event
KAIST honored the leadership and legacy of its 17th President, Kwang Hyung Lee, at a farewell ceremony held on July 2nd at KAIST’s main campus in Daejeon.
Throughout his presidency, President Lee helped shape KAIST into a university driven by bold challenges, creativity, and a willingness to learn from failure. Guided by his vision of KAIST as a “playground for geeks”—a place where curiosity, creativity, and fearless experimentation are celebrated—he fostered a culture in which students and researchers are encouraged to ask bold questions, embrace uncertainty, build startups, and pursue ideas beyond conventional boundaries.
This spirit of challenge has led to meaningful outcomes across the university.
KAIST strengthened its startup-friendly ecosystem through initiatives such as the “One Lab, One Startup” vision, expanded support for student entrepreneurship, and streamlined procedures for faculty startups. From 2021 to 2025, 568 startups were launched from KAIST, with 24 companies becoming listed on the stock exchange with a combined enterprise value exceeding KRW 22 trillion(approximately USD 16 billion). .
The university also advanced major educational and research innovations, including the launch of new academic fields in AI, engineering biology, brain and cognitive sciences, semiconductors, quantum science, and digital humanities. These efforts have helped KAIST strengthen its role as a global hub for science, technology, and innovation.
President Lee’s tenure also marked a period of expanded global partnerships, increased research capacity, and renewed commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration—connecting science and technology with entrepreneurship, the humanities, art, and society.
As KAIST begins a new chapter under new leadership, the university will continue to build on President Lee's legacy of fearless challenge and innovation while pursuing its mission to create knowledge and technologies that contribute not only to Korea, but to the future of humanity.
-
research KAIST Identifies Cause of Artifacts in Battery Nanoscale Analysis, Paving the Way for More Reliable Measurements
A signal that appears to show ions moving inside a battery may, in fact, be an illusion caused by an uneven surface. A KAIST research team has identified the origin of this type of artifacts, which can lead researchers to misinterpret what is happening inside a battery, and has developed a method to reduce it. The findings are expected to enable more accurate analysis of ion movement and improve the reliability of next-generation battery-material development, including that of solid-state and
2026-09-07 -
research Weak Hydrogen Bonds Dethrone Copper's Stability, Opening a New Path for Ion Selection
Copper has been knocked off the top of a stability ranking it had dominated for decades. Without altering the atoms directly bonded to the metal, a KAIST research team reversed the longstanding trend in which copper generally forms the most stable complexes by tuning only the weak hydrogen bonds in its surrounding environment. The findings could open new avenues for selective metal separation and recognition, as well as catalyst design. KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on September 6
2026-09-07 -
people KAIST Professor Jaekyung Kim Selected as One of Asia's 12 Next-Generation Scientists
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on September 4 that Professor Jaekyung Kim from the Department of Biological Sciences has been selected as a Fellow of the “2026 Asian Young Scientist Fellowship (AYSF),” a program that supports promising young scientists across Asia. The Asian Young Scientist Fellowship (AYSF) is a privately funded research fellowship in Asia, established to support young scientists in carrying out creative and challenging research. Since selecting its fi
2026-09-04 -
research KAIST Develops AI Technology That Fixes SQL Errors Without Starting Over
“Find the best-selling product from last year.” When an AI system attempts to answer a question like this by querying a company database, even a single reference to a nonexistent item can cause the query to fail. Until now, correcting such an error often required regenerating the entire SQL query from scratch. A KAIST research team has developed a technology that instead identifies and fixes only the erroneous part. The technology is expected to make AI-powered data retrieval faste
2026-09-04 -
research KAIST Tames a Semiconductor Greenhouse Gas 6,000 Times More Potent Than CO₂ with the ‘Power of Disorder’
Among the gases used in semiconductor manufacturing, tetrafluoromethane (CF₄) is a greenhouse gas over 6,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide. A KAIST research team has developed a technology that removes this gas with high efficiency while extending the usable lifetime of the catalyst that helps break it down by harnessing the ‘power of disorder,’ in which mixing multiple metal atoms together actually stabilizes the catalyst’s structure. KAIST (President Choongsik Bae)
2026-09-03