The SEED 2022 was held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA on August 16-17, 2022. This workshop program, offered by KSEA since 2013, has been designed to provide mentorship to, and help develop the careers of, junior Korean-American scientists and engineers. I feel very privileged to be given the opportunity to organize this important workshop as the SEED director with a phenomenal group of committee members, including Prof. Sung Hoon Kang (Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University), Prof. Hyun Jin Kim (Assistant Professor, University of Alabama), Prof. Yumi Kim (Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University), and Dr. Juyoung Leem (Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University).
SEED 2022 Organizing Committee
Under the theme of “Building a Sustainable and Successful Career and Life”, this year’s program was intended to provide opportunities to discuss career planning and development, leadership development, sustainability and cultivate mentoring relationships among participants. We were pleased to have more than 68 selected participants including PhD students, postdoctoral scholars, and early-career professionals in attendance. This year, we have organized an outstanding program that includes 4 plenary sessions, 6 panel discussion sessions with 15 mentors, 2 lightning talk sessions, and tea times with 20 institutes.
Plenary Talks
The SEED 2022 featured four plenary talks given by distinguished scholars including Dr. Taeghwan Hyeon (Seoul National University), Dr. Sangbae Kim (MIT), Dr. Hey-Kyoung Lee (Johns Hopkins University), and Dr. Seung-Jong Jay Park (Louisiana State University). The first plenary talk was delivered by Dr. Sangbae Kim. He shared his career trajectory by introducing different types of robots that he worked on depending on his career stages. His openness in sharing his past trajectory as well as his unique story inspired the attendees. The second plenary talk was delivered by Dr. Hey-Kyoung Lee (Johns Hopkins University). She shared her continued effort depending on her career stages. She left a strong impression on the SEED attendees, in particular, female attendees. The third plenary talk was delivered by Seung-Jong Jay Park (Louisiana State University). He shared his career trajectory from a professor to a program director at NSF. He explained how to write a good proposal to NSF by sharing his own experience. The fourth plenary talk was delivered by Taeghwan Hyeon (Seoul National University). He shared his philosophy and strategies to be a good researcher by showcasing multiple examples.
Panel Discussion Sessions
Six panel discussion sessions were facilitated during the SEED 2022 Workshop. The mentors are the leaders or rising stars in their fields, which included Dr. Taeghwan Hyeon (Seoul National University), Dr. Hey-Kyoung Lee (Johns Hopkins University), Dr. Seung-Jong Jay Park (Louisiana State University), Dr. Kyunghyun Cho (New York University), Dr. Deok-Ho Kim (Johns Hopkins University), Dr. Joong H. Kim (Office of Naval Research), Dr. Soyoon Kum (Angelo State University), Dr. Sua Myoung (Johns Hopkins University), Dr. Jinsook Roh (University of Houston), Dr. Jae-Sun Seo (Arizona State University), and Dr. Minkyung Song (NIH). Six panel discussion sessions discussed different topics that include career development, leadership development, academic research job search in the US, academic research job search in Korea, how to build a sustainable research program: government’s perspectives, and how to build sustainable research in academia.
Dinner and Networking Session
The evening event of the first day started with a brief introduction and welcoming remarks by Dr. Woo Il Lee, President of the KOFST and Dr. Doyoung No, President of IBS. After that, we have introduced seventeen sponsors, listed in the table below. The dinner session has been followed by the networking session.
Lightning Talk
The first day, we had two lightning talk sessions in parallel, which consisted of approximately thirty self-introduction presentations by volunteer participants, aiming to explore collaboration opportunities among the participants. Five assistant professors, twelve postdoctoral scholars, and ten PhD candidates gave brief presentations of their research. Many SEED participants showed up for the session which sparked active discussion among the attendees who had different backgrounds and career paths.
