Jeong Kim Receives Legion of Honor from France, Launches New Business

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Clark School alumnus Jeong Kim has received the French Legion of Honor, France’s highest award, for his contributions to global technology research during his time as president of Bell Labs, a research organization owned by French global telecommunications equipment company Alcatel-Lucent.

French Ambassador François Delattre will deliver the honor in a ceremony at the French Embassy on January 6.

A successful entrepreneur, Kim founded Yurie Systems, where he pioneered the development of a revolutionary asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) for wireless applications. The ATM switch became a pivotal key in the modernization of telecommunications systems for today’s digital market. In 1998, Yurie Systems was acquired by Lucent Technologies for over $1 billion. 

Kim’s latest entrepreneurial endeavor is Kiswe Mobile, a startup company focused on the intersection of sports and web technology, particularly interactive video. Kim and his co-founders, Wim Sweldens and Jimmy Lynn, hope to raise $1 million to launch the company. 

Kim received the first Ph.D. in reliability engineering from the University of Maryland in 1991, and is a Clark School professor of practice. In 2004, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. During the same year, Kim was inducted into the Clark School’s Innovation Hall of Fame. Kim was the primary individual donor for the Clark School’s state-of-the-art research and education center, the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building.

Published January 6, 2014