[Professor Kang is the first international member without a degree from a Japanese institution to be appointed to the position. His term begins in April for four years.]

Professor Youn-Bae Kang of the Graduate Institute of Ferrous& Energy Materials Technology (GIFT) at POSTECH was recently appointed as the associate editor of ISIJ International, an international journal published by the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan (ISIJ).

ISIJ International is an academic journal published since 1961 by ISIJ, which boasts world’s best steel technology, to share research findings on steel with the international community. Japan prides itself in steel technology and rarely appoints foreign members to the editorial board of ISIJ International. It is very unusual even in the academic world to appoint Professor Yoon-Bae Kang, who has never worked in a Japanese university or company without a degree from a Japanese university.

Professor Kang received his Ph.D. from POSTECH and joined its faculty in 2009 after completing his post-doc at the École Polytechnique de Montréal in Canada. He has been actively conducting research in the field of high-temperature processing of steel and metals. He has published excellent research findings, including new technologies for refining tramp elements in iron scraps, which is an important technology for carbon neutrality and steel processing using thermodynamics and phase diagrams, and a technology to prevent clogging of nozzles for continuous casting of ultra-clean steel for automobile steel sheets.

Recognized for these accomplishments, Professor Kang received the Sawamura Award, the best thesis award from ISIJ International in 2020, and published an invited review thesis in the Diamond Jubilee issue celebrating the journal’s 60th anniversary in the same year.

As the associate editor, Professor Kang will be in charge selecting reviewers, improving the review process, and selecting the thesis award over the next four years.