South Korean telecoms expert joins Chinese university on US risk list

One of South Korea’s top communications experts, Song Iick-ho, has left his home country to join a Chinese research university designated by the US government as a national security threat.

Song has joined the Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) as a professor, focusing on signal detection, communication theory and artificial intelligence.

He joined the university in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan this year after leaving his position at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), where he had worked since 1988, according to his university profile.

The South China Morning Post contacted Song, who said he was not interested in commenting on the move.

Song, a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, has engaged in cutting-edge research on topics including wireless mobile communication theory and has published more than 150 academic papers and 140 conference papers.

The South Korean professor has also been granted five international patents and 26 Korean patents, and has led 15 research projects funded by institutions such as the National Research Foundation of Korea, according to UESTC.