Prof. Dr. Hyoungsoo Kim holds a MSc. (2008) in Mechanical Engineering from KAIST and a PhD (2013) in Fluid Mechanics from Delft University of Technology. He worked with Prof. Howard Stone at Princeton University as a postdoc researcher from 2013 to 2017. Since 2017, he is leading the “Fluid & Interface Laboratory” group, and is an assistant professor at KAIST. His research areas revolve around experimental fluid mechanics with applications to physics and engineering over multi-scales for interfacial hydrodynamics of complex fluids, which triggers to open a new physicochemical avenue in fluid mechanics. His main research interests are largely classified into (i) Experimental Fluid Mechanics, (ii) Complex fluids and soft matter, and (iii) fluid-fluid interfacial instabilities. Hyoungsoo Kim has published 40 peer-reviewed publications and has an H-index of 17. He is currently working as an Editorial Board Member for Experiments in Fluids.
Read Hyoungsoo’s Emerging Investigator article “Controlling uniform patterns by evaporation of multi-component liquid droplets in a confined geometry” and check out all of the 2021 Soft Matter Emerging Investigator articles here.
How do you feel about Soft Matter as a place to publish research on this topic?
These days, soft matter topics get a lot of attention. I think Soft Matter is the best journal as the special journal for these topics.
What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?
In my group, we are working on interfacial flow problems including liquid metal, nano emulsions, self-assembled crystal structures, and uniform coating of colloids (such as quantum dots, DNA, and liquid crystals).
In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?
I could be wrong but to date soft matter physics are driven by mostly material science people. However, these days, hydrodynamic understanding should be followed together to develop further systematically.
Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?
Definitely, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes is exceptional for soft matter amongst scientists. I can not remember what could be the wisdom from him. However, his study was not limited to polymer or material science. His research results cover also hydrodynamics as well.
