He is a distinguished professor in the Department of Chemistry at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

He is also the director of the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) Center for Catalytic Hydrocarbon Functionalizations (CCHF).

In 2005, they published a highly efficient and mild catalytic three component coupling between an alkyne, sulfonyl azide, and amine.

In 2012, his group published rhodium catalyzed intermolecular amidation of arenes using sulfonyl azide as a nitrene precursor.

[12] This reaction generates N2 as the single byproduct, doesn't need external oxidant, has broad substrate scope and high functional group tolerance.