Professor Choi Sung-Jin of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Kookmin University (President Jeong Seung Ryul) has been named to the “2026 World’s Top 2% Scientists” list, jointly announced by Stanford University and Elsevier, for the sixth consecutive year. The “World’s Top 2% Scientists” list identifies the top 2% of researchers with the highest research impact in each academic field by comprehensively analyzing researchers’ citation metrics and research achievements based on Elsevier’s Scopus database.
 
Professor Choi has been selected for six consecutive years from 2021 to 2026, and this year he was again named in both the “Career-long” category—which evaluates an entire research career—and the “Single-year” category—which assesses citation impact over the past year. In the field of applied physics, he ranks in the top approximately 1.3% cumulatively and in the top approximately 0.9% for a single year; he has demonstrated sustained academic influence, with over 25,000 cumulative citations on Google Scholar and an h-index of 70 or higher.
 
Professor Choi is conducting research on next-generation semiconductor devices and 3D integration technologies based on silicon and carbon nanotubes. In particular, he developed a low-temperature process that uses lasers to briefly heat and crystallize silicon, and implemented this as a silicon nanosheet transistor. This approach reduces the thermal load on the underlying devices while forming new devices on the upper layer, serving as a foundational technology for highly integrated logic and memory semiconductors. Furthermore, in the field of carbon nanotubes, the team is analyzing numerous transistors fabricated on 8-inch wafers and, by combining experiments with computer simulations, elucidating how device size and carbon nanotube interconnection structures affect performance, thereby proposing design directions for semiconductor devices.
 
Recently, the research scope has expanded to include artificial intelligence and hardware security. Notable examples include research on carbon nanotube artificial synapses that mimic the brain’s learning mechanisms and pattern recognition, as well as research on generating security keys by utilizing the unique electrical characteristics of each device as “electronic fingerprints.” Additionally, the team is researching multi-valued logic, which stacks carbon nanotube channels vertically to represent information in three states rather than just 0 and 1. This research has the potential to lead to low-power AI devices, authentication for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and high-density information processing technologies.
 
Professor Choi’s research is also aligned with “KMU VISION 2035: EDGE,” the mid- to long-term development strategy that Kookmin University is pursuing to mark its 80th anniversary. Kookmin University has designated AI+X and advanced materials and semiconductors as two of its eight specialized fields and is strengthening its convergence research capabilities by integrating various disciplines into these cutting-edge areas. In particular, carbon nanotube-based artificial synapses and low-power information processing technologies serve as examples of extending semiconductor device research into the field of artificial intelligence; they are expected to contribute to enhancing research competitiveness in the AI+X and advanced materials fields.
 
Professor Choi Sung-Jin stated, “This selection is meaningful in that the research we have built up together with students and fellow researchers over a long period of time is being continuously utilized within the international academic community,” adding, “Rather than being satisfied with the number of papers or rankings, we will continue research that accurately understands the limitations of existing technologies and demonstrates new possibilities through actual devices.”
 
He continued, “We will advance carbon nanotube-based intelligent and secure semiconductors, as well as low-temperature process-based 3D integration technology, to contribute to the development of semiconductors that process more information with less energy, and we will nurture creative future researchers.”

△ Photo courtesy of Professor Choi Sung-Jin, Department of Electrical Engineering, Kookmin University