In only a short time, POSTECH has experienced rapid growth and here are several major events in the school's history.

Dec. 3, 1986
The birth of POSTECH; its first name was “Pohang Institute of Science and Technology”, and the name was changed in 1994. The first president was Dr. Hogil Kim, and the first chairman of the board was Tae-Joon Park, the founder of POSCO and the hero of the new bronze statue (refer to Page 2.)

Dec. 7, 1994
The construction of Pohang Light Source of Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL) was completed. It was the fifth light source built in the world. PAL has offered a lot of research opportunities and has become one of the symbols of POSTECH. Now, PAL is upgrading.

Dec. 1, 1995
POSTECH stood alone as an education foundation by forming a sizable independent fund. Since its foundation, it has been a member of Jechul academy and run by the fund from POSCO. Now POSTECH could secure its autonomy in operating the school.

May 15, 1998
Asiaweek, published by Time Incorporated and based in Hong Kong, selected POSTECH as the top among the Asian science and technology universities. Ko Kyung-ho of the International Relations Office said “Our educational and operational systems are so unique and different from other universities that they can hardly be represented in your questionnaire format.”

Apr. 10, 2006
POSTECH opened the ceremony of the ‘VISION 2020’ declaration, which was suggested for greeting its 20th anniversary and proclaimed to be among the world’s top 20 universities by 2020. Fourth President Chan-Mo Park said “POSTECH should not be satisfied with growing and becoming one of the top Korean universities for the last 20 years.”

Sep. 16, 2010
POSTECH was ranked 28th in The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2010-2011. It’s the first time for a Korean university to rank within the top 30. Also, POSTECH was third among Asian universities. VISION 2020 suggested being in the top 20 by 2020, but we already accomplished half of it 10 years before 2020.

Sep. 5, 2011
Dr. Yongmin Kim from University of Washington was inaugurated as the sixth president of POSTECH, following the former President Sunggi Baik.