Dr. Moon Kim

Dr. Moon Kim’s research and technical expertise focus on nanofabrication and the manipulation and characterization of materials and devices for electronic and photonic applications. His expertise includes high-resolution electron microscopy, wafer bonding technology, 3-D functional nanostructures and nanodevices.

Kim has been instrumental in forming research collaborations with industry and other universities in the United States and abroad. One such collaboration was Texas FUSION (Future Semiconductor Commercialization), whose two biggest grants for the initial $14.4 million consortium included $6 million from the South Korean government and $5 million from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. Texas FUSION research projects include nanostructures for medical and defense applications; flexible electronic structures for defense and entertainment applications; and large-scale non-volatile information storage and retrieval devices.

In 2014, Texas FUSION became InFUSION, with even more international research collaborations and a focus on flexible electronics.

One of Kim’s passions is educating children about science and engineering. He is the author of books aimed at making children aware of nanotechnology available to them in their everyday lives. Kim is also a professor in the Arts and Technology Program, in which his students have helped create interactive electronic versions of these books and other apps.

“To a lot of people, science is too difficult, engineering is too hard and only studied by geeks,” he said. “We need to change the perception and let children know science is actually fun and that they enjoy nanotechnology every day.”

Kim earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees and completed postdoctoral work at Arizona State University. He is one of the few materials scientists chosen to become a fellow of the Microscopy Society of America.