The 8th Annual Presidential Marathon held on Apr. 30 at the POSTECH sports field, with 452 participants.Ryan Daves (ME, Master’s candidate) and Song Hye-jin (MSE, ‘09) placed in the top positions in the POSTECH student categories. Also, in the senior part, Song Jun-chil (Pohang Marathon Club) won the title consecutively for three years.This competition has aimed to make a strong link between POSTECH people and local residents and to enhance a healthy life for POSTECH communities. Originally, the competition was scheduled to start at 8:00 A.M., but it actually started at 9:30 A.M. because of a

A great event was held in POSTECH to reinforce Postechians’ health and level of immunity through midterm exam period and the change of seasons. It was conducted from Apr. 15 to Apr. 22 from the infirmary, with health aid providing free multiple vitamins which are good for relieving fatigue. Due to a positive response of the event, POSTECH is planning to keep holding the event four times a year during the change of seasons. In addition, having designated a ‘Day for Prevention of Adult Diseases’, POSTECH offers urine, blood pressure, blood-sugar and cholesterol level tests every month for free i

The 4th POSTECH Science Cafe (PSC) was held in the Administration Bldg. on Apr. 22. Starting with a lecture by Professor Jeomshik Hwang of the POSTECH Ocean Science and Technology Institute (POSTI) named “Is Global Warming Real or a Hoax?” a discussion and a lunch followed.In the lecture, general issues and background knowledge from different viewpoints surrounding global warming were introduced with two conflicting opinions for the reason of global warming, and data for those ideas were deeply investigated.Hosted by the POSTECH Academy Council, the POSTECH Science Cafe has been a forum within

POSTECH is collaborating with POSCO in culturing core corporate engineers through a newly designed curriculum, POSTECH Systems Engineering (PSE). Launched on Apr. 22 in the POSCO International Center, PSE course aims to train members of POSCO into competent engineers who are able to delineate basic designs and fulfill their duties as leaders.Although it is a top steel-producing company in the world, POSCO strives to overcome its limitations of being dependent on major cutting-edge facilities and technology from abroad, with the help of this program. PSE was also considered necessary prior to a

A ‘π style’ interdisciplinary approach between humanities and science made its first step in POSTECH.On May 1, POSTECH launched its Humanities, Imagination and Technology Institute (HiT), which supports interdisciplinary research cooperation connecting Humanities, Sociology, and Scientific Technology. HiT conducts researches on several stressed topics, such as Science and Technology Studies, studies on images, media, and communications, and Cognitive Science.The Division of Humanities and Social Sciences now covers not only collaborated research across disciplines on various subjects but commu

An international forum for promoting the International Science & Business Belt (ISBB) was held at the POSCO International Center on Mar. 30. Many experts, distinguished guests, and students came together to learn about successful cases of such belts in the world, and discussed plans to fruitfully attract the ISBB to the Gyeongbuk, Ulsan, and Daegu region. This event began with a congratulatory addresses from prominent figures including President Sunggi Baik and regional officials from Gyeongbuk, Ulsan, Daegu, and Pohang. It was then followed by the presentation from Professor Jae Young Lee of

On Mar. 24, the Times Higher Education (THE) posted an introductory article describing POSTECH as one of the most well-founded and potent higher educational institutions in Korea and Asia. The article touches on various topics ranging from the founding of POSTECH as a small-elite school resembling Caltech to the process and key to the giant leap it has had for the last 25 years.The factors that THE was interested in were very diverse and in-depth, one of which was the globalization plan. In discussion, THE especially focused on the bilingual campus policy. It expressed the belief that the poli

In the POSCO International Center on Mar. 25, POSTECH and SK Innovation signed an industry-university agreement for a program that is designed to nurture talented Asian scientists, financially supported by SK Innovation.With the activation of the agreement, POSTECH will admit and nurture talented scientists from Asian countries such as China, India or Vietnam. SK Innovation, in turn, will offer support for tuition, research and others expenses. After graduation, the selected students will join SK Innovation.The program will contribute to the globalization of the campus for POSTECH and the recr

Among nearly 250 faculty members of POSTECH, how many of them can be ranked among the best academic leaders of Korea? The Dong-A Ilbo, one of the three major newspapers of Korea, selected 100 people from five fields of interest who are expected to honor Korea after ten years. Among 20 dreaming pioneers were three POSTECH professors and one visiting professor, Prof. Kimoon Kim (CHEM), Prof. Seunghwan Kim (PHYS), Prof. Hyungju Park (MATH) and visiting Prof. Donhee Ham from Harvard University.One of the POSTECH Fellows, Prof. Kimoon Kim is a worldwide authority on supermolecular chemistry. Once n

On Mar. 25, invited speaker Robert Huber offered a lecture in the POSCO International Center, hosted by the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL).Robert Huber won the Nobel Prize with his achievement of describing the structure of the protein complex which is essential for photosynthesis. The lecture was also on the study of proteins. The theme of the lecture was ‘Intracellular Proteolysis: Mechanisms, Structures, and Application.’ Much of Huber’s research is in relation with nuclear science. Specifically, his 1985 research disambiguating the three-dimensional structure of a type of protein comp

