 2007: Prime Minister Prize, Science Innovation Section, NANO KOREA Awards 2007: Named as an Outstanding Scientist in 2008, Ministry of Science and Technology 2008: Top Scientist and Technologist Award of Korea, 2009: POSTECH Fellow, elected 2009: Proud Postechian Award, POSTECH 2011: 100 Leaders in Korea , The Dong-A Ilbo 2011: E. Muetterties Memorial Lectureship Award, University of California, Berkeley 2012: Honorary Doctorate, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2012: Izatt-Christensen Award 2014: Knowledge Creation Award, Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning

Memberships 2016 – present Accounts of Chemical Research Editorial Advisory Board member 2008 – 2015 Angewandte Chemie, International Advisory Board member 2006 – present Nano, Editorial Board member 2006 – 2012 ChemComm, Editorial Advisory Board member 2006 – present Chemistry-An Asian Journal, Editorial Advisory Board member 2006 – 2009 CrystEngComm, Editorial Advisory Board member 2002 – present Supramolecular Chemistry, Editorial Advisory Board member 2002 – 2009 Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society, Associate Editor 2000 – present Korean Academy of Science and Technology, member 2000 – 2004 Dalton Transactions, International Advisory Editorial Board member 1998 – 2004 Crystal Engineering, Editorial Advisory Board member 1988 – present Korean Chemical Society, Member 1983 – present American Chemical Society, Member