VPR Priya Advances Biosensing and other Research Partnerships as Part of UMN Delegation to South Korea

VPR Shashank Priya speaking among a table of speakers

VPR Shashank Priya speaking at Korea Institute for Science and Technology.

Vice President for Research Shashank Priya joined UMN President Joan T.A. Gabel; Kathy Schmidlkofer, President and CEO University of Minnesota Foundation; and other University leaders as part of a University of Minnesota delegation to Seoul, South Korea in March. The delegation visited several of the University’s academic partners in South Korea, including Korea Institute for Science and Technology (KIST) and Hanyang University, where President Gabel and VPR Priya signed agreements to build research collaborations with these partners.

KIST is one of Korea's top research institutions. UMN and KIST will focus on several key areas of research collaboration, including energy conversion and storage, neuromorphic computing, and microelectronics. KIST and the U will also collaborate on biosensing projects through the new International Institute for Biosensing. Two of KIST's former presidents were UMN alums: Hyung Sup Choi, who served as KIST's first president (February 1966 – June 1971) and Kil-Choo Moon (November 2010 – March 2014).

Hanyang University is a leader in battery technology—an emerging area for the U—and has several licenses with large companies, including for electric vehicles. The current president of Hanyang, Ki-jeong Lee, is also a UMN alum.

Planning for further visits by researchers to South Korea and the development of research proposals are already underway.

Learn more about the delegation's visit.