Two Korean professors whose research could help redefine how displays work in an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven era have received Merck’s top honors for display technology. Merck Korea said Thursday that Kim Hak-rin of Kyungpook National University received the 2026 Merck Award for his work advancing display optics based on liquid-crystal materials. Kim’s research spans active polarization-switching optics, geometric-phase optical devices, holographic imaging and extended-reality display optics, with a focus on technologies for next-generation glasses and holographic displays. Kim said he would work to help maintain Korea’s global competitiveness in immersive and spatial display technologies. Lee Soo-yeon of Seoul National University received the 2026 Merck Young Scientist Award for research on oxide thin-film transistor devices and circuits used in next-generation displays and semiconductor technologies. Lee’s work includes oxide TFT reliability, display-driving circuits, device-aging compensation and low-power neuromorphic systems, extending research that began with display