Dong-Hwa Seo

Dong-Hwa Seo (서동화)

Associate professor 

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Office: W1, Rm. 2412, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea 

Tel: +82-42-350-3312

Email: dseo at kaist.ac.kr

Research interests

Atomistic design and characterization of electrode and electrolyte materials for rechargeable lithium, sodium and potassium batteries using first-principles calculations.

Data-driven development of functional materials using machine-learned interatomic potentials and experimental datasets.

Autonomous materials discovery using AI, robotics and automated synthesis, analysis and cell fabrication for liquid electrolytes, solid electrolytes and cathode materials.

Research experience

KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea: Associate professor (2023.05 ~ )

POSCO Distinguished Professor of Energy Materials, POSCO Group.

UNIST, Ulsan, Republic of Korea: Assistant professor (2019.12 ~ 2023.04)

Samsung Research America, Advanced Materials Lab, Burlington, MA, USA: Senior Research Engineer (October 2017 – November 2019)

University of California, Berkeley / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA: Associate Specialist (January 2016 – September 2017; PI: Prof. Gerbrand Ceder)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA: Postdoctoral Researcher (September 2013 – December 2015; PI: Prof. Gerbrand Ceder)

Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea: Postdoctoral Researcher (February 2011 – August 2013; PI: Prof. Kisuk Kang)

Education

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

        Ph.D., Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Feb. 2009 ~ Jan. 2011, advisor: Prof. Kisuk Kang)

Doctoral thesis: First Principles Study on the Polyanion Electrode Materials for Lithium Rechargeable Batteries.

        M.S., Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Mar. 2007 ~ Jan. 2009, advisor: Prof.Hyuck Mo Lee)

Master’s thesis: Molecular dynamics simulation of the diffusion of Au and Pt nanocluster on CNT.

Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea

        B.S., Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Mar. 2000 ~ Feb. 2007)

Honors and Awards

Asia Pacific Academy of Materials (APAM) Associate Academicians (2023)

Highly Cited Researchers (HCR), Cross-field, Clarivate (2022)

POSCO Science Fellowship, POSCO TJ Park Foundation (2022~2024)

IBA Early Career Award, International Battery Association Conference, Jeju Island, S. Korea, March 2018

- For outstanding contributions to the design of electrode and electrolyte materials by using combined atomistic modeling and machine/deep learning methods

National Research Fellowship, National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (2014~2015)

Community service

Member-at-Large (elected), Battery Division, The Electrochemical Society (ECS). Term: October 30, 2026 - October 13, 2028.

Vice Chair, Electrochemistry Division, Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (KSIEC) (2025 - present).

Secretary, Computational Materials Science Division, Korean Institute of Metals and Materials (KIM) (2025 - present). Current appointment: January 1 - December 31, 2026.

Secretary, Artificial Intelligence Materials Science Division, Korean Institute of Metals and Materials (KIM) (2022 - 2024).

Advanced Chemical Engineering  (Wiley): Editorial Advisory Board (2026~)

Energy Storage Materials (Elsevier): Advisory Editorial Board Member (2025~)

EcoMat (Wiley): Early Career Advisory Board (2022~)

Youth Editorial Board appointment, Nano Research Energy (2022).

Peer review for Science, Nature Energy, Nature Materials, Nature Sustainability, Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACS Energy Letters, Chemistry of Materials, Advanced Materials, Advanced Energy Materials and Energy Storage Materials. Peer review record (ORCID)

Conference organization and scientific committees →

Book chapter

Dong-Hwa Seo, Inchul Park and Kisuk Kang. First Principles Approach for Cathode Design and Characterization, pp. 223–254. In Electrochemically Enabled Sustainability: Devices, Materials and Mechanisms for Energy Conversion, edited by Kwong-Yu Chan and Chi-Ying Vanessa Li. CRC Press, 2014. ISBN 978-1466575431.