Jason joined the Department of Physics at Hope College in fall 2025 as an assistant professor. His research field is experimental low-energy nuclear physics, with emphasis on spectroscopy of radioactive isotopes which cannot be found in nature and only produced at heavy-ion accelerator facilities such as the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in Chicago, Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Germany, CERN-ISOLDE in Switzerland and RI Beam Factory at RIKEN Nishina Center in Japan. The two main objectives of this research field are to elucidate the nature of the strong force between protons and neutrons inside atomic nuclei with many interesting phenomena, and also to uncover the origin of all the heavy elements in the universe such as gold, lead and uranium whose production has been hypothesized to require exotic astrophysical environments such as X-ray bursts, supernovae and/or neutron star mergers.

While staying committed to his research activities at institutions outside of the US, Jason will collaborate with Prof. Paul DeYoung and Hope College’s Nuclear Group in maintaining and strengthening the research program for groundbreaking experiments at FRIB and ANL. Jason is eager to learn the operation of the local particle accelerator from the director of physics laboratories, Andrew Bunnell, in order to support active research activities from various disciplines. Jason will also explore prospective research topics in nuclear physics and nuclear instrumentation using the particle accelerator.

As a new faculty member, Jason is teaching General Physics I (PHYS 121) and the Physics Laboratory I (PHYS 141) courses for the fall semester in 2025. 

Current research activities

• Structure of proton-rich unstable nuclei
• Decay properties of rare rp-process nuclei
• Coulomb excitation and in-beam gamma-ray spectroscopy of stable and unstable isotopes
• Nuclear lifetime measurements through Doppler shift attenuation method or fast-timing gamma-ray spectroscopy

Technical expertise

• Development of subatomic physics analysis and simulation frameworks based on ROOT, Geant4 and NPTool
• Experiment design and feasibility studies involving rare isotopes at accelerator facilities with LISE++
• Construction of scintillating detectors for charged-particle and gamma-ray detection
• Analysis of gamma-ray spectroscopy data from high-purity germanium detectors and inorganic scintillator detectors

Previous work experience

• Assistant researcher, Seoul National University, South Korea, 2025
• Senior researcher, Center for Exotic Nuclear Studies at the Institute for Basic Science, South Korea, 2020–2025
• Postdoctoral researcher, Lund University, Sweden, 2017–2020
• Graduate research assistant, TRIUMF, Canada, 2013–2017

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., nuclear physics, University of British Columbia, Canada, 2017
• B.S., physics, University of British Columbia, Canada, 2012

HONORS, GRANTS & AWARDS

• “Bosan” Nuclear Physics Award by the Korean Physical Society (2022)
• “Proton dripline near the doubly magic 100Sn: current status and outlook,” invited talk at the International Conference on Proton-Emitting Nuclei, hosted by the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University (2019)
• Travel grant for postdoctoral fellows from the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund (2019)
• Research grant from the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund – Fund of the Walter Gyllenberg Foundation, for data infrastructure upgrades (2019)
• TRIUMF Users Group – Annual General Meeting Poster Competition Prize (2016)

Selected Publications

• “Light fragment shell effects unveiled as the origin and limits of the new asymmetric fission island,” with P. Morfouace et al., Nature 641, 2025
• “The European Spallation Source neutrino super-beam conceptual design report,” with A. Alekou et al., The European Physical Journal Special Topics 231, 2022
• “New and comprehensive β and βp-decay spectroscopy results in the vicinity of 100Sn,” with R. Krücken et al., Physical Review C 99, 034313, 2019
• “Improved Value for the Gamow-Teller Strength of the 100Sn Beta Decay,” with D. Lubos et al., Physical Review Letters 122, 222502, 2019
• “Properties of the CsI(Tl) detector elements of the CALIFA detector,” with A. Knyazev et al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A 940, 2019
• “Towards the limit of nuclear binding on the N = Z line: Spectroscopy of 96Cd,” with P.J. Davies et al., Physical Review C 99, 021302(R), 2019
• “β decays of the heaviest N = Z – 1 nuclei and proton instability of 97In,” with R. Krücken et al., Physical Review C 97, 051301(R), 2018
• “Properties of γ-decaying isomers and isomeric ratios in the 100Sn region,” with R. Krücken et al., Physical Review C 96, 044311, 2017
• “Shape coexistence and evolution in 98Sr,” with A.B. Garnsworthy et al. Physical Review C 93, 014315, 2016

Outside Hope College

Jason is a big fan of the Toronto Blue Jays, currently the only Canadian team in the Major League Baseball. He also plays the clarinet on select occasions at church events.