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Kaist expresses appreciation to a Swedish nurse served in the Korean War and donated a scholarship.
Public release date: 19-Dec-2011
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Contact: Lan Yoon
hlyoon@kaist.ac.kr
82-423-502-295
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Kaist expresses appreciation to a Swedish nurse served in the Korean War and donated a scholarship
The largest private donation ever given to KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, will include a scholarship for KAIST students to study there
The largest private donation ever given to KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, will include a scholarship for KAIST students to study there.
"I"ve never forgotten the tragedy of the Korean War that I witnessed as a nurse, even today, more than 60 years later. I"m glad to contribute to a wider cooperation in science and technology between Sweden and Korea," said the donor.
Daejeon, Republic of Korea, December 19, 2011— On Monday, December 19th, 2011 at 4:00 pm (Central European Time), at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) presented a plaque of appreciation to a Swedish couple, Rune and Kerstin Jonasson, whose generous donation will establish a scholarship fund for KAIST students.
In late June of 2011, the Jonassons donated 70 million Krona ($10 million USD) to KTH, the largest lump sum donation ever given to the university by an individual, and the couple requested that a portion of the money be used to promote academic interaction and collaboration with Korean universities. KTH had various student exchange programs with KAIST, and with the financial support from the Jonassons, the two universities have decided to invite KAIST students to study at KTH.
Enjoying a long tradition of excellence in higher education in Asia and Northern Europe, KAIST and KTH have continued to lead the development of science and technology through top-notch educational programs, dynamic research experiences, technological innovation, and highly skilled and motivated manpower. The two global research universities expect that the scholarship program will add another dimension to already expanding exchanges.
Kerstin Jonasson, 88 years old, came to Korea in 1951 when she was 28, and served a six-month tour of duty as a nurse in the Korean War. Recalling her past, Mrs. Jonasson said, "The calamity of the war remains deeply engraved in my mind." Ever since returning from the battlefield, she has been seeking ways to help Korea, and has thus been regularly involved in volunteer activities to strengthen bilateral relations between Korea and Sweden.
Chang-Dong Yoo, Associate Vice President of Special Projects & Institutional Relations at KAIST, thanked the couple while presenting them with the award on behalf of KAIST family including President Nam-Pyo Suh.
"We feel greatly indebted to the Jonassons, most particularly to Kerstin Jonasson, who came to Korea during the toughest time in our modern history and rendered generous humanitarian assistance to Koreans. Not only that, Mrs. Jonasson has continued to play an important role, up to today, as a "Goodwill Ambassador for Korea" in bringing the two countries closer than ever. This scholarship will provide our students with excellent opportunities to study in Sweden, the home of many great scientists, as well as to experience the robust and vibrant Nordic culture."
In response, Kerstin Jonasson said:
"I"m grateful to the Korean people who, over the past 60 years, have consistently expressed their appreciation for my work during the Korean War, and I"m really proud of the fact that they"ve made Korea a great country, reemerging from the destitution of the war as an important power of democracy and economy in the world. My husband and I hope that our donation will further enhance the strong ties forged between Sweden and Korea, and that KTH and KAIST will become the centerpiece of a mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries through the advancement of science and technology."
The details of the scholarship have yet to be finalized, but the fund is expected to be approximately 10 to 15 million Krona ($1.4~$2.1 million USD) to be spread out over five years. KAIST aims to begin sending students to KTH in the fall of 2012, and will select 10~12 graduate students for the exchange program. Since 1990, 38 KAIST students have studied at KTH, and 50 KTH students have studied at KAIST.
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2011.12.23 View 9570 -
President Suh Nam Pyo meets a student who saved a person's life
President Nam-Pyo Suh visited Yo-Seop Kim (a junior from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering) at a hospital who was hurt while helping out a citizen in a dangerous situation. Nerves of his right arm were damaged as a result of the injury.
President Suh praised Yo-Seop’s act by saying that he had demonstrated true courage as a member of KAIST and relayed his sincere gratitude in performing the good deed of saving a life on behalf of KAIST and urged him to focus on rehabilitation. Wishing Yo-Seop to recover quickly and continue on living with a warm perspective of life, the president promised that the university would seek ways to provide him with the necessary assistance in his getting back to normal ife.
Yo-Seop Kim commented that the scar was an honorable and proud thing, humbly acknowledging, “Anybody in my situation would have done the same thing.” He further said that he would study harder to realize his dream after being discharged from the hospital.
Yo-Seop Kim was stabbed on the back of his hand whilst trying to block an unknown man from stabbing another person in a quarrel at Suwon Station on 25th of November. He received a wound across the back of his hand and consequently, his nerve was severed.
