Jonathan Kim is a PhD candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He found the potential and importance of saving energy in buildings during his Master course at Hanyang University. He participated in projects related to indoor air quality, renewable energy and Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC). His professional experience includes working as a building research engineer at WooWon M&E, which is a mechanical engineering firm located in Korea. His job included developing energy simulation, equipment selection for buildings, participating in research projects and proposing energy policy for the government.

In his current research, Jonathan is studying to make an algorithm to use real-life HVAC operation data to make an accurate HVAC model to propose an operation plan in real-time. The proposed operation plan will then produce a new opeation data, thus continuing in a feedback loop during the lifetime of the building. He found architects and researchers in building energy usually stop at the completion of the building and mostly focus on saving energy for newly built buildings. He thinks the potential in saving energy by a better operational plan in existing buildings is great.