Center Director | Global SRC for Systems Chemistry

Professor Jaeyoung Sung (성재영)

Room 417, Building 104 Department of Chemistry
Room B119, Building 310 Creative Research Initiative Center for Chemical Dynamics in Living Cells
Chung-Ang University
84 Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu,
Seoul 06974, Korea
Phone: +82-2-820-5240
Fax : +82-2-825-4736
Email : jaeyoung@cau.ac.kr

Positions/Affliations

Director, Creative Research Initiative Center for Chemical Dynamics in Living Cells (National Research Foundation of Korea)
Director, BK21 Education-Research Team for Bio/Energy Photochemistry (National Research Foundation of Korea)
Vice President of General Affairs, Korean Chemical Society
Professor of Chemistry, College of Natural Science, Chung-Ang University

Research Interests

Chemical Dynamics in Living Cells
Transport Dynamics in Complex Systems
Quantitative Biology
Single Enzyme Dynamics & Single Molecule Biophysics
Equilibrium and Non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics of Complex Systems

Education

Seoul National University, Ph. D. in Physical Chemistry (March 1993~August 1997)
Seoul National University, M. S. in Physical Chemistry (March 1991 ~ February 1993)
Seoul National University, B. S. in Chemistry (March 1987~ February 1991)

Postdoctoral Career

2000.09~ 2004.02: Postdoctoral Associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1998.09~ 2000.08: Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Basic Science, Korea University (Military Service).
1997.09~1998.08: Special Research Fellow, Institute of Basic Science, Seoul National University (Military Service).
Academic Family Tree.

Awards and Honors

2024  Appreciation Plaque from the Dean of Science, Chung-Ang University
2024  Global Science Research Center Grant, National Research Foundation of Korea
2021 Yip-Jae Physical Chemistry Award, Korean Chemical Society
2019 Distinguished professor (The 1st CAU Contribution Scholar) at Chung-Ang University
2019 Plenary Lecturer at A3 Workshop on Mathematical Life Science (Peking University)
2017 SigmaPhi2017 Prize, Best Oral Presentation on Complexity, SigmaPhi2017 (International Conference on Statistical Physics, Corfu-Greece)
2016 Appreciation Plaque from the president of Chung-Ang University, 2016
2015  Creative Research Initiative  Center Grant,  National Research  Foundation of Korea 
2015 First recipient of the Kook-Joe Shin Academic Excellence Award, Korean Chemical Society
2011 Fellowship from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Distinguished Ph. D. dissertation award (Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University, 1997)

Professional Activities

2025  Auditor, The Korean Union of Chemical Science and Technology Societies 
2022~2024, Advisory Board Member, National Research Foundation of Korea
2022 Advisory Committee of SigmaPhi 2023
2022-2023 Vice President of General Affairs, Korean Chemical Society
2021 Reviewer of proposals, Polish Academy of Science (Condensed matter physics)
2021 Reviewer of proposals, the DOE Basic Energy Science funding, U.S. (Data Science for Discovery in Chemical and Materials Sciences)
2019 Advisory Committee of SigmaPhi 2020
2018~Present, Committee Member of Hanseong Scholarship Foundation
2016~Present, Committee Member of Academic Affairs, Korean Chemical Society
2016~2018, Review Board, National Research Foundation of Korea
2016 Secretary of General Affairs, Physical Chemistry Division of Korean Chemical Society
2014 Steering Committee of Academic Affairs, Korean Chemical Society
2014 Member, General Board of Publishing Committee, Korean Chemical Society
2014 Member of Science Committee, Korean Chemical Society
2014~2016 Committee Member, Authentication Affairs of Chemistry Major, Korean Chemical Society
2013~2014 Representative of Korean Chemical Society in the Korean Union of Chemical Science and Technology Societies
2013 Steering Committee of Public Affairs, Korean Chemical Society
2007~2013 Member of Information Committee, Korean Chemical Society

Selected Publications

Ji-Hyun Kim et al., “Multiphasic growth dynamics of nanoparticle ensemble”, ChemRxiv (2025).

Yeonsoo Lim 1,+, Gyunam Park 1,2,+, Hojin An 1,+, Jonghwa Han 1,2, Joonhyun Bae 3, Ji-HyunKim, 1,2 Yan Lee * 4, Kyungtae Kang *3, Jaeyoung Sung *1,2, and Sunbum Kwon*, Metabolism-inspired chemical reaction networks for chemically drivendissipative oligoesterification, Ang. Chem. Int. Ed. (in press) (2025). 

Minho Lee, Euihyun Lee, Ji-Hyun Kim, Hyonseok Hwang, Minhaeng Cho*, and Jaeyoung Sung*, “Transport Dynamics of Water Molecules Confined between Lipid Membranes”, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 15, 4437 (2024).

Eunsang Lee, Donghee Kim, Yo Han Song, Kyujin Shin, Sanggeun Song, Minho Lee, Yeongchang Goh, Mi Hee Lim, Ji-Hyun Kim, Jaeyoung Sung*, and Kang Taek Lee*, “Real-Time Tracking of Vesicles in Living Cells Reveals That Tau-Hyperphosphorylation Suppresses Unidirectional Transport by Motor Proteins”, Chemical & Biomedical Imaging, 2, 362 (2024).

Chae Won Kang, Hyun Gyu Lim, Jaehyuk Won, Sanghak Cha1, Giyoung Shin, Jae Seong Yang, Jaeyoung Sung & Gyoo Yeol Jung, Circuit guided population acclimation of a synthetic microbial consortium for improved biochemical production”, Nat. Commun. 13, 6506 (2022).

