Choong Eui Song

Choong Eui Song (born January 15, 1955) is a South Korean organic chemist.

Biography
Song was born and raised in Seoul. He received his B.S. degree from Chung-Ang University in 1980, and received a diploma (1985) and a Ph.D. (1988) at RWTH Aachen University in Germany.

After completing his Ph.D., he worked as Principal Research Scientist at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). In 2001, he was appointed as a head of the National Research Laboratory for Green Chirotechnology in Korea. In 2004, he moved to Sungkyunkwan University (Department of Chemistry) as a full professor. In 2005, he was elected as the vice-president of Korean Chemical Society. From 2006 to 2014 he worked as a director at the Research Institute of Advanced Nanomaterials (University-centered Lab, Korea Research Foundation). In 2016 he was appointed as a director of National Research Laboratory for Chiral Organic Molecular Materials in Korea.

He has been visiting professors for several universities/institutes in the worlds, including:


 * Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kohlenforschung, Mülheim, Germany, 2010
 * University of Southampton, England, 2015

He served as a technical advisor to the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Dongwoo Fine-Chem and Hansol Chemical. He has been a board member of Kyongbo Pharmaceuticals s since 2015.

His research has been focused on asymmetric organocatalysis, biomimetic catalysis, artificial enzyme, on-water catalysis and on-droplet catalysis. His current research also focuses on prebiotic chemistry, specifically, the origin of homochirality (chirality amplification process).

Honors and awards
He has received several scientific awards including:


 * The Korean 52 Research Scientists (Ministry of Science and Technology (South Korea), 1998)
 * The Scientist of the Month Award (Korea Institute of Science and Technology, 2000)
 * The Scientist of the Month Award of Korea (Ministry of Science and Technology (South Korea), 2001)
 * The distinguished contribution award for new drug development (Korea Drug Research Association, 2004)
 * Academic Excellence Grand Prize (Korean Chemical Society, 2013)
 * Academic Excellence Grand Prize Korean Society of Organic Synthesis, 2017)

In 2018, he was elected to the Korean Academy of Science and Technology.