Recent UIUC Alumni Spotlight: Hyunwook Kim, PhD 2007

Hyunwook Kim still remembers his first visit to ATREL, "I was shocked at the large land area used only for transportation research and the large, fully covered test facilities." Although Hyunwook's current views include the vast and beautiful mountains of Switzerland, his landscape does have one thing in common with ATREL: full-scale accelerated pavement testing equipment.

Hyunwook lives in Zurich and works as a scientist for road engineering / sealing components in the department of civil and mechanical engineering at EMPA (Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research), a company that transforms scientific knowledge, in the fields of material science and technology, into marketable innovations. At its three sites in Dubendorf, St. Gallen, and Thun, EMPA employs more than 850 staff. Just over 450 employees are engineers and scientists with advanced degrees, including 11 professors, 110 doctoral students, and 35 apprentices. Hyunwook has been with EMPA since October of 2007.

Hyunwook says, "My favorite part of this job is that I can collaborate with various experts in different fields like chemistry, material science, mechanical engineering, environmental science, and electronic engineering. Currently I am leading several research projects on such topics as composite materials and systems, fracture testing and modeling, fatigue testing, and recycling."

Hyunwook never expected to end up in Europe, but as he was finishing up his PhD work, he heard about a job opening at EMPA from Professor Buttlar. "During my job interview, the director of EMPA and the head of laboratory (Road Engineering/Sealant Components) liked my research topic from UIUC, micromechanical fracture modeling and testing, and knew that this fundamental and scientific knowledge could be applied to various research topics at EMPA."

At UIUC, Hyunwook worked with Professors Buttlar and Al-Qadi on a topic related to reflective cracking and groove collapse. He also worked with professor Buttlar on a project related to airport pavement funded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Hyunwook has great memories of ATREL and UIUC. He remembers, "The faculty and students worked together so nicely, and I remember everyone always being in a good mood. I really enjoyed working with Professor Buttlar and our colleagues, and I am very proud of the researchers at UIUC for their achievements."

Hyunwook describes Zurich as a beautiful and peaceful city with extremely clean air and water. He enjoys the high altitude mountains with great views. He especially likes its location in central Europe so he can easily travel to other European countries. He says, "Zurich is ideal for people who can speak many languages - The official languages in Switzerland are German, French, and Italian, and there is also a Swiss German - and those who have lots of money because the cost of living is very expensive."

Hyunwook and his family consider themselves to have three hometowns: "I married in South Korea but my first daughter (Jimin, 5 years old) was born in the USA and the second daughter (Jiyul, two weeks old now) was recently born in Switzerland. In our family, the world is not so large. In the future, I might need to spend large amounts of money to visit our three hometowns (Seoul, Champaign, and Zurich) but it will be exciting."

We at UIUC are proud that Hyunwook and his family will always consider Champaign-Urbana as one of their hometowns and are proud to have him among our widespread and accomplished alumni.

Photos Below: (top) Hyunwook at Aletsch Glacier at the top of Jungfraujoch; (middle) Hyunwook with his wife Hyeyoung Park (9 months pregnant) and daughter Jimin Kim during the holidays at Murren; (bottom) Full-scale accelerated pavement testing (APT) equipment at EMPA.