Merck Korea, the Korean unit of the German chemicals giant Merck, said Thursday that two Korean display specialists were named as the winners of its Merck Award this year during the International Meeting of Information Displays held at Bexco in Busan this week.

Marking its 20th anniversary this year, the Merck Award recognizes scientists for their outstanding scientific contributions to display technology.

This year, Jeong Jae-kyeong, a professor at Hanyang University, won the top honor, the Merck Award.

Renowned for his research on oxide semiconductor technology, he significantly contributed to the mass production of AMOLED products, as well as the world’s first 12.1-inch WXGA AMOLED notebook based on oxide TFTs.

“It’s such a great honor to receive the most prestigious award in the display industry,” Jeong commented. “I will further contribute to advancing South Korea’s display technology with continuous research.”

Merck also gave the Merck Young Scientist Award to Kwak Jeong-hun, a professor at Seoul National University, recognizing his contribution to high-performance QLEDs. He developed the first inverted QLED structure, greatly improving the efficiency and lifetime of QLEDs.

“In the future, display technology will deeply merge into our daily lives,” said Kim Woo-kyu, the managing director of Merck Korea. “As a display industry pioneer, Merck will explore the future of display solutions with relentless curiosity.”

Later in the day, the company also held the 5th Merck Science Connect event, a two-hour session attended by diverse industry experts in the field of cutting-edge displays. Under the title “Go beyond limits in AR/VR,” four speakers, including Jeong, the Merck Award winner; Park Jar-hyeung, a professor at Inha University; market tracker Ombida’s research manager Kerry Kang; and Song Dong-mee, a researcher at Merck Korea, were scheduled to share their insight into the latest display trends.