New Year’s greetings to everyone! I hope that each of you had joyful holidays and enjoyed some much-deserved relaxation and quality time with family and friends. I want to take this opportunity to wish all POSTECH members and their families a New Year of joy, peace, and prosperity.
As we reflect on the past year, with heavy heart we are reminded of tragedies, struggles, and hardships faced in and out the university as well as domestic and international, including the Sewol ferry disaster, the Ebola epidemic, a slow economy, and other crises and conflicts. In spite of these very challenging circumstances, there were significant advances that Postechians made and numerous honors, awards and recognitions that many Postechians received. I am very proud of these accomplishments and offer my sincere congratulations. Also, I would like to thank you for all you do on behalf of POSTECH and look forward to the many opportunities ahead of us.
In 2014, as a result of these individual and group accomplishments, POSTECH was able to make steady advances toward becoming recognized as a world-leading university. For example, the opening of the APGC-Lab, startups, and the Pohang Center for Creative Economy & Innovation on campus laid a solid foundation for accelerating the growth of POSTECH’s entrepreneurial activities, and cooperation and partnership with the community and industry.
The New Year presents us with not only new and continuing challenges and uncertainty, but also excellent opportunities and possibilities. POSTECH will devote its efforts and resources with a clear focus on the implementation and actualization of essential ideas and projects to accomplish greater advances in a sustainable and effective manner. Let us renew our resolve and determination to solidify the foundation for a culture of excellence, to diligently work on preparing our students to be future leaders in their fields, to develop strong well-thought-out departmental strategic plans for the second leap of our departments in the next 5~10 years, and to start following through on these plans.
To realize this, all of us need to cooperate together, use our wisdom and insights, execute well, and take risks for our students’, individuals’, departments’ and POSTECH’s long-term success. A brave and challenging spirit among our members is required to attain our goals. I earnestly believe in our members who remain perseverant through these challenges and try to convert challenges into opportunities for us to grow, mature, and excel.
With courage and conviction to make the seemingly impossible possible, let us continue to endeavor toward our individual goals and work together to create a brighter future for POSTECH, our nation, and humanity. I am much grateful for our university members’ contributions for the success of our students and POSTECH. I wish you all abundant blessings and happiness in the New Year.