Yonghwi Kim
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About
Role in the KNI
Yonghwi Kim is the Electron and Ion Microscope Manager at the Kavli Nanoscience Institute (KNI) at the California Institute of Technology. He oversees the daily operation of the Quanta scanning electron microscope (SEM) with environmental mode (ESEM), Sirion field emission SEM, Nova 600 focused ion beam (FIB), Zeiss ORION NanoFab Helium/Neon/Gallium FIB, atomic force microscope, and profilometer. In this role, he trains researchers in equipment operation and provides technical support to enable impactful scientific discoveries.
Yonghwi joined Caltech in 2013 as a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering, conducting his doctoral research in Prof. Harry A. Atwater’s group on electrically reconfigurable nanophotonic devices based on phase-transition materials. After completing his Ph.D., he pursued postdoctoral research at NTT Research while serving as a Visiting Associate at Caltech, where he advanced nanofabrication methods for nonlinear optical waveguides in the KNI cleanroom. He returned to Caltech in 2025 to continue his technical career as the Electron and Ion Microscope Manager at the KNI.
Education
Yonghwi received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Caltech under the supervision of Prof. Harry A. Atwater. Prior to that, he earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, advised by Prof. Donghyun Kim.
List of Managed Instruments
Focused Ion Beam (FIB) Systems
- Helium, Neon & Gallium FIB: Zeiss ORION NanoFab
- SEM, Ga-FIB, GIS & Omniprobe: Thermo Fisher Nova 600 NanoLab