Eligibility:

●      Junior Faculty, Research Scientists, or Engineers in academia, industry, or government.

●      Degree Requirement: Applicants must have received their Ph.D. degree within 10 years of the application deadline.

●      Equivalent Qualifications: Researchers with equivalent qualifications or experience may also be considered.

●      Membership: Applicants must be active members of KSEA. If you are not a member, you can become one here https://www.ksea.org/signUp.

●      Note: This award is primarily intended for independent investigators or professionals. Postdoctoral Fellows are generally encouraged to apply for the AKF Scholarship.

Important Note: regarding Award Category & Eligibility: The eligibility of applicants, including those equivalent qualifications, will be determined by the Scholarship Committee’s decision. The Committee also reserves the right to reassign applications to a different award category (e.g., from LK Award to AKF Scholarship or vice versa) during the selection process.

Award:

The Prof. Chin Ok Lee & Ms. Kwanghee Kim Award includes:

●      One Outstanding Awardee: $5,000 an award certificate.

●      Three Excellence Awardees: $1,000 each, along award certificates.

Submission Requirements:

Applicants must submit the following documents:

1. Curriculum Vitae (CV): No page limit. It should include education, work experience, publications, extracurricular activities, awards, involvement in KSEA the Korean community. The CV must be in PDF format.
2. Essay: Describe your high potential for scientific excellence, current research plans, how they relate to your field in industry or academia (800-word limit).
3. Evidence of Doctoral Degree: Upload a scanned copy of your doctoral diploma or degree certificate (PDF format).
4. Two Recommendation Letters:

○      The recommendation letter should be on official letterhead include a signature (scanned letters are also acceptable).

○      The recommender’s email address must be affiliated an institution (personal email services such as Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail are not acceptable; an institutional email is required).

○      Once the recommender’s information is included in the application, a link will be automatically sent to them for submission.

○      The email addresses of recommenders cannot be changed once submitted.

5. No supplemental materials beyond the above will be accepted.

Deadline: February 20, 2026

Send all documents to the NRC 2026 Scholarship committee (nrc.award@gmail.com) an email title of “NRC 2026 LKAward Application_your name”

Essay Guidelines:

●      Title

●      Abstract Category: (e.g., Basic Science, Medical Science, Computer Science, Chemistry, Science Education, Engineering, etc.)

●      KSEA Membership ID Number

●      Author(s)

●      Affiliation: (e.g., Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065)

●      Format: Maximum 800 words, Times New Roman, 12-point font

●      Refer to the essay template for details on formatting.

The awardees will be announced on the NRC homepage (https://nrc.kseany.org) will also receive an email notification on March 6, 2026. All awardees are required to attend the NRC Conference on March 14, 2026, to receive the award.