AX international network: two new ambassadors appointed in South Korea

Academic exchanges for École Polytechnique’s Bachelor of Science students in South Korean universities have seen significant growth, increasing from 4 students in 2023 to 8 in 2025. These students are spread across three prestigious institutions: Seoul National University (SNU), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH). To support this momentum and foster the local community, the AX is expanding its network of ambassadors in South Korea.

Two new ambassadors have joined this network: François Amblard (X82), a professor of biological physics at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), and Sungyeop Jung (M13, D16), an assistant professor at Korea University (Sejong campus). Their role include welcoming Bachelor students from l’X on exchange, engaging with the local alumni community, and developing collaborations between L’X and its partner universities in South Korea.

François Amblard

François Amblard is from Belfort and graduated in 1982. He is a CNRS research director, currently seconded as a distinguished professor at UNIST, South Korea’s first officially English-speaking public university. After his studies at L’X, he shifted his focus to biology before returning to physics at Princeton. He later joined the CNRS as both a physicist and biologist, working at ESPCI and then the Institut Curie in Paris. Passionate about popularisation, teaching, and student mentoring, he now teaches statistical physics, algebra, and complex analysis. An amateur organist and swimmer, he is also interested in pedagogy, epistemology, and the relationship between science and society, including its political implications.

Sungyeop Jung

A graduate of l’X with a master’s degree (2013) and a PhD (2016) in physics from the Laboratory of Physics of Interfaces and Thin Layers (CNRS and l’X), Sungyeop Jung completed academic stays in New York (Alliance programme) and Cambridge (Silvaco Europe) during his doctoral studies. From 2016 to 2020, he conducted postdoctoral research at POSTECH before becoming a senior researcher at the Advanced Institute of Convergence Technology (SNU). Since 2024, he has been a professor at Korea University (Sejong campus), where he focuses on neuromorphic components and circuits. Deeply connected to France, he was appointed the first patron of the France Alumni Korea network in 2019 by the French Ambassador to the Republic of Korea.

> Learn more about the AX’s international ambassador network.