The story of Yo-Seop was posted on the KAIST Online Bulletin System from the 29th of November and registered 4,800 hits and words of encouragement and applause were written on the post.
Since the assailant was not applied to the national health insurance, Yo-Seop was having a difficult time paying the necessary surgery and insurance fees. President Suh instructed the university to find methods of helping him through various channels.
KAIST will be providing Yo-Seop with a portion of the surgery fees and rehabilitation at the KAIST Clinic after he is discharged from the hospital.
2011.12.13 View 10187 -
2011 International Presidential Forum on Global Research Universities
KAIST’s 4th International Presidential Forum Held in Seoul on November 8, 2011
The largest annual congregation of university presidents in Asia invited leaders from academia, government, and industry for talks on issues related to higher education in the Age of Globalization.
Borderless and Creative Education: the ability to cross borders a crucial key to dominate the information era
Seoul, Republic of Korea, November 8, 2011—The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) hosted the “2011 International Presidential Forum on Global Research Universities (IPFGRU)” on Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at the Millennium Hilton Hotel in Seoul.
With more than 120 participants from 44 institutions in 27 countries present, the full-day forum provided participants with an opportunity to discuss challenges and responsibilities facing higher education in a time of globalization that has resulted from an ever-growing demand for technological innovation.
In his plenary speech, Dr. Robert Birgeneau, Chancellor of UC Berkeley, stressed that “Higher educational intuitions must be prepared to drive innovation and enhance competitiveness by educating a highly trained workforce that will have the critical skills necessary to solve problems and lead in today’s interdependent world.”
“Finding solutions to the world’s most challenging problems will depend on the ability to cross borders: national borders, border between different fields of discipline and research, and borders between academe, government, and industry,” said Chancellor Birgeneau to address the importance of “borderless and creative education,” the theme of the forum.
Other major keynote speakers were Jörg Steinbach, President of Technische Universität Berlin, Lars Pallesen, President of Technical University of Denmark, Paul F. Greenfield, President of University of Queensland, Marcelo Fernandes de Aquino, President of the University of the Sinos Valley (UNISINOS), and Eden Woon, Vice President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Dr. Nam-Pyo Suh, President of KAIST, gave talks on the university’s new education plan, “The I-Four Education,” at the afternoon session. The four Is are information technology (IT), independent learning, integrated knowledge acquisitions, and an international learning environment.
“In this format, there are no formal lectures,” President Suh explained. “A group of students learn together by using the materials available on the internet, doing homework and conducting experiments together. Pre-recorded lectures are delivered in English by I-Four professors, some of them regular KAIST professors and some professors in other countries who participate in the I-Four Program as consulting professors.”
He added, “The overall purpose of the I-Four Education Program is to encourage students to learn independently, gain exposure to the best lectures by the most eminent professors in the world, accelerate the development of a global frame of reference in the students by dealing with information available throughout the world, and provide an integrated learning environment by using diverse examples from many disciplines to achieve understanding of basic principles.”
The 2011 IPFGRU, the fourth forum since its inception in 2008, rose to prominence in the past years as an international network for leaders of research universities from around the world to share information and exchange views about contemporary issues in higher education.
At this year’s forum, entitled “Borderless and Creative Education,” speakers took a deeper look into the transitions and transformations many research universities are undergoing today, delving into the following topics: the development of e-learning and cyber campuses; increased student mobility and international collaborations; multi-disciplinary and convergence approaches in research and education; and methodology of nurturing future global leaders.
Participants also discussed experiences and accomplishments earned from their own endeavors to accommodate such changes and presented ways to strengthen internationalization and improve the academic and research competitiveness of universities.
The 2011 International Presidential Forum on Global Research Universities (IPFGRU) was organized by KAIST and sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, POSCO, Hyundai Motor Company, Samsung Heavy Industries, S-Oil, and Elsevier Korea.
2011.11.09 View 13774 -
"2011 Korean Language and Culture Festival" held in commemoration of KAIST 40th Anniversary
“2011 Korean Language and Culture Festival” was hosted by KAIST from the 5th of October to the 8th of October for 4 days at various locations within campus and BaekJae Cultural Complex in Daejeon City. The festival was aimed at increasing foreigners’ understanding about Korean culture and language and at the same time, introduced about KAIST, the home of the best minds in Korea’s science and technology.
