Joong-Hyun Chun, PhD

Dr. Chun is a Postdoctoral Fellow (since April 2007), in the PET Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Section (PRSS), Molecular Imaging Branch (MIB), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He received his BS degree in Chemistry in 1997 at Yeungnam University (Kyongsan, South Korea), followed by the graduate study at the same school for his MS degree in Organic Chemistry, exploring unique reductive oxidation methods using organoaluminum reagents in 1999, and obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry under the guidance of Professor Gerald F. Koser at the University of Akron in 2005 (Akron, Ohio). After completing his PhD, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Kent State University for nine months to perform the generation of stable carbocation of the different classes of thia-arenes. His previous research areas include the development of new hypervalent iodine reagents, the study of novel cyclic iodonium salts, and the application of such compounds to the various systems. His current efforts are focused on the

development of a convenient method to label [18F] fluoride to arenes with diaryliodonium salts, the investigation of an efficient route to [18F] fluorination using new reagents, preferably with polyvalent systems. Also, he is interested in the design and the synthesis of new precursors/radioligands suitable for positron emission tomography (PET) studies and pharmaceutical purposes.