Franzosini Award to Yongheum Jo

doi:10.1515/ci-2024-0107

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Franzosini Award to Yongheum Jo

Published/Copyright: January 31, 2024

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From the journal Chemistry International Volume 46 Issue 1

Abstract

The 2022 Franzosini Award was given to Yongheum Jo, in recognition of his contribution to the IUPAC Solubility Data Project, at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the IUPAC Subcommittee on Solubility and Equilibrium Data, held in Bragança, Portugal, on 12 September 2022, during the 20th International Symposium on Solubility Phenomena and Related Equilibrium Processes.

Yongheum Jo completed his bachelor’s degree in 2014 and master’s degree in 2016, both from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea. He then received a PhD in radiochemistry in the Department of Nuclear Engineering under the academic supervision of Jong-Il Yun (KAIST). Following his PhD studies at KAIST, Jo did a PostDoc at the Institute for Nuclear Waste Disposal (Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, INE) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, from 2020 to 2022. Research at KIT-INE was mainly focusing on a better description of Nb(V) aquatic chemistry in cementitious environments. Niobium-94 is an activation product potentially present as part of nuclear waste, and a better understanding of Nb aqueous speciation and retention processes in cementitious environments are needed to provide a significantly improved description of Nb(V) mobility in an applied repository context.

Yongheum Jo

After his PostDoc at KIT-INE, Jo worked as a senior researcher at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) from 2022 to 2023. Starting in 2023, Jo assumed the role of an assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Hanyang University in Korea. His current work focuses on Nb solids solubility in alkaline aqueous solution in the presence of organic materials. The objective of this topic is to establish a comprehensive chemical thermodynamic description of Nb solids solubility in the presence of organic compounds and Nb-organic complexation. In addition, he is developing a chemical model that depicts the chemical interaction between organics and cementitious materials, covering dissolution and precipitation phenomena. Building on his previous work, he is expanding his investigation to explore the ternary M-AnO2-CO3 system in the context of neptunium(VI) to derive chemical equilibrium data. His research group will continue to explore the chemical thermodynamics to unravel the chemical processes of radionuclides in various environments.

Yongheum Jo has an impressive set of excellent scientific knowledge and expertise. This is covering a broad field in the context of actinide and radionuclide chemistry relevant in fundamental research and to assess scenarios in nuclear waste disposal and the back-end of nuclear fuel cycle. Studies on solubility phenomena and the related chemical speciation play a key role in his research profile.

More details at https://iupac.org/what-we-do/awards/franzosini-award/

Published Online: 2024-01-31

Published in Print: 2024-01-01

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