KAIST

Good morning everyone.

I am very pleased to welcome you to this highlight of Vision Week, the Global Leaders Forum of “Scientific Discovery and Creativity.”

On behalf of KAIST, let me express my deepest gratitude to Professor Klaus von Klitzing and Professor Kurt Wüthrich for kindly participating in this forum and making our Vision Week truly special.

It is also notable that they are members of the KAIST President’s Advisory Council. They have shared their insights and experiences for making the KAIST’s grand vision more solid and reachable during the PAC meeting which began on Monday. I am very proud to have them as our advisory members.

Please offer them a warm welcome with a big round of applause.

I am also grateful to Professor Tae-Eog Lee, an organizer of the forum, Professor Sang-Kyu Kim, a moderator of the panel discussion, and all of the panelists.

Personally, I have known Professor Klitzing for a long period of time. He is respected as a great physicist in the world physical society. As a physicist myself, I also respect him so much.

He first discovered the integer quantum Hall effect, for which he was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physics. His discovery has triggered many exciting discoveries in condensed matter physics, including the fractional quantum Hall effect, Non-Abelian Quantum Hall States, and many others.

Professor Klitzing is not only a great scientist but also a great presenter. I always enjoyed his presentations, which were filled with insight and passion. So, whenever I organize an international conference, I try to invite him as a plenary speaker. I am sure that the entire audience will enjoy his presentation today.

I have known Professor Wüthrich since I was the president of DGIST. At that time I invited him to be a distinguished chair professor at DGIST.

He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002 for his pioneering work on "the development of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance methods for the determination of protein structures in solution".

His research group is the oldest one at ETH Zurich and it has been working since 1969 on the various aspects of the structural biology using NMR spectroscopy and has produced many beautiful works on protein science.

The concept of cross-disciplinary research has existed in the laboratory of Professor Wüthrich since it began. His research is based not only on chemistry and biology, but also physics. Moreover, mathematics and computational science also play an important role in his research to make all the complicated work both simple and efficient.

I believe that his presentation today will tell us how the ideas from the different academic avenues come together to result in creative and innovative science and technology through cross-disciplinary research.

The scientific leadership these two eminent scholars have demonstrated over their lifetimes has inspired many scientists across the world, myself included. Their passion and enthusiasm will be infectious to our young researchers, students, and faculty all joining us here and will inspire positive momentum going forward.

Let me close my speech by welcoming all of you once again and wishing you a thought-provoking forum for improving your research impact.

Thank you very much.