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Korea Science Academy to Be Affiliated with KAIST
The Korea Science Academy, a state-run science high school located in the southeastern port city of Busan, will be converted to an affiliated school of KAIST as of March 1, 2009, university authorities said on Thursday (May 22).
The memorandum of understanding for the switchover was signed by KAIST President Nam-Pyo Suh, Dong-Geun Seol, superintendent of the Busan Metropolitan City and Jang-Hyuk Kwon, principal of the Korea Science Academy, at Seoul"s Westin Chosun Hotel Thursday morning.
When the switchover comes into effect, the principal of the high school will be appointed by the president of KAIST. Administrative details will be decided by a working-level committee consisting of delegates from the KAIST, the Office of Education of the Busan Metropolitan City and the Korea Science Academy.
The Korea Science Academy was established in 1991 to provide strengthened science courses for gifted students to prepare them for careers in science and technology. The school currently has an enrollment of 428 students and 45 classroom teachers.
2008.05.22 View 12791 -
International Science Journal Spotlights Korean Biotechnology
Biotechnology Journal published by German-based Wiley-VCH, one of the world"s major scientific and technical publishers, devoted its entire special edition for May to biotechnology in Korea.
The monthly journal"s special issue was planned by KAIST Professor Sang-Yup Lee of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department who is one of the journal"s two editors-in-chief.
The special issue outlines the current status and future prospect of biotechnology in Korea, and presents five review papers and eight original papers by leading Korean biotech researchers to showcase recent developments in Korean biotechnology. Among these papers, a review by Dr. Byung-Hwan Hyeon and his colleagues describes in detail the Korean biotechnology strategies represented by "Bio-Vision 2016," and another by Dr. Ji-Hyun Kim and his collaborators presents recent progress in microbial genome projects in Korea.
In the editorial of the journal, Prof. Lee said, "Heavy industry and IT industry have been the two drivers of Korean economic growth. Korea is now considering biotechnology as its next generation growth engine."
Underscoring the growing importance of fusion research, he mentioned that integration of biotechnology with information technology and nanotechnology is advancing rapidly in Korea. Another special edition of Biotechnology Journal focusing on these exciting biotech developments in Korea is planned for the future.
2008.05.20 View 12857 -
President Suh to Receive Honorary Doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University of the United States has decided to present an honorary doctorate degree to KAIST President Nam-Pyo Suh, school authorities said on April 30.
President Suh will receive the honorary degree during the university"s 111th commencement ceremony at its Pittsburgh campus on May 18. Suh earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon in 1964.
Carnegie Mellon University said in a press release that Suh is honored for transforming KAIST into a world-class institution since he became president of KAIST in 2006.
"His distinguished academic career has also included posts at the University of South Carolina and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as an assistant directorship for the National Science Foundation of the United States. Beyond his academic leadership, Suh invented an industrial process for production of plastic parts that is used in factories worldwide. He holds more than 50 patents and helped start several companies," the press release said.
Five other prominent Americans will also receive honorary doctorate degrees from Carnegie Mellon along with President Suh. They are Al Gore, former U.S. vice president; Norman R. Augustine, former president and CEO of Martin-Marietta and Lockheed Martin and chairman of the American Red Cross; Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, the world"s largest online retailer; Elizabeth Catlett, an artist and sculptor famed for her dedication to the rights of minorities and women; and Patrick Colonel Suppes, a professor emeritus at Stanford University.
Carnegie Mellon, a leading research university of the United States is known for its distinctive mix of programs in engineering, computer science, robotics, business, public policy, fine arts and the humanities.
2008.04.30 View 12468 -
World Micromachine Summit to Open in Daejeon
The 2008 World Micromachine Summit will be held at Hotel Riviera in Daejeon for a four-day run from April 30, drawing worldwide industrial and academic leaders in the micro-nano-technology (MNT).
Organizers say that 76 delegates and 56 observers from 19 countries and regions will take part in this year"s Micromachine Summit. Prof. Cho Young-ho of the Department of Bio & Brain Engineering of KAIST will play host to the annual event.
Participants will discuss the progress of micro-nano-technology in each country and region development of national policies in this area. The Summit was first organized in 1995 by the Micromachine Center of Japan with representatives from 10 countries participating. They were Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Korea was first invited to the conference in 1999. Since then, Korea has played an active role in promoting technological exchanges among nations and has conducted presentations and discussions on major technological breakthroughs.
During the four-day run, each delegation will outline their country"s policies and strategies and present local features on focused areas including this year"s main theme, "Micromachine towards Technology Convergence Era."
