In his research, supported by the National Science Foundation and several key manufacturers, Kim and his colleagues have developed an optimization model to maximize total life-cycle profit from selling new products and remanufactured products. It optimizes both the initial design and design upgrades at the end-of-life stage and also provides corresponding production strategies, including production quantities and take-back rate. The model is extended to a multi-objective model that maximizes both economic profit and environmental-impact saving. Kim has received numerous recognitions including an NSF CAREER Award, Dean’s Award in Excellence in Research, and a Best Paper Award in ASME Design for Manufacturing and Life Cycle Conference. He joined the Illinois faculty in 2005.