Doosan Yonkang Foundation (Chairman Yong-Hyeon Park) held the Doosan Yonkang Environmental Academic Award Ceremony on the 3rd, and awarded 20 million won in prize money and a plaque to the winner, Professor Yun-Joo Ahn of Konkuk University, and 10 million won in prize money and a plaque to Professor Seong-Deuk Choi of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology and Professor Seung-Kwan Hong of Korea University, respectively.

On the 3rd, Doosan Yonkang Foundation (Chairman Yong-Hyun Park) held the ‘2021 Doosan Yonkang Environmental Academic Award’ ceremony and awarded Professor Yoon-Joo Ahn of Konkuk University with a prize of 20 million won and a plaque, and Professor Sung-Deuk Choi of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology and Professor Seung-Kwan Hong of Korea University with a prize of 10 million won and a plaque each.

Professor Yoon-Joo Ahn was selected as the winner for her thesis titled ‘Microplastic digestion generates fragmented nanoplastics in soils and damages earthworm spermatogenesis and coelomocyte viability’, which elucidated the negative effects of microplastics in soil, which had received relatively little attention so far.

Professor Sung-Deuk Choi developed a monitoring technology for fine dust harmful substances in his thesis titled ‘Passive air sampling of halogenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the largest industrial city in Korea: Spatial distributions and source identification’, and achieved results in producing high-resolution pollution maps using a geographic information system.

Professor Hong Seung-kwan contributed to making seawater desalination facilities low-carbon and eco-friendly through a new electrochemical method through his paper titled ‘Membrane capacitive deionization-reverse electrodialysis* hybrid system for Improving energy efficiency of reverse osmosis seawater desalination’.
* Membrane capacitive deionization: Removing ionic substances using an electrochemical method
  Reverse electrodialysis: Technology for generating electrical energy using salinity differences

The Doosan Yonkang Environmental Academic Award is an extension of the Environmental Safety Research Support Project that the Doosan Yonkang Foundation has been implementing for 25 years from 1993 to 2017, and has been implemented to promote the development of Korean environmental studies and to encourage research motivation among environmental professionals.