Kim grew up in South Korea, and achieved a BSc in physics at Ewha Womans University in 1992.

She completed a theoretical physics MSc under the supervision of Prof. Jeong Weon Wu in 1994 before moving to the UK to work at the University of Cambridge.

Here she joined the growing research group of Professor Richard Friend, earning a PhD entitled Polymer Light-Emitting Diodes: Anode Surface Conditioning and Device Performance in 2000.

[4] In 2003, she was part of the team who won the Descartes Prize of the European Commission for polymer-based light emitting diodes.

She is the director of EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Plastic Electronic Materials at Imperial College London.