Professor Young-Jun Son, a graduate of POSTECH who made the news by being appointed as an assistant professor of the University of Arizona at the age of 26, was promoted to a full professorship in only 10 years.

The usual case in American academia is for a decision for the screening for a promotion to associate professor from assistant professor to take six years and that for a promotion to full professor from associate professor another six years. There may be subtle differences for each college, but in many cases, no small number of professors remain as associate professors not promoted. Prof. Son was promoted to associate professor in 2006 with tenure, and became a full professor in four years. This is five years below the average and considered exceptional in the history of the University of Arizona.

The promotion screenings of American universities are known to be very strict. For early promotion, a professor must have fulfilled outstanding achievements both in academia and society. Prof. Son posted more than one hundred theses in world-renowned journals and brought off great performance in research assignments from various US government institutes and global corporations such as Boeing and Microsoft.

Prof. Son said, “The undergrad education I got in the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering in POSTECH made the foundation for my present achievement. I believe that through the researches of the last 14 years, my reputation in academia rose more than expected. In the future, I will continue to strive on academic and joint research more actively to become a scholar more respected in academia and more influential economically in society.”