KAIST

Two Nobel laureates who participated in the President’s Advisory Council joined the Global Leaders Forum as plenary speakers at KAIST on March 22. The forum highlighted the 25 events which were held during the Vision Week in celebration of the Vision 2031 Declaration Ceremony on March 20.

(President of KAIST Sung-Chul Shin, making welcoming remarks)

The Global Leaders Forum, titled “Scientific Discovery and Creativity,’ brought two prominent Nobel laureates in physics and chemistry. Dr. Klaus von Klitzing from the Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research and Dr. Kurt Wüthrich from ETH Zürich inspired more than 300 audience members, including many young scholars, at Fusion Hall.

(Dr. Klaus von Klitzing from the Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research)

Dr. Klitzing received the prize in 1985 in recognition of his discovery of the ‘integer quantum Hall effect.’ Meanwhile Dr. Wüthrich was awarded in 2002 for ‘"the development of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance methods for the determination of protein structures in solution."

Not only did they share their journey that led to the Nobel Prize, but also disclosed their personal stories that can relate to KAIST students as they pursue their scientific careers.

Many of the questions raised pertained to ‘creativity’ and ‘failure’: what is creativity and how to improve it and what is failure and how to deal with it. Dr. Klitzing replied, “If you want to go to a new direction, ask yourself inner question: what you really want to do.”

(From left: Dr. Klaus von Klitzing and Dr. Kurt Wüthrich from ETH Zürich)

Meanwhile, Dr. Wüthrich advised to set your goal first, before you start your research. “We tend to romanticize the creativity and it can be simulated. But it hardly does. It is important to know your goal first and set it appropriately.”

“Define failure as a process to learn something new, then you can comfortably move on,” he suggested in dealing with failure. “In many cases, the great achievement sometimes happens accidentally not intentionally. Maybe, you can see one success after 100 failures in the experiments. Nobody can predict the Nobel Prize quantitatively. Set the goal, and go to international conferences frequently if possible and evaluate where you are, compared with your international peers. Then, you can modify your goal and pursue what you want to do. Foremost, just enjoy your scientific work you are working with. That’s all. There’s no secret in the Nobel Prize.”

Since artificial intelligence is taking over people’s job, there’s also the question whether the concept of creativity should be modified due to technology development.

Regarding this question, Dr. von Klitzing made a strong point that the concept of creativity stays the same. He said that creativity is something new; in that sense, computers can never be creative because they use present, existing knowledge.

There was also a surprising moment. Dr. Wűthrich, who earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, physics, and mathematics, revealed to the audiences that his dream used to be a football player, not a scientist. He injured his foot, which prevented him from playing soccer, and that caused him to choose another career path.

Both laureates highlighted the importance of a positive attitude for their dreams and an open mindset for their colleagues and field of study.

Dr. von Klitzing pointed out that asking new questions can be the foundation of creativity. Hence, he urged students to be open minded and try to interact with one another.

Dr. Wűthrich commented that it is the job of professors to expand the view of students and guide younger generations. For young scientists, they should keep in mind that failure is something positive and that having an optimistic attitude is crucial.

(President of KAIST Sung-Chul Shin with the panelists and Dean of KAIST Academy Tae-Eog Lee)

(Interview of Dr. Kurt Wüthrich)