The festival was part of the KAIST 40th anniversary celebratory events, which included 1) Korean Speaking Competition, 2) Korean Traditional Music Performance by Daejeon City Orchestra, 3) Foreigners Talent Show, 4) Tour of BaekJae Cultural Complex, and others such as lecture given by Chairman Lee Cham of Korea Tourism Organization.
In the Korean Speaking Competition, 10 foreigners who passed the preliminaries competed by giving speeches with the theme on “Korea that I’ve experienced.” The speakers were given 5 minutes for speech, and their presentations were graded based on uniqueness, fluency, appropriateness, and fluidity in spoken Korean. 200,000 Korean Won was given to a winner as prize.
In addition, the chance for foreigners to visit the BaekJae Cultural Complex allowed them to experience firsthand “traditional Korean culture,” through which they had a good opportunity to develop a better understanding on Korea as a whole.
Director of KAIST Language Center Michael Park commented, “The festival was a meaningful and important occasion for foreigners to appreciate Korean culture and language, and it would be a great step towards foreigners’ gaining a solid understanding of Korean culture and language to the extent that they become to know better about DaeJeon, the city they live in.”
2011.10.10 View 9021 -
KAIST's efforts begin to become the first Korean university establishing a "strategic technology management system."
KAIST completed the signing of business agreement with the Korea Strategic Trade Institute to establish a strategic technology management system on the 22nd of September.
The agreement between KAIST and Korea Strategic Trade Institute (under the Ministry of Knowledge Economy) encompasses 1) the establishment of processes for strategic technology management on campus, 2) development and accommodation of management system on par with major countries, and 3) protection and management through continued education and promotion.
Strategic technology management is necessary to prevent the illegal distribution of technologies developed in Korea to those countries and organizations of concern. The need for the management system arose due to the fact that technology transfer has become venerable to illegal export of strategic technologies.
The agreement between the two parties offer protection to KAIST when exporting strategic technologies as it necessitates the permission of the government prior to the technology transfer.
2011.09.27 View 8604 -
Professor Lee Sang Yeop Nominated the Chairman of Emerging Technologies Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum
Professor Lee Sang Yeop, Dean of College Life Science & Bioengineering, was appointed as the chairman of the Emerging Technologies Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum.
He will be in office till the 31st of August 2012, exactly 1 year from the date of his appointment.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a ‘think tank’ consisting of world leaders in various fields like economics, politics, and policies and has created the ‘Global Agenda Council’ to solve the problems mankind faces in achieving environmentally sustainable growth and suggest a collective vision and strategy.
The committee to be chaired by Professor Lee (Emerging Technologies Global Agenda Council) will discuss the direction in which the fields of biological engineering, nanotechnology, and IT (information technology) should develop and discuss the possible impact these fields will have on the society.
Professor Lee commented that, “I am extremely happy to be appointed as the chair of the Emerging Technologies Global Agenda Council at the World Economic Forum which is a gathering of world class leaders” and that “it is a great opportunity to spread Korea’s success and lessons in the advancement of science and technology.”
Professor Lee is the creator of the field of system metabolism engineering and is making great strides in manipulating the microorganism’s metabolic pathways on a systems scale to make changing chemicals derived from oil into eco-friendly and bio-based products.
2011.09.20 View 9899 -
Review of organophosphonate nerve agent remediation and sensing chemistry
Professor David Churchill, Dept. of Chemistry, KAIST
Scientists in Daejeon, South Korea and Lexington, Kentucky (USA) have recently published a review on the subject of nerve agent remediation and probing chemistry (Chemical Reviews, DOI:10.1021/cr100193y). This article endeavored to pursue organophosphonate nerve agent chemistry deeply and comprehensively and to reflect that decontamination / sensing and nerve agents / pesticides are quite inextricable: when one tries to degrade nerve agents one also needs to detect what components are still present “downstream,” etc. Nerve agents and many pesticides also share a common generalized organophosphate / -phosphonate structure.
Also, the use of simulant molecules (mimics) and a consideration of the closely related organophosphonate pesticides were also treated comprehensively in the Review. The authors reached back into the literature when developing some sections to make important connections to the contemporary topics of interest. The review also includes industrial insights.
Kibong Kim, Olga G. Tsay and David G. Churchill of the Department of Chemistry at KAIST and David A. Atwood of the Department of Chemistry of the University of Kentucky endeavored to "make a variety of connections in research strategies and (sub-) fields to present what is still possible, fruitful, practical, and necessary and to facilitate a current comprehensive molecular level understanding of organophosphonate degradation and sensing," Churchill says.
The authors feel that for the time being, researchers in varying research areas “can use this manuscript effectively when considering future research directions.”
