Dr. Hyoung Koo Lee, associate professor of mining and nuclear engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, has been named associate chair of the mining and nuclear engineering department and director of the Missouri S&T Nuclear Reactor. The appointment takes effect Sept. 1.
Lee, who will be responsible for the administration of the nuclear engineering program, takes over for Dr. Arvind Kumar, who will retire on Sept. 1.
“I am glad and thankful to take the wheel when the program is moving forward fast,” Lee says. “Dr. Kumar has done a wonderful job of building a strong team and raising the reputation of nuclear engineering at Missouri S&T. Together with our faculty, staff and students, I will do my best to make our program one of the best in the nation.”
Lee has more than 15 years of professional experience in research, teaching and consulting. Before joining Missouri S&T in 2009, he served as professor, associate professor and assistant professor at Catholic University of Korea and as medical physicist at Kangnam St. Mary’s Hospital in Korea. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and bachelor of science and master of science degrees from Seoul National University, Korea.
“I look forward to working with Dr. Lee to continue the excellent work carried out by Dr. Arvind Kumar,” says Dr. Samuel Frimpong, chair of mining and nuclear engineering at Missouri S&T.
Lee has led research initiatives in nuclear engineering and biomedical imaging with more than $27 million funding. His research areas include new X-ray sources for imaging, detectors for X-ray and neutron radiation imaging, design, simulation and building of x-ray, gamma ray and neutron radiation imaging systems, quantitative imaging, digital image processing, CT reconstruction, radiation detection and measurement, applications of radiation imaging to homeland security, nuclear non-proliferation and non-destructive evaluation.
His results have appeared in more than 100 refereed journal and conference publications, and in more than 100 technical presentations.
Lee has received several awards including the 2012 Young Faculty Award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Faculty Research Award from Missouri S&T, the Junior Faculty Award from the Missouri S&T Academy of Mines and Metallurgy, the Minister’s Citation from the Korean government and the Research Advisor Award in Medical Physics from the Korean Society of Medical Physics.
He is a certified medical physicist in Korea, and a member of International Society for Optical Engineering, International Society for Optical Engineering, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Association of Physics in Medicine, International Society for Neutron Radiology, Korean Society of Medical and Biological Engineering, Korean Nuclear Society and Korean Association for Radiation Protection.
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