On March 30, The KAIST Graduate Student Association Center for Human Rights (GSA-HRC) announced that it is officially awarding three professors its first KAIST Human Rights Professor Awards. These professors are as follows: Professor Dong-Sup Kim from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Professor Daniel Seungbum Hong from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Professor Young-Chul Kim from the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering. The award ceremony, which will be held annually from this year onward, aims to commend outstanding professors who uphold and acknowledge human rights through their actions.

A total of 63 authors and professors were nominated for consideration, all of whom were anonymized before undergoing the first internal review by the GSA-HRC. Then, lab members also had to review the anonymous submissions before sending it through a voting process wherein all graduate students are eligible to cast a vote. A total of about 380 students participated in the voting event that lasted for 3 days. As a result, Professor Dong-Sup Kim earned the highest tally of votes at 24.5%, followed by Professor Daniel Seungbum Hong with 20.5%, and Professor Young-Chul Kim at 19.5%. The selected professors were awarded a trophy and special gift cards.

With this newly-commenced award, the GSA-HRC hopes to encourage a culture of human rights awareness among the KAIST community, particularly among professors.