The gathering will offer a valuable opportunity for the participants to exchange and collect information on the current state of the MNT, as well as providing a forum for worldwide networking of leaders in the area.
2008.04.29 View 12136 -
Prof. Sang-Yup Lee Co-Editor-in-Chief of Biotechnology Journal
Prof. Sang-Yup Lee of KAIST"s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has been appointed as co-editor-in-chief of Biotechnology Journal published by Wiley-VCH, a German-based leading technical publisher, university authorities said Tuesday, April 15.
Launched in January 2006, Biotechnology Journal has covered biological process, brain ailments, biological medicine, protein design and other applied bio-sciences.
Starting in May, Lee will be responsible for setting and overseeing editorial direction of the journal along with Prof. Alois Jungbauer of Austria.
Professor Lee has been gaining recognition in and outside the country for his research on metabolic engineering. In 2002, he was chosen as one of Asia"s next generation leaders by the World Economic Forum. In 2007, Lee was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world"s largest general scientific society. He is also serving as an editorial member of more than ten international journals including Biotechnology & Bioengineering.
Awards and honors include the First Young Scientist"s Award from the President of Korea, the Scientist of the Month Award from the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology, the Best Patent Award from Korean Intellectual Property Office, the Citation Classic Award from ISI, USA, and the First Elmer Gaden Award (1999 Best Paper Award) from Biotechnology and Bioengineering (John Wiley & Sons, USA) at the ACS National meeting.
2008.04.16 View 12819 -
KAIST Inks Agreement with KERI for EEWS Technological Cooperation
KAIST concluded an agreement with the Korea Institute of Energy Research for technological cooperation in the research on the four global issues of energy, environment, water and sustainability (EEWS) on Tuesday (April 15).
The agreement was signed by KAIST President Nam-Pyo Suh and Moon-Hee Han, director of the Korea Institute of Energy Research at the KAIST.
The agreement calls for building a cooperative network for exchanges of personnel and information, and joint use of research facilities and equipment between the two institutions. Under the agreement, KAIST and KIER will also jointly conduct scientific researches.
When it comes to personnel exchange, KAIST will appoint researchers of KIER as adjunct professors of KAIST, while KIER will appoint KAIST professors as its adjunct researchers. Undergraduate students of KAIST will be given an opportunity to join government-commissioned projects and participate in an internship program of the institute.
2008.04.16 View 15110 -
KAIST Receiving Applications for Intelligent SoC Robot War
KAIST is receiving applications to participate in the 2008 Intelligent SoC Robot War through the annual contest"s homepage at www.socrobotwar.org. Application deadline is May 1.
The annual contest features battles between mechanical robots utilizing System on Chip (SoC) technology. The annual robot competition, which began in 2002, is scheduled for Oct. 15-19 this year at the Indian Hall of Convention & Exhibition Center (COEX) in southern Seoul.
The Intelligent SoC Robot War Contest has two sections, Tank Robot and Taekwon Robot. In the Tank Robot contest, robots in the form of tanks engage in duels with laser beams through visual recognition, wireless communication, and audio recognition. On the other hand, the Taekwon Robot contest is a hand-to-hand fight. The robots had to be capable of defending, recognizing the opponent, and attacking without external control.
Any team consisting of more than two people and under six undergraduate or graduate students are eligible to take part in the competition.
Prior to the contest, preliminary assessments and the final selection will be made between July and September.
2008.04.14 View 12534 -
Computer Security Guru Ahn to Become Chair Professor at KAIST
Chul-Soo Ahn, founder of AhnLab Inc., Korea"s largest computer security company, will become a chair professor of KAIST, university authorities said on Monday (April 7).
Ahn, 46, who is currently taking an executive education course at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, will start teaching computer science students this fall.
In 1988 when he was a doctorate student at the Medical School of Seoul National University, Ahn developed a computer virus vaccine program and created a sensation in the fledgling computer security market. In 1995, he founded AhnLab and served as CEO for ten years. In 2005, he stepped down as CEO of AhnLab and left for the U.S. Currently, he is serving as chairman of the board of directors of AhnLab. University authorities said that KAIST decided to appoint Ahn as a chair professor in recognition of his profound knowledge in computer technology as well as extensive experiences in corporate management .
2008.04.10 View 11933 -
KAIST to Open Liaison Office in Silicon Valley
KAIST will open a liaison office in Silicon Valley, California, within the first half of this year to serve as a beachhead of its operations in the United States, university authorities announced Monday.
