Kang Sung-jin Receives Iron Tower, Order of Industrial Service Merit for Contributions to Statistical Work

Kang Sung-jin, president of The Korean Economic Association and a professor in the Department of Economics at KU, received the Iron Tower, Order of Industrial Service Merit, for his contributions to statistical work.
According to the Ministry of Data and Statistics on the 2nd, the government presented awards and commendations to 127 individuals and organizations that contributed to the development of national statistics on the 1st, marking the 32nd Statistics Day.
At the ceremony, Jang Won-cheol, a professor in the Department of Statistics at Seoul National University, and Kang Sung-jin each received a medal for their contributions to statistical work: Jang received the Nokjo Geunjeong Medal, while Kang received the Iron Tower, Order of Industrial Service Merit.
Oh Mi-ae, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA), and Kang Chang-gu, deputy director of the Economic Statistics Bureau 2 at the Bank of Korea (BOK), will also receive Industrial Service Medals. The Minister of Finance and Economy’s Commendation was presented to 42 people, while the Minister of Data and Statistics’s Commendation went to 55.
The ceremony also included awards for winners of the 2026 National Data Utilization Competition. The grand prize went to Koo Nam-gyu, a graduate student in the Department of Economics at Sungkyunkwan University, who analyzed the policy effects of local governments’ incentives for fathers taking parental leave by linking data from the Statistical Data Center (SDC), including the Child Household and Employment Activity Statistical Registers. In addition to one grand-prize team, one team received the top award, two teams received excellence awards, and three teams received encouragement awards in the report category.

[email protected] Seo Young-jun Reporter