Pony Chung Foundation Selects Badminton Star An Seyoung and Professor Dohyung Kim for Young Leader Award

The Pony Chung Foundation announced on the 7th that it has selected South Korean national badminton player An Seyoung and Professor Dohyung Kim of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania as the recipients of the 7th Pony Chung Young Leader Award.

The women's singles badminton final between South Korea's An Se-young and Japan's Yamaguchi Akane at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held on the 29th of last month at Ichinomiya Municipal Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. South Korea's An Se-young is competing in the match. (Photo by Yonhap News)

An Seyoung was selected for the national team as a teenager, setting records such as being the youngest winner of the 2019 French Open, winning the gold medal at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, winning titles at the World Championships in 2023 and 2026, winning the gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and taking gold at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

Professor Dohyung Kim joined the University of Pennsylvania as an assistant professor in 2022 and leads the Nano Electrochemistry and Interface Research Laboratory (KLEIN Lab). He is conducting research to map atom-level reaction sites on solid catalyst surfaces, which enhances the efficiency of energy conversion and chemical manufacturing reactions.

His papers have been cited about 15,000 times, and he has published numerous papers in major journals, including Nature and Science. Last October, he was also selected for the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering, the most prestigious research support program in the U.S. scientific field.

Chairman Monggyu Chung stated, "An Seyoung has overcome constant challenges and injury setbacks to rise to the top of the world as a talented female pioneer, and Professor Dohyung Kim is a next-generation scientist developing new principles for sustainable energy and chemical processes." He added, "Both recipients embody the Pony Chung spirit of challenge, innovation, and social contribution."

The awards ceremony is scheduled for November 25th and will be held at Pony Chung Hall, I-Park Tower, Samseong-dong, Seoul.

The Pony Chung Young Leader Award was established in 2020 to carry on the innovative and pioneering spirit of the late Seyoung Chung, the founder of Hyundai Motor Company and Honorary Chairman of HDC Group (formerly Hyundai Development Company). Two young innovators under the age of 40 are selected each year, each receiving a prize of 50 million won and a commemorative plaque.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.