The Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics at the Institute for Basic Science(IBS), led by Professor Younghee LEE of Sungkyunkwan University(Dept. of Physics), is one of the laboratories that is frequently referred as ‘world’s first.’ Prof. Yonghee LEE developed the world's first technology to separate and extract only semiconducting carbon nanotubes from carbon nanotubes which contains metallic and semiconducting properties. In 2005, he successfully synthesized single-walled carbon nanotubes by using Laser Ablation, the world’s first semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and continues to demonstrate various derivative researches such as separation of nanotubes from semiconductors, transparent electrodes, and graphene synthesis. Prof. LEE was selected as a national scholar in 2006 as a world-renowned authority in the field of nanoscience.

As a result of outstanding research performance about nano carbon tubes and graphene, Prof. LEE’s team was selected as a government project unit of the IBS that was launched in 2012 in order to nurture Nobel Prize level researchers and to support research field. The team is receiving a subsidy of 10 billion won per year.

Because of the reasons that the Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics at SKKU is the most advanced field in the field of Nanoscience and its outstanding research performance is known to be highest in the world, many famous Post-docs and graduate students from overseas came back to Korea and have shown many remarkable achievements with Prof. LEE. In 2013, the team developed transparent and elongated electronic devices for the first time. In 2015, they developed high-performance micro supercapacitor technology that can be used in microelectronics.

Researchers Hyun Seok LEE, Su Yeon CHO, and Min Kyu JOO who participated in the study as Post-docs have been employed as full-time faculty members at famous universities in Korea. Prof. Hyun Seok LEE is workinig at Chungbuk University while Prof. Soo Yeon CHO and Prof. Min Kyu JOO are working at Ewha Women’s University and Sookmyung Women's University, respectively. In Korea, it is very hard to produce full-time faculty members from domestic business unit, and this result means that Sungkyunkwan University is recognized as a world level research institute in the field of nanoscience.