The opening of "KAIST America" office will be financially supported by the Silicon Valley-based Ambex Venture Group. The liaison office will be located at the first floor of the AmBex building in Sunnyvale.
The liaison office will be responsible for overseeing joint research between KAIST and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and KAIST"s other cooperative projects in research and development with enterprises and universities in Silicon Valley. It will also be engaged in forming a network among KAIST alumni members in the United States, raising funds within the U.S. and managing the money. The office will arrange KAIST students" internship in the companies in Silicon Valley.
"KAIST America is part of the globalization strategies that KAIST has pursued consistently. It is aimed at helping set up venture firms based on the technologies that KAIST has developed so far and generating funds needed for further development of the university," said Sun-Heung Jang, KAIST vice president.
AmBex, a venture capital company that invests in information technology, health science and financial service firms, was founded by Jong-Moon Lee, a member of Presidents" Advisory Council at KAIST. The AmBex building is situated near Stanford University, University of California in Berkeley, Google and Yahoo.
KAIST President Nam Pyo Suh will invite Stanford and UC Berkeley professors, executives of Silicon Valley enterprises and KAIST alumni in the area to the opening ceremony of the liaison office to be held some time in the first half of this year.
2008.03.25 View 12433 -
Prof. Kim Receives Lee Osheroff Prize
Professor Eun-Seong Kim of the Department of Physics has been selected as the winner of the Lee Osheroff Richardson Prize for 2008.
The award was established in honor of the 1996 Nobel Prize laureates in Physics David Lee, Douglas Osheroff, and Robert Richardson for their discovery in superfluidity in helium-3. The annual prize sponsored by Oxford Instruments NanoScience is awarded to a young scientist who has made a notable achievement in the field of low temperatures and high magnetic fields.
Kim was chosen as the winner of this prestigious award for his contributions to the understanding of solid helium. Through research, Professor Kim found superfluid-like behavior in solid helium and with this discovery it is shown that all three states of matter can exhibit superfluid behavior.
The Lee Osheroff Richardson Prize recipient is selected by the North American Prize Committee which is composed of prominent figures in the low temperature and high magnetic fields including Professor Bruce Gaulin of McMaster University, who chairs the Prize Committee. The award ceremony was held on March 11 in New Orleans.
2008.03.18 View 12674 -
KAIST to Build Branch Campus in New Administrative City
KAIST signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Multifunctional Administrative City Construction Agency and the Korea Land Corporation on March 4 to build a branch campus in the city now under construction to house many government organizations to be relocated from Seoul.
The MOU calls for building a well-facilitated KAIST campus on 310,000 square meters of land within the planned city, about 30 kilometers west of Daejeon. The multifunctional city, named Sejong City, is scheduled to be dedicated in 2014.
The MAC now being built in the Yongi-Gongju area of South Chungcheong Province is geographically in the center of South Korea, and many governmental agencies and major public organizations will move in from 2015.
The KAIST campus is envisioned to be home to a newly established College of Strategy and Policy, a Strategy and Policy Research Center, and an Innovative Technology Research Center. The College of Medical Science currently based in the Daejeon campus will be relocated to the campus. With a research-oriented hospital and a medical engineering research center, KAIST hopes to become a leading institution in disease treatment and medical engineering technologies.
The new campus is also expected to house new KAIST colleges now in the planning stage which will offer interdisciplinary courses such as the College of IT and Contents and the College of Life Sciences. KAIST also seeks to resolve housing shortage problems by building an in-campus village designed to provide international living environment for professors and students on the planned campus
2008.03.18 View 13570 -
KAIST, K-Water Sign MOU for Cooperation in EEWS
KAIST has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-Water), a state-invested organization responsible for the development and management of inland water resources, for cooperation in the research on the four global issues of energy, environment, water and sustainability (EEWS).
The MOU was signed by KAIST President Suh Nam-Pyo and K-Water President Kwak Kyul-ho on Feb. 22 at the KAIST.
KAIST and K-Water agreed to establish a cooperative network for exchanges of personnel and research resources for advanced R&D on EEWS. The agreement has been reached on the common belief that EEWS is the most imminent problem facing the humanity in the 21st century.
Under the MOU, KAIST and K-Water will work together to build a EEWS global network; to develop policies and conduct researches to strengthen the competitiveness of Korea"s water industry; and to train and exchange research manpower of the two institutions. The agreement also calls for sharing technological information, exchanging research results and publications; and jointly hosting symposiums and workshops.
2008.03.09 View 13665