Jungsang Kim Receives Changjo Medal, Top Honor in South Korea

Engineering professor receives honor for pioneering work in quantum computing

Two me standing in suits and ties. One is wearing a blue medal.
Engineering Professor Junsang Kim, right, with South Korean prime minister Kim Min-Seok, received the honor in Seoul on April 21.

This is a summary of a story on Pratt School of Engineering.

Jungsang Kim, the Schiciano Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University, has received the Changjo Medal of the Order of Science and Technology Merit, the highest class of South Korea’s premier national honor for scientists and engineers.

The Changjo Medal, whose name translates to “creation,” is the top of five classes of the Order of Science and Technology Merit and is considered comparable to the National Medal of Science in the United States. Kim received the medal from Prime Minister Kim Min-Seok at the Science Day Event in Seoul on April 21.

The honor recognizes Kim for his contributions to securing core technologies for commercializing quantum computers by applying scalable approaches to trapped-ion systems controlled by light.

Kim joined Duke as an assistant professor in 2004 and has spent more than two decades advancing quantum information science.

In 2015, Kim and his current fellow Duke faculty member Christopher Monroe co-founded IonQ, the first publicly traded, pure-play quantum computing company. Kim served as IonQ’s Chief Technology Officer until 2024, helping translate foundational research into one of the world’s leading quantum computing companies.

“Jungsang’s receipt of the Order of Science and Technology Merit is a distinction of the very highest order,” said Jerome Lynch, Vinik Dean of the Pratt School of Engineering. “His pioneering work to make trapped-ion quantum computing scalable and commercially viable has moved an entire field forward.”

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