Postdoctoral Researcher in Robot Design, Mobility, and Control at GIST (POLAR-AI / InnoCORE) Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea

Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) is recruiting postdoctoral researchers for the POLAR-AI / InnoCORE research center in South Korea. The position is part of a newly funded national initiative focused on extreme-environment autonomous mobility and Physical AI, with a strong emphasis on robot design, robot mobility, humanoid robotics, legged locomotion and control, reinforcement learning for robot control, extreme-environment actuation and manipulation, and human-robot interaction.

The center is hosted at GIST and collaborates with around 20 faculty members across multiple Korean universities, with approximately 25 postdoctoral fellows recruited globally. Research themes include humanoid walking on ice, cryogenic dexterous manipulation, multi-robot coordination (humanoid + rover + drone), and foundation-model-based autonomous task planning for polar and other disconnected environments.

This is a postdoctoral opening (not a PhD or master's call). The post states that applicants should hold a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field. A strong publication record in top robotics venues such as IEEE RA-L, IROS, ICRA, CoRL, and RSS is expected, and hands-on experience with robotic hardware and/or simulation-to-real transfer is a plus.

Funding is described as a five-year national research center (2026–2030) with about USD 12.5M total funding. The post highlights an annual salary of approximately 90,000,000 KRW (about USD 63,000), which is unusually competitive for a postdoctoral role in Korea. The position is based on the GIST campus in Gwangju, South Korea, with a flexible 2026 start date and a duration of up to five years.

To apply, interested candidates should contact Prof. Pilwon Hur directly by LinkedIn message or email at [email protected]. The post also points to the POLAR-AI Research Center website for more information about the group, facilities, and research program.