CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Taeghwan Hyeon, the recipient of the 2025 Madhuri and Jagdish N. Sheth International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement, said life is a collection of choices and decision-making processes, both good and bad.
And the best decision he ever made was choosing to do something completely different.
Hyeon, 60, attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 1993 to 1996, completing his Ph.D. program in sono-chemistry under the supervision of Kenneth S. Suslick, the Marvin T. Schmidt Research Professor of Chemistry at Illinois.
After graduating, he knew that if he wanted to be someone, he needed to challenge himself to make a change.
So, he did.
“The best decision I ever made was that I jumped into a new emerging research area which was nano science,” Hyeon, one of five 2025 International Achievement Award recipients, said during the Sheth Distinguished Alumni Lecture on April 24. “It’s tempting and easy to continue whatever work you’ve done when you were getting your Ph.D. (for the rest of your life), but no, don’t…that won’t make an impact. That’s why I challenged myself, and that was the most important decision I’ve ever made because it made me who I am today.”
Hyeon’s career trajectory since making that crucial decision shifted and as a result, he found success in the field of nanoscience that is reflected in an illustrious career marked with numerous honors and awards.
Addressing the crowd of undergraduate and graduate students, former colleagues, friends, fellow achievement award recipients, and community members inside the Illini Union, Hyeon shared his expertise that is cultivated from decades of research and went into detail about the “heat-up process,” a method that he is perhaps most famous for inventing.
He also shared valuable snippets of wisdom that he learned from his own time as a Ph.D.-seeking student on Illinois’ campus.
Hyeon said he had big dreams and goals when he attended Illinois like becoming a professor of chemistry at Seoul National University (SNU) in South Korea, a dream that became a reality just a few years following his graduation from Illinois.
Therefore, he said he couldn’t give up because of his goals, dreams, and passions, regardless of how stressful times got while he was on campus.
But in those moments, when the stress was heavy, he said he had two things that helped motivate him.
“I prayed really hard at that time…that’s one thing that helped a lot. The second thing was the lady sitting right over here,” he said, gesturing toward a young woman sitting at the table immediately in front of the podium where he spoke. “Esther, my daughter, she was my biggest comfort.”
Everything Hyeon did in his career stems from the decision he made long ago, a decision to constantly challenge himself.
This decision is now advice that he shares with students.
“There are a lot of young folks here today,” he said, looking around the room. “You want to be somebody, right? Well, if you want to be somebody, you must try something different. That’s what I learned here (at Illinois), and especially from my (mentor) Ken Suslick … challenge yourself. Forget about what you’ve done and try something different.”
Analicia Haynes is the storytelling and social media specialist for Illinois International. She can be reached at ahayn2@illinois.edu.