Professor Yoon Hee Jeong of the Department of Physics received the ‘the 2011 Netzsch-KSTP Award,’given by Netzsch Korea Co. Ltd and the Korean Society of Thermophysical Properties (KSTP). The award was presented in the annual conference of KSTP at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology on Apr. 8. He conducted a lecture titled ‘Relaxation phenomena in matter’.Prof. Jeong has been developing various methods of calorimetry and applied them to solid-state materials for last several years, while he was striving to concentrate on his studies of thermophysical properties. He also rece

French mathematician Jean-Pierre Serre, praised as one of the greatest mathematician of the 20th century, was invited to deliver the 11th ‘A-Un’ Special Lecture titled ‘Number of points mod p’ at the Mathematical Science building on Mar. 30. Jean-Pierre Serre is celebrated as one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century active in algebraic geometry, number theory, and topology. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1954, the Wolf Prize in 2000, and the first Abel Prize in 2003. Especially, he received the Fields Medal when he was only 27, and he still remains the youngest Fields

POSTECH alumnus Dr. Jae Sang Lee was appointed as vice-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Hazardous Materials.Dr. Lee, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), will screen up to 6000 papers per year, and determine final publications with editor-in-chief. It is highly unusual for a rising young scientist to be appointed to such a position.The Journal of Hazardous Materials is the most famous journal in the field of civil and environmental engineering (Impact Factor 4.14) and is published in Elsevier, the Netherlands. The journal covers papers analyzing toxic m

POSTECH members appealed for money in order to help Tohoku University, which is twinned with POSTECH, in its efforts to help them recover from the Mar. 11 earthquake. Tohoku University is located in Miyagi Prefecture, which suffered severely from the earthquake. Tohoku University was closed at the moment.Donations were given by deductions from salary, credit transfers, and so on. For the sake of students’ convenience, a collection box for donations was placed in the Student Union from Mar. 25 to Apr. 1. POSTECH’s donations for the Japanese earthquake relief reached 14,229,060 KRW.

POSTECH, known for its world-class research in life science, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Dong-A Pharmaceutical, one of the largest and most dominating pharmaceutical companies in Korea.With this MOU, the two organizations are to closely work for novel medicine development, by exchanging and fostering human resources, and common utilization of research facilities and equipment. The agreement was signed on Mar. 3 at POSTECH.In particular, Dong-A Pharmaceutical decided to push ahead with plans for joint-research on diagnostics and medicine with NSB POSTECH, POSTECH’s first

On Mar. 17, the Department of Physics opened the Design and Build Physics Lab created for freshmen students. The Design and Build Physics Lab, previously named the General Physics Lab I, is a student-oriented course in which students make their own experiment plans and seek results. Previously, General Physics Lab was designed to carry out simple experiments which had already been taught. The new lab course is expected to provide a deep understanding of basic principles and to stimulate freshmen’s curiosity.The lab remodeling was based on the students’ responses to the General Physics Demo cla

Two POSTECH professors, Prof. Sung-Kee Chung and Prof. Ja Kang Ku both from the Department of Chemistry, were conferred with national recognition for their educational achievements. Prof. Sung-Kee Chung was awarded with the Cheongjo Geunjung Medal, which is given to those who have distinctive achievements in service to society. Cheongjo stands for the color of the decoration on the medal and implies that it is supreme among Geunjung Medals.Prof. Chung was recognized for his educational achievements from 1987, when he was brought to POSTECH, till 2011, when he retired. As a faculty member and t

Two big changes have occurred on campus. First, the Healthy Drinking Culture Campaign was embarked on. Second, the school began an energy conservation policy due to the rising energy crisis level. The campaign for a healthier drinking culture began with the high demand of students and initiative of the new Undergraduate Association. In mid-January, the Undergraduate Association undertook a survey to assess the public opinion of the students. The report of the survey was published on PosB and is available to be read. The report reflects both the advantageous and disadvantageous sides of POSTECH

The POSTECH Orchestra successfully finished its 5th annual concert on Mar. 10 at 7:30 PM in the Grand Auditorium. It kicked off the first performance of the Culture Colloquium, one of the courses provided to undergraduates.Sponsored by Professor Jung Ki Kim of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, the POSTECH Orchestra was founded in February 2006 in order to contribute to POSTECH’s unique cultural program that brings science and culture together. Under the passionate and seasoned leadership of conductor Ui Hwan Jeong, the orchestra showed off their skills. The program included selec

On Mar.18, POSTECH held an open lecture in the Posco International Centre with the topic of ‘Our Mysterious Brain’ as a part of the World Brain Awareness Week program.In front of over 100 members of the general public, including students from Pocheol High School and Gyeongbuk Science High School, professor Seunghwan Kim from the Department of Physics and professor Kyong-Tai Kim from the Department of Life Science gave lectures titled ‘Brain, Humans and Society’ and ‘Understanding the Brain Makes Study Fun, ’ respectively.Even after major breakthroughs in science, the function of our brains rem