Sungsu Kang, Ji-Hyun Kim, Jaeyoung Sung, Jungwon Park, et al., “Real-space imaging of nanoparticle transport and interaction dynamics by graphene liquid cell TEM” Science Advances 7, 49 (2021).

Jingyu Kang, Seong Jun Park, Ji-Hyun Kim, Peng Chen, and Jaeyoung Sung, “Stochastic Kinetics of Nanocatalytic Systems”, Phys. Rev. Letters 126, 126001 (2021).

Kang-Kyun Wang, Sanggeun Song, Seung-Jin Jung, Jung-Wook Hwang, Min-Goo Kim, Ji-Hyun Kim, Jaeyoung Sung, Jink-Kyu Lee and Yong-Rok Kim, “Lifetime and diffusion distance of singlet oxygen in air under everyday atmospheric conditions”, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 22, 21664 (2020).

Sanggeun Song, Seong Jun Park, Minjung Kim, Jun Soo Kim, Bong June Sung, Sangyoub Lee, Ji-Hyun Kim, and Jaeyoung Sung, “Transport Dynamics of Complex Fluids”, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 116, 12733 (2019).

Sanggeun Song, Gil-Suk Yang, Seong Jun Park, Sungguan Hong, Ji-Hyun Kim, Jaeyoung Sung, “Frequency spectrum of chemical fluctuation: a probe of reaction mechanism and dynamics”, PLoS Computational Biology, 15, e1007356 (2019).

Kyujin Shin, Snggeun Song, Yo Han Song, Youngeun Han, Seungsoo Hahn, Ji-Hyun Kim, Gibok Lee, In-Chun Jeon, Jaeyoung Sung, and Kang Taek Lee, “Anomalous Dynamics of in vivo Cargo Delivery by Motor Protein Multiplexes”, J. Phys. Chem. Letters, 10, 3071 (2019).

Seong Jun Park, Sanggeun Song, Gil-Suk Yang, Philip M. Kim, Sangwoon Yoon, Ji-Hyun Kim, and Jaeyoung Sung, “The Chemical Fluctuation Theorem governing gene expression”, Nat. Commun. 9, 297 (2018).

Sung Hyun Kim, Takkyoon Ahn, Tao Ju Cui, Sweeny Cauhan, Jaeyoung Sung, Chirlmin Joo, Doseok Kim, “RecA filament maintains structural integrity using ATP-driven internal dynamics”, Science Advances, e1700676 (2017).

In-Chun Jeong, Sanggeun Song, Daehyun Kim, Seong Jun Park, Ji-Hyun Kim, and Jaeyoung Sung, Comments on “Nonrenewal statistics in the catalytic activity of enzyme molecules at mesoscopic concentrations”, Physical Review Letters, 119, 099801 (2017).
Seong Jun Park, Sanggeun Song, In-Chun Jeong, Hye Ran Koh, Ji-Hyun Kim, and Jaeyoung Sung, “Nonclassical kinetics of clonal yet heterogeneous enzymes”, J. Phys. Chem. Letters 8, 3152 (2017).

Yu Rim Lim, Ji-Hyun Kim, Seong Jun Park, Gil-Suk Yang, Sanggeun Song, Suk-Kyu Chang, Nam Ki Lee, and Jaeyoung Sung, “Quantitative understanding of probabilistic behavior of living cells operated by vibrant reaction networks”, Phys. Rev. X 5, 031014 (2015).

Sora Yang, Seunghyeon Kim, Yu Rim Lim, Cheolhee Kim, Hyeong Jeon Ah, Ji-Hyun Kim, Jaeyoung Sung, and Nam Ki Lee, “Contribution of RNA polymerase concentration variation to protein expression noise”, Nat. Commun. 5, 4761 (2014).

Seongeun Yang, Jianshu Cao, Robert J. Silbey, Jaeyoung Sung, “Quantitative interpretation of the randomness in single enzyme turnover times”, Biophysical Journal 101, 519 (2011).

Won Jung, seongeun Yang, and Jaeyoung Sung, “Novel Chemical Kinetics for a Single Enzyme Reaction: Relationship between Substrate Concentration and the Second Moment of Enzyme Reaction Time”, J. Phys. Chem. B 114, 9840 (2010).

Jaeyoung Sung and Robert J. Silbey, “Counting statistics of single molecule reaction events and reaction dynamics of a single molecule”, Chem. Phys. Lett. 415, 10 (2005).

Jaeyoung Sung and Robert J. Silbey “Exact dynamics of continuous time random walker in the presence of boundary: beyond phenomenological boundary condition approach”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 160601 (2003).

Jaeyoung Sung and Robert J. Silbey, “Optical Four wave mixing spectroscopy for a multi level system coupled to Brownian oscillators” J. Chem. Phys. 118, 2443 (2003).

Jaeyoung Sung, Eli Barkai, Robert J. Silbey, and Sangyoub Lee, “Fractional Dynamics Approach to the Diffusion-Assisted Reaction in Disordered Media” J. Chem. Phys. 116, p2338 (2002).

Jaeyoung Sung and Robert J. Silbey, “Four Wave Mixing Spectroscopy for a Multi-level System”, J. Chem. Phys. 115, p9266 (2001).

Jaeyoung Sung and Sangyoub Lee, “Nonequilibrium Distribution Function Formalism for Diffusion-Influenced Bimolecular Reactions: Beyond the Superposition Approximation”, J. Chem. Phys. 111, p796 (1999).

Full Publication List