Dear POSTECH community,

Warm greetings to you all as we welcome the new year.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of POSTECH. It may not seem like a long time, yet our journey has already spanned two centuries and even crossed a new millennium. Much has changed since our founding, and the decade ahead – as we approach our 50th anniversary – will certainly bring even greater transformations.

 

Rapid change often leaves us startled or anxious. At such moments, I am reminded of Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream (Figure 1). Its original Norwegian title, Skrik, evokes a piercing shriek, but the work is famous for portraying a face frozen in sheer terror. We cannot help but wonder: what sight could inspire such a look of fear?

Yet whenever I come across The Scream, another painting comes to mind: Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (Figure 2). In this painting, a man stands on a rocky cliff, looking over a fog-covered landscape. Because we see only his back, we cannot read his expression—yet we clearly see what he is facing. In contrast, Munch shows us a face filled with fear, without revealing the view that caused it.

I can’t help but pair the two paintings together — because of a story I once dreamed up years ago. Maybe these two figures are looking at the same scene. One reacts to the ominous fog of uncertainty with fear; the other gazes beyond the fog with resolve. The contrast captures two ways we might face our future.

As we close one year and step into the next, let us reflect on the future of our university. No year in our forty years was probably easy—so there is no need to fear what is ahead. The future is always uncertain, but that should never lead us to hesitate, slow down, or reconsider the clear direction we have chosen. If we wait for the fog to clear completely, we risk being outpaced by the world.

Forty years ago, the founders of POSTECH broke ground in far more foggy conditions than ours. Compared to that, the future we face today is far clearer. As we move toward completing the first phase of POSTECH’s Second Founding, I ask for your continued support and active participation so we can leave a lasting impact.

May the coming year bring good health, peace, and happiness to you and your families.