Rate My Professor Seongjae Ko

Seongjae Ko is a Lecturer in the Department of Chemical System Engineering at the Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. He earned a B.E. in Chemical System Engineering from Yokohama National University in 2010 and an M.E. in the same field from The University of Tokyo in 2012. He completed his Ph.D. in Chemical System Engineering at The University of Tokyo in 2020. Prior to his academic appointments, Ko worked as a research engineer in the Material Development Group, Battery Business Division at Samsung SDI in South Korea from 2012 to 2015. He joined The University of Tokyo as a project academic support specialist in 2015, served as a DC1 research fellow with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science from 2017 to 2020, and held subsequent roles including senior researcher and project assistant professor before becoming assistant professor in 2021 and lecturer in 2025.

Ko’s research focuses on battery electrochemistry, with emphasis on electrolyte design for lithium-ion batteries, aqueous rechargeable batteries, high-voltage operation, safety screening, and related materials. His contributions include numerous publications in leading journals such as Nature Energy, Joule, Nature Sustainability, and Nature Communications. Notable works encompass studies on salt-concentrated electrolytes, hydrate-melt electrolytes, anion intercalation suppression, lithium-metal anode reversibility, and multifunctional solvents for safe batteries, many co-authored with colleagues including Atsuo Yamada. He has also authored invited reviews and commentaries on topics including all-solid-state batteries and high-voltage aqueous systems.