Professor Jae-young Park (Department of Electronic Engineering)

Receives IEC Thomas Edison Award

The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards announced that Professor Jae-young Park (Department of Electronic Engineering) received the IEC Thomas Edison Award at the 87th General Meeting of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) last October.

IEC is an international standardization organization in the field of electrical and electronic technology with 89 member countries, established in 1906, and  established international standards along with ISO. Within IEC, there are 203 Technical Committees (TCs)/Subcommittees (SCs), 1,405 Working Groups (WGs), and 269 Project Teams operating, with approximately 20,000 experts worldwide working on IEC standardization activities.

Professor Jae-young Park has been involved in IEC international standardization since 2001 and was awarded the IEC 1906 Award in 2006. This year, he received the IEC Thomas Edison Award for being an expert in outstanding international standardization activities. Professor Park proposed and established 11 international standards (IS) related to sensors and energy harvesting as a project leader, and since 2015, he has led the establishment of IEC TC 124 (Wearable smart device technologies) technical committee and served as the secretary in charge of  the proposal and establishment of international standards related to wearable technologies. TC124 is the second technical committee established by South Korea in ISO/IEC after IEC/TC119 (Printed Electronics Technology), which was established in 2011.

Professor Jae-young Park has been leading the progress and establishment of international standards in the wearable industry, and plays a key role in the operation of the committee, including nominating the chairperson of the wearable technical committee, setting the agenda, managing projects, and advisingon project progression. He also strives to develop the wearable industry by leading international standardization through  a close network with domestic wearable experts, and global wearable industry, academia, and research institutes.  

The Thomas Edison Award is awarded annually by the IEC Secretariat to 3-5 standards experts who have achieved outstanding international standardization achievements in the field of electrical and electronics worldwide or contributed to the development of related industries. To date, South Korea has received the award twice and this year, it was awarded for the third time in six years.  Such active participation and initiative in international standardization organizations is expected to play a decisive role in internationalizing Korean technological standards, expanding Korean companies and products overseas.

Meanwhile, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) General Assembly, initially planned to be held in Cairo, Egypt, was held online due to the Israel-Hamaswar, and South Korea has been elected as a member of the Board of Directors, the highest decision-making body of the IEC. Information regarding this award was released on the IEC website (https://www.iec.ch/blog/iec-announces-edison-award-winners)