The Korean Academy of Science and Technology bestowed the Young Scientist Award 2018 upon Professor Ji Oon Lee of the Mathematical Sciences, KAIST, for his outstanding achievement.

The awarding ceremony took place on December 14, 2018 at Gwacheon National Science Museum in Seoul.

Established in 1997, the Award has been presented annually to four young scientists who are under the age of 40 and have the potential to take a lead in natural sciences and engineering.

Professor Lee has proven a necessary and sufficient condition for Tracy-Widom law of Wigner matrices, contributing to the progress on establishing the universality of random matrices. He has also achieved impressive results in the proof of the largest eigenvalue of Wigner matrices.

Professor Ji Oon Lee, fourth from left, poses with other awardees.