2011.09.19 View 9307 -
Yonhap News, Scientists Develop Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Supercapacitor, June 6, 2011
Yonhap News Agency, South Korea’s wire news agency, reported that KAIST’s research team developed “a new type of power storage technology using nitrogen and graphene.”
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=591725
2011.06.08 View 9735
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'WWW2014' to be held in Seoul
WWW2014 (World Wide Web 2014) will be held in Seoul.
KAIST, Agency for Technology and Standards, W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), and ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) all worked in cooperation to have WWW2014 in Seoul. The announcement that WWW2014 will be held in Seoul was announced in the Closing Ceremony of WWW2011 India Conference. Seoul overtook Adelaide and Melbourne of Australia.
Hosting WWW2014 in Seoul will be a great opportunity to showcase Korea’s Web Technology and get a grasp on the current trend in the field of high tech web technology and services.
The WWW conferences are attended by over 1,000 experts all over the world and are the world’s largest international conference in the field of IT.
Efforts to host the conference in their own respective countries are made on a national scale. The WWW2011 was hosted in India with the President of India giving an opening ceremony speech and WWW2013 will be hosted in Brazil in part due to the President himself sending a letter to express their desire to host WWW conference.
2011.05.11 View 11127
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Oh Myung Chairman of the Board gives Special Lecture in the S+ Convergence AMP Program
Chairman Oh Myung (CEO of Woong Jin Energy Poly Silicon) gave a special lecture in the KAIST S+ Convergence AMP Program with the topic of ’Dream of a Korea 30 years into the future’.
Chairman Oh insisted to the program attendees that they do their best in developing Korea through development of new technology and IT and that he considers education and development of new technology as the reason for Korea’s rapid development.
The program invites a guest speaker every month, apart from the planed lectures. The guest speakers were the top of their respective fields. In addition, various activities like riding the OLEV or domestic workshops or educational trips abroad imparted the ability to take on a global perspective.
2011.05.11 View 9154
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Genetic Cause of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) Found
The cooperative research team consisting research teams under Professor Kim Eun Joon and Professor Kang Chang Won of the department of Biological Sciences discovered that ADHD arises from the deficiency of GIT1 protein in the brain’s neural synapses.
ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is found in around 5% of children around the world and is a disorder where the child becomes unable to concentrate, show over the top responses, and display impulsive behavior.
The research team found that the difference between children with ADHD and those without it is one base in the GIT1 gene. The difference of a single base causes the underproduction of this protein, and those children with low levels of the protein had a higher probability to develop ADHD.
In addition, further evidence was provided when the research team conducted mice experiments. Those mice with low levels of GIT1 exhibited impulsive and exaggerated reactions like humans with ADHD, had learning disabilities, and produced abnormal brain waves. And upon injecting these mice with cure for ADHD, the symptoms of ADHD disappeared.
The impulsive behavior of ADHD children disappears as the child enters adulthood and a similar pattern was found in mice. A mice with low levels of GIT1 showed impulsive behaviors when 2 months old, but these behaviors disappeared as it got older to around 7 months old (equivalent to 20~30 years old for humans).
Professor Kim Eun Joon commented that there has to be equilibrium between mechanisms that excite the neurons and mechanisms that calm the neurons, but the lack of GIT1 leads to the decrease in the mechanisms that calm the neurons which causes the impulsive behavior of ADHD patients.
In addition, Professor Kang Chang Won commented that the results of the experiment has been receiving rave reviews and is being seen as the new method in the production of the cure for ADHD.
The result of the experiment was published in the online edition of Nature Medicine magazine.
2011.04.30 View 11420
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Low Cost and Simple Gene Analysis Technology Developed
Professor Park Hyun Kyu of the Department of Biology and Chemical Engineering has developed a ‘real time CPR’ using Methylene Blue (nucleic acid bonding molecule with Electro-Chemical property).
The current gene analysis being used in the field is the real time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) which takes advantage of the luminescent property of the gene and therefore requires expensive machines and chemicals to run.
By contrast, the electro-chemical method is easy to use and low cost and, most importantly, it allows the machine to become small and portable.
Professor Park’s research team used the decrease in the electro-chemical signal when the Methylene Blue reacts with nucleic acid and applied this to PCR which allowed for the real time analysis of the nucleic acid amplification process.
With the result of the experiment as the basis, the team was able to perform a trial with Chlamydia trachomatis, a pathogen that causes sexually transmitted disease.
The result showed that the electro-chemical method showed the same performance level as the real time PCR, which proved that the technology can be applied to diagnosing various diseases and gene research.
2011.04.30 View 10271