The lightning talks were evaluated by seven evaluators (including Yumi Kim, Yoonjin Won, Hyunjin Kim, Sung Hoon Kang, Gi-Dong Sim, Soyoon Kum, W. Hong Yeo) based on three categories (such as depth of content, visual aspect, presentation skill). Top participants with high scores received awards as tabulated below. The awards were presented during the closing ceremony on the second day.
| Best Presentation Award | Dongjune Kim | Heeduk Oh |
| Outstanding Presentation Award | Jihoon Jeong | Yongmin Cho |
| SEED Director’s Award | Yejin Ki | Mingi Jeong |
| Spotlight Award | Sangyoon Han | Jihyun Kim |
| Rising Star Award | Wonsik Eom | Jy-yong Sohn |
Teatime
This year, we have organized four sessions of tea times with 20 institutes from academia, industry, and governments (such as Seegene medical foundation, CJ, national research foundation, Postech, Korea University, Kentech, DGIST, Korea evaluation institute of industrial technology, Korea health industry development institute, Korea institute for advancement of technology, and others). The SEED 2022 teatime provided the unique opportunity for networking.
Concluding Remarks
On behalf of the organizing committee, I greatly appreciate all the plenary speakers and mentors for taking time out of their very busy schedules to share their experience and knowledge, and all other attendees for their active participation. My special thanks to all committee members, and KSEA president, Dr. Young-Kee Kim and KSEA headquarter staff for their tireless support to ensure a high-quality workshop. I sincerely hope that the information shared and the opportunity provided for networking during the workshop will help participants further their career.
Here are testimonials from SEED 2022 participants:
This was my first time attending a SEED workshop, and the quality of contents was way higher than I expected. I am especially applying for an academic job these days, thus all advice from Junior/Senior Professors was valuable and helpful. Another important aspect of this workshop is providing a good opportunity to connect with other PhD students and Postdocs in the US and share our thoughts on the career path. I am expecting that this social network will be definitely helpful for my future career path.
SEED has given me much more than my expectations. First, it allowed us to meet with scientists and engineers with highly admirable careers. Their tips and advice were highly impactful. The most inspirational advice was about how we keep being creative and encouraging our labs to be creative. Second, SEED’s setup of tables promoted a good networking atmosphere where we could chat freely with other participants and mentors. Panel discussions have given us very practical information. Afterall, it has motivated us to live a better career.
SEED is the one you must want to attend if you are heading to a job market. I met various people from junior to senior faculties and got valuable comments about designing my career path. The most impressive session I had was the one from Dr. Hey-Kyoung Lee (Johns Hopkins) who literally covered all of what you expect to experience as junior, mid-level, and senior professors. I was also fortunate to get connected with people from different research fields, institutes, and cultural backgrounds, which is also very important to extend your academic career in the future.
I am grateful to be awarded the ‘Spotlight Award’ for my 3-minute lightning talk at the SEED 2022 Workshop in Washington, D.C. It was an excellent opportunity to share my work with people having diverse backgrounds and discuss answering valuable questions from the attendees after the session while getting together and chatting. It was my first SEED workshop to attend, and I found lots of emotional support and practical tips for preparing for my next career steps. I do recommend you attend this workshop if you have a chance.
SEED is a great program to network with other Korean scientists and to receive mentorship from distinguished professionals. Senior professionals were very willing to share their experiences and advice with the early career participants. Informative discussions on career development helped me gain a better perspective on how to navigate through my future career path. I also felt a sense of camaraderie among the participants that are experiencing similar struggles during their early career. I believe this encouraged us to build a deeper bond with each other and to cultivate new professional relationships. I would highly recommend applying for SEED in the upcoming year.
I would like to underscore that SEED workshop is the best workshop I’ve ever attended without exaggeration. This workshop enabled me to (1) meet excellent peer scientists/engineers including PhD students, postdocs, faculties, and professionals across different disciplines, (2) hear about and ask for advice from the senior (‘sunbae’) professionals’ difficulties, efforts, careers, and pathways in the US and Korea, and (3) enjoy social, research, and study exchanges from Korean-American community. I, as a roboticist, will never forget the moment I could hear the talk of the top-notch roboticist, Prof. Sangbae Kim. What I was really impressed with was that everybody, including mentors, was willing to help young professionals based on his/her trials and errors. Every single piece of the workshop sessions is invaluable such that I am really feeling grateful for this good event. Moreover, I was able to present my research work in front of many people so I could get the presentation award. The SEED program will definitely be a life-changing moment that motivates and strengthens your career path. I sincerely would like to attend this workshop every year and grow as a professional who can contribute to Korean-American society.
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