Wonbin Hong received his B.S. in electrical engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette in 2004 and Masters and Ph.D. also in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2005 and 2009 respectively. From 2009 to 2016, he was with Samsung Electronics as a principal and senior engineer participating and leading extensive R&D tasks for upcoming wireless applications including MIMO, wireless power transfer and millimeter-wave wireless solutions. As of 2016 February, Dr. Hong is with the Department of Electrical Engineering at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) as an associate professor. He currently holds the Mueunjae Chaired Professorship.
He has well over a decade of extensive research and development experience with primary interest in future wireless communication antennas and RF circuits, mesoscale and nanoscale transparent electronics, IoT/Wearable devices based on advanced electromagnetics and 3D packaging. Dr. Hong is one of the first researchers to pioneer the concept and design of millimeter-wave antennas and RF front-ends in the field of consumer electronics including mobile terminals and access points for the much anticipated ultra-fast broadband wireless solutions such as 5G and 6G. He has authored and co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed journals, conference papers, two book chapters, one book and is the inventor of more than 90 granted and 200 pending patents.
In addition, Dr. Hong is the inventor and served as the project lead of the world's first OLED display-embedded invisible antenna for three separate wireless connectivity applications. This completely invisible antenna has been integrated within the OLED display panel of the Samsung Gear wearable devices separately launched worldwide since 2016 resulting in approximately 4 million invisible antennas in production. In 2019 he demonstrated the world's first mmWave Antenna-on-Display technology for 5G smartphones.
Dr. Hong is the recipient of numerous recognition. Prof Hong was elected into the 2022 Young Korean Academy of Science and Technology (YKAST), the nation's highest academy of science. Prof. Hong recieved official commendation from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups of the Republic of Korea for his contributions in devloping the antenna and RF startup ecosystem in the nation in 2022. In 2020, Prof. Hong received the 'Scientist of the Month’ by the Ministry of Science and ICT, and National Research Foundation of Korea. Prof. Hong also received an official commendation from the Minister of Science and ICT on the 55th Annual Invention Day hosted by the Korean Intellectual Property Office. He was recognized for his contribution of inventing and commercializing the source technology on 5G millimeter-wave. As a faculty, he was elected as a Muenjae Chair Professor for his academic accomplishments in 2020. During his tenure at Samsung, he received various accolades such as the Outstanding Researcher of the Year Award, Outstanding Mentor of the Year Award, Major Achievement Award, Annual Inventor Award and the Samsung Best Paper Award. Owing to his accomplishments, he was promoted to the rank of Principal Engineer within the shortest period in the history of the business division at Samsung. Dr. Hong was also awarded several fellowships and scholarships including the Samsung Scholarship Award for Graduate Studies, the Rappaport Wireless Scholarship, the NASA Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, A.F. Welch Scholarship, Donald McQuinn Scholarship etc. His students have received recognition including the 2nd Place Best Student Paper Award in 2021 IEEE AP-S Symposium on Antennas and Propagation, 1st Place Best Student Paper Award in the 2020 IEEE AP-S Symposium on Antennas and Propagation , Best Student Paper Award IEEE European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) 2020, 2018 Outstanding Master's Student, Electrical Engineering Department of POSTECH, Silver Medal in the 14th Samsung Electro-Mechanics Best Paper Award 2018, 1st Prize Best Student Paper Award in 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP), and Best Paper Award in 2017 ISMOT.
He has served as an invited lecturer and speaker in over 100 international research symposiums, government and industry sessions held around the world. He is currently serving as the Associate Editor of the IEEE Transaction on Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine. He is currently the Guest Editor of the IEEE Transaction on Antennas and Propagation Special Issue on "Low-Cost Beam-Scanning Antenna" and Guest Editor of Frontiers in Communication and Networks Special Issue on "mmWave Antennas and Testbeds". Prof. Hong has served as Lead Guest Editor for the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letter Special Cluster on “Antenna-in-Package, Antenna-on-Chip, Antenna-IC Interface: Joint Design and Co-integration” and also served as the Guest Editor of the IEEE Transaction on Antennas and Propagation Special Issue on "Antennas and Propagation Aspects of 5G Communications".
Dr. Hong has been involved in more than 60 government, industry research projects and currently serves as a technical consultant to numerous multinational tech firms such as Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motors, LG Electronics, LG Uplus, SK Telecom, Sumitomo Chemical, Corning and several other confidential leaders in industry and government agencies.
Prof. Hong is an IEEE Fellow.
Contact: whong at postech dot ac dot kr
Secretary contact: heosang at postech dot at dot kr
Research group URL:http://mad.postech.ac.kr/mads/index.php
PIRL URL: http://pirl.postech.ac.kr/
