Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology

Prof. Wonyong Choi received B.S. (honors) from Seoul National University (Korea) in 1988, M.S. from POSTECH (Korea), and Ph.D. from CALTECH (USA) in 1996. He then worked at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1996 to 1998 as a postdoctoral scholar. He joined POSTECH in 1998 as an assistant professor and became a full professor in 2008. His research interests are mainly focused on semiconductor photocatalysis and photochemistry for solar energy conversion and environmental applications, advanced oxidation processes, and environmental chemistry. He was appointed as Namgo Chair professor (POSTECH) in 2012, elected as Academician of Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) in 2013, and Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in 2014. He received Young Scientist Award (KAST) in 2005, KAST Science and Technology Award in 2015, and Korea Engineering Award in 2018. Prior to serving as Editor-in-Chief, Professor Choi served as an associate editor of Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T: 2017-2019) and as an editor of Journal of Hazardous Materials (2008-2017). He has also been on the advisory board of Energy and Environmental Science (since 2008) and ACS Earth and Space Chemistry (since 2017). Current Research:  Semiconductor photocatalysis for environmental and energy applications; Solar fuels; Development of visible light active photocatalysts; Photochemical purification of water and air; Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs); Environmental (photo)chemistry; Ice (photo)chemistry; Redox processes of environmental significance Selected Honors and Accolades: US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), international member (2024) Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate Analytics, 2019-2023) Academic Award, Korean Society of Environmental Engineers (2019) Korea Engineering Award (Presidential award, 2018) KAST Science and Technology Award (2015)

Prof. Brooks’ transdisciplinary research interests broadly include understanding and managing anthropogenic activities and stressors across levels of biological organization. He routinely works internationally on water quality, environmental contaminants and sustainability issues, particularly related to rapidly urbanizing regions on six continents. Brooks also serves as the visiting Pearl River scholar chair professor at Jinan University. He coordinates the Global Horizon Scanning Project, which identifies priority research questions necessary to achieve sustainable environmental quality around the world and is principal investigator on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s UNCOVER-EH initiative, which identifies challenges and research needs for environmental health in the U.S. A native Californian, Brooks received a B.S. and M.S. in biological sciences from the University of Mississippi and completed his Ph.D. in environmental science at the University of North Texas in 2002.

As a Senior Data Scientist at CAS, Jacob Al-Saleem develops bioinformatic solutions using machine learning, deep learning, and natural language programming to extract and connect scientific knowledge from text. Prior to joining CAS, he earned his B.S. in Molecular Genetics and Ph.D. in Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology from The Ohio State University. His Ph.D. studies were focused on the molecular virology of Human T cell Leukemia Viruses (HTLV).