Keynotes

Dr. Jijun Xing holds a distinguished academic background with a Bachelor of Engineering from Tianjin University (1982), a Master of Economics from Renmin University of China (1990), and a PhD in Administrative Management from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (2009). Over his extensive career in international diplomacy and science policy, he has held various key positions, including serving as the S&T Councilor at the Chinese Consulate General in New York (2016-2019) and Deputy Director General of the China Science and Technology Exchange Center (2011-2016).
His earlier roles include directing European and Asian affairs at the Ministry of Science and Technology, alongside assignments at Chinese embassies in the Netherlands and Norway. Since beginning his career as a staff member of the Chinese-US Land Petroleum Exploration Project in 1982, he has built a wealth of experience in international cooperation and global governance. His current work focuses on international relations, science, technology, and innovation cooperation strategy, with a strong emphasis on global governance and research policy.

Dr. Bon-Kyoung Koo is an experienced mouse geneticist actively employing the emerging organoid culture technology to study stem cell maintenance and activation in the mouse and human intestine and colon. Following his PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Young-Yun Kong at POSTECH, Dr. Koo joined the group of Prof. Hans Clevers at the Hubrecht Institute, Netherlands in 2009. Here he witnessed the first establishment of the Lgr5+ cell-derived intestinal organoid culture system. In the following years Dr. Koo has utilised this novel culture system to perform sophisticated gene correction with CRISPR/Cas9, to unravel the molecular regulation of adult stem cells and to prove the stem cell properties of a Troy+, quiescent reserve stem cell population in the stomach. After group leader positions at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (2013-17) and the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA, 2017-2022), he moved his group to the Center for Genome Engineering at the IBS, Korea. Currently, his group focuses on clonal dynamics of adult epithelial stem cells both in homeostasis and during injury-mediated repair.

Prof. Weidong Li is currently with University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (China) as a Chang Jiang Chair Professor and Dean of Mechanical Engineering School. Before that, he worked at Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, University of Bath, Cranfield University, and Coventry University as a Research Engineer, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Chair Professor. He is Fellow of Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET), and Fellow of Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE). His research interests include sustainable manufacturing and human-robot collaboration. His research has been sponsored by Singapore A*Star, European Commission, Innovate UK, EPSRC (U.K.) and NSFC (China). He has published 260 research papers in international journals and conferences, and 5 books (Springer).

Prof. Hongsik Jeong received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Yonsei University, Korea, in 1985, 1987, and 1992, respectively. In 1992, he joined Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., where he led projects on DRAM and new memory devices like PRAM, MRAM, and FRAM. He received the Korean presidential award in 2005 for his contributions to new memory technologies, notably developing and commercializing the world's first PRAM product for mobile phones. In 2014, he became a professor at
Yonsei University and then moved to Tsinghua University in 2016, where he researched neuromorphic devices. Since 2019, he has been with Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), studying semiconductor technology and neuromorphic systems, and serving as the first dean of the Graduate School of Semiconductor Materials and Devices Engineering (GS-SEMI). He has published 1 book chapter, 37 patents, and over 120 technical papers.

Dr. Choong-Min Ryu is interested in the host-microbe interactions including drug development against antimicrobial resistance bacteria. He published more than 250 papers (Scopus H index = 61) since he graduated Auburn University, USA as a Ph.D student. He is currently serving a head of Infectious Disease Research Center of Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, S. Korea. At the last five years during the COVID-19 pandemic, he is particularly focused on the establish of a GloPID-R hub in the Asia-Pacific region. GloPID-R is the international association of funding agencies to combat the infectious diseases and contribute its preparedness. Dr. Ryu emphasizes the extraordinary geographical and histologic situation in Asia when it comes to infectious diseases.

Prof. Jihong Jeung is currently a professor and principle investigator at AeX (Aging experience lab) in Future Lab, Tsinghua University. He is one of the pioneers of human-computer interaction (HCI) in south Korea. He has been involved in HCI and digital media design for more than 30 years. He has served as president of the Korean HCI Association, a member of the Korean Design Science Association, and director of the Cultural Technology R&D Program at the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. Previously, he was a VP at Samsung Mobile, where he was responsible. Dr. Jeung was Also a professor of interaction design at Kookmin University for more than 10 years. He has been a visiting professor in Zhongshan University and Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. His current research interests include HCI-based integration to improve user experience related to human aging, which is necessary in an aging society.