Merck Honours Korean Scholars for Display Technology Work
Two Korean professors have received Merck’s top honours for display technology research, with their work covering liquid-crystal optics, 3D displays, oxide thin-film transistor devices and circuits used in next-generation displays and semiconductor technologies.
Merck Korea said on Thursday that Kim Hak-rin of Kyungpook National University had received the 2026 Merck Award for his work advancing display optics based on liquid-crystal materials.
Kim’s research spans active polarisation-switching optics, geometric-phase optical devices, holographic imaging and extended-reality display optics. The work focuses on technologies for next-generation glasses and 3D displays.
Kim said he would work to help maintain Korea’s global competitiveness in immersive and spatial display technologies.
Lee Soo-yeon of Seoul National University received the 2026 Merck Young Scientist Award for research on oxide thin-film transistor devices and circuits used in next-generation displays and semiconductor technologies.
Lee’s research includes oxide TFT reliability, display-driving circuits, device-aging compensation and low-power neuromorphic systems. The work expands research that began with display technologies into applications related to artificial intelligence.
Lee said she would continue working to connect device-level research with circuits and systems in ways that are scientifically meaningful and useful in practice.
The awards were announced during the International Meeting on Information Display 2026, organised by the Korean Information Display Society. The meeting is being held at BEXCO in Busan through Friday.
Merck established the Merck Award at the International Meeting on Information Display in 2004. The Merck Young Scientist Award was added in 2006. This year, the awards were expanded to include optoelectronics technology.
Merck Science Connect is scheduled for Thursday afternoon at BEXCO, with a theme focused on the evolution of displays and the integration of multifunctionality for the future AI era.
The session will bring together Merck and industry experts to discuss display technologies, switchable privacy modes, high-resolution patterning and the convergence of displays with AI-era applications.
Merck Korea Managing Director Kim Woo-kyu said displays remain a key element of the company’s electronics business as Merck expands into semiconductor metrology and inspection, as well as other optoelectronics technologies.
