Dr. Kinam Kim
Vice Chairman & CEO, Samsung Electronics

Dr. Kinam Kim is Vice Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics and the Division Head of Samsung Electronics Device Solutions Division, where he oversees the operations of its three business units, Memory, System LSI, and Foundry.

Since joining Samsung Electronics in 1981, Dr. Kim has been a driving force at Samsung. Prior to his appointment as Vice Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics, Dr. Kim served in numerous leadership positions, including as President and CEO of Samsung Display and as President of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT). At SAIT, Dr. Kim spearheaded the R&D of leading edge technologies that have significantly advanced the semiconductor industry as well as adjacent industries, including quantum dots, graphene, carbon nanotubes, and advanced materials.

Dr. Kim's contributions, leadership, and strategic vision have paved the way for Samsung's role as a technology leader in the semiconductor industry. Under Dr. Kim's leadership, Samsung's Memory business continues to maintain market and technological leadership, as evidenced by the release of first-to-market products in DRAM, NAND and SSD for over a decade. Samsung's System LSI business also continues to excel in logic integrated circuit (IC) products such as application processors (AP), modem chipsets, complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, and display driver ICs for a wide range of applications. In addition, the recently formed foundry business has emerged as a leader in advanced logic process and specialty technologies, such as radio frequency (RF), industry's first high-k metal gate (HKMG) transistor, and 14 and 10nm fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) process technologies.

Dr. Kim has published more than 470 technical papers in leading academic journals, which includes several publications in the prestigious Nature and Science journal. Additionally, he holds more than 360 international and domestic patents and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering of the United States, an IEEE Fellow, and an executive board member of the National Academy of Engineering of the Republic of Korea.

Dr. Kim has also been a recipient of several prestigious awards in the semiconductor industry, including the "Flash Memory Summit Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2016, the "IMEC Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2017 and the "Korea Science & Technology Award" in 2019.

Dr. Kim received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University in 1981, M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 1983, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1994.

(Korea Science & Technology Award)
Bestowed by the Korean Government, this award is granted to leading Korean scientists for their scientific achievements. Dr. Kim won the award for playing a significant role in the development of the country’s semiconductor industry and his contributions that elevated Korea’s semiconductor industry to become a major global player.