ICV2026

Dr. Sang Mok Lee is the President of the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) and a leading figure in Korea’s manufacturing and materials science community. With a career grounded in metallurgy, he earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Yonsei University, where he built a strong academic foundation in metal processing and advanced materials. Before assuming his current role, he served as Vice President of KITECH and contributed to nurturing future talent as a Professor at KITECH–UST. He also led the Korea National Ppuri Industry Center, strengthening national competitiveness in core manufacturing technologies. As Chairman of the Korea Foundry Society, Dr. Lee continues to support innovation across the industrial ecosystem. Since taking office as KITECH President, he has emphasized digital transformation, field-centered R&D, and industry collaboration to ensure that KITECH remains a driving force for Korea’s future manufacturing excellence.

Professor Kurfess began his career at Carnegie Mellon University and later held professorships at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Clemson University, where he served as the BMW Chair of Manufacturing.He currently serves as Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech and holds the HUSCO/Ramirez Distinguished Chair in Fluid Power and Motion Control.His federal leadership includes serving as Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as Chief Manufacturing Officer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.He has advised international governments and national laboratories, including work with the United Nations and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.A recognized leader in the field, he has testified in major patent cases and contributes to multiple national boards.He is the current President of ASME and holds leadership roles at NCMS, NCDMM, and the MT Connect Institute.His research advances automotive and precision manufacturing systems, with deep expertise in metrology and high-precision processes.An elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, he is also a Fellow of AAAS, SME, and ASME, and a recipient of numerous prestigious awards.

Joohyung Kim is currently an Associate Professor of ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) and MechSE (Mechanical Science & Engineering), and the director of KIMLAB (Kinetic Intelligent Machine LAB) at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on design and control for humanoid robots, system for motion learning in robot hardware, and safe human-robot interaction. He received BSE and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) from Seoul National University, Korea, in 2001 and 2012. He was with Disney Research as a Research Scientist from 2013 to 2019. Prior to joining Disney, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University for DARPA Robotics Challenge in 2013. From 2009 to 2012, he was a Research Staff Member in Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology and Samsung Electronics, Korea, developing biped walking controllers for humanoid robots.

Prof. Christian Doetsch (born 1969) holds a doctorate in chemical engineering and focuses on energy and process engineering. He specializes in cross-sector energy systems (including modelling/simulation/optimization), energy storage, power-to-X technologies such as electrolysis and chemical conversion into valuable materials and energy sources. This technology and system experience is necessary for the implementation of sustainable, local energy systems and the production and use of green hydrogen. In 2022, Christian Doetsch took over the management of the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT in Oberhausen together with Prof. Manfred Renner. With its more than 600 employees, Fraunhofer UMSICHT develops processes and materials for the institute's key topics - Circular Economy, Carbon Management, Green Hydrogen and Local Energy Systems - with a budget of over €70 million. In 2015, Doetsch co-founded the award-winning start-up Volterion, which developed redox flow batteries and has since successfully commercialized them. The founders received the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize for this in May 2021. He is internationally networked via the IEA (International Energy Agency), among others; he gained longer-term experience abroad during a five-month stay at the University of British Columbia (Canada). Doetsch has held the Chair of Cross Energy Systems at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Ruhr University Bochum since 2014. In his courses, he combines technological research with systemic analyses and an economic perspective.