Professor Baek Moo-hyun is a chemist who discovered the principle behind the chemical reaction that occurs when a transition metal catalyst is used as the medium. He also established the principle that makes development of better catalysts possible. In particular, he is a pioneer of transformational research which demonstrates that chemical reactions can be predicted and designed using computers and theoretical computational chemistry research methods.

In 2016, Dr. Baik predicted the catalyst candidates that can activate methane gas with computational chemistry, and in 2020, he suggested the possibility of an "all-around functional group" that can freely control the atoms that determine the electrical properties of organic compounds by using fine differences in voltage. In particular, the study of all-around functional group is highly regarded as an innovative achievement that can replace the existing paradigm, and it is expected to have a significant ripple effect if the research results are applied to the chemical industry in the future.