* Link : http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/02/24/201002240048.aspAs Korean universities strive to become world-class universities, the number of courses instructed in English has dramatically increased as of late. Some universities require that even the departments of Korean literature and Korean history offer courses taught in English. Some professors are in favor of these "globalizing" changes, while others are doubtful.Amid the controversy, Pohang University of Science and Technology or POSTECH recently announced that it will transform into an English-only zone withi..

* Link : http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/02/117_61241.htmlPohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in Pohang City, North Gyeongsang Province, has unveiled a 150 billion won project to push itself to join the ranks of the world's top 50 universities.Its plan centers around hiring 10 Nobel Prize or Fields Medal winners in science and math, and setting up a world-class education environment by spending a total of 150 billion won over the next three years. It is the second initiative to be announced by President Baik Sung-gi in recent days. However, the school's plan ..

* Link : http://www.nanoscienceworks.org/articles/korea2019s-postech-explores-nanotechnology-frontiersKorea’s POSTECH Explores Nanotechnology FrontiersJust over two years after the establishment of one of Korea's most noted nanotechnology education and research center, the National Center for Nanomaterials and Technology (NCNT) at POSTECH or Pohang University of Science and Technology, NanoScienceWorks.org is pleased to feature an interview with Prof Yoon-Ha Jeong, visionary founder of NCNT and VP of Research at POSTECH. ***************************************************Korea’s PO..

Professor Kyo Han Ahn (Department of Chemistry) and his team, in a joint research with a Yonsei University group, have developed a new probe for mercury that can be used for imaging organs in living organisms.Mercury is a highly toxic and widespread pollutant, but the existing fluorescence probes for it mostly detected only its inorganic forms. The element is commonly found in organic forms which are much more toxic than inorganic mercury as their lipophilicity allows them to cross biological membranes. Consequently, new ways of detecting organic mercury species, particularly in organisms, was..

Professor Moonhor Ree (Department of Chemistry) and his research group, in a joint research with a Dongguk University Medical School team (Professor Heesoo Kim), successfully synthesized new brush polymers. The newly developed brush polymers are suitable for use in biomedical applications including medical devices and biosensors that require biocompatibility and the reduced possibility of post-operative infection.Because cell membranes play an important role protecting the material inside the cell and maintaining the structure and function of the cell, studies on polymer materials that mimic m..

Professor Taihyun Chang (Department of Chemistry) and his group have developed toroidal micelles of uniform size from diblock copolymers.Block copoloymers can spontaneously self-assemble in a selective solvent to form micelles of various morphologies such as spherical micelles, cylindrical micelles, and vesicles. Recently, the variety of micellar shapes have been expanded to unconventional forms including toroids, tubes, disks, helices, and other complex forms.Although the toroid-shaped micelles have been reported earlier, the applicability of the toroid structure had been low due to the diffi..

Professor Moon-Ho Jo (Department of Materials Science and Engineering) and his group, in a joint study with a Harvard University team, have materialized a new all-electrical surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) detection technique based on the near-field coupling between guided plasmons and a nanowire field-effect transistor. Photonic circuits can be much faster than their electronic counterparts, but it is difficult to miniaturize them below the optical wavelength scale. Nanoscale photonic circuits based on SPPs are a promising solution to this problem because they can localize light below the d..

A team of multinational scientists developed a technique to produce tiny, nano-sized optical lenses, a breakthrough that may open new possibilities in microscopy and bio-imaging, the researchers said Wednesday. In a study published in peer-review journal Nature, the researchers, led by Kwang Kim, a researcher from the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), said they found that cup-shaped organic molecules, called calyx hydroquinone (CHQ), self-assemble into a lens shape when placed on a surface. The nano-lenses produced in this way could push lens-based magnification to resolve..

Professor Suk Bong Hong (School of Environmental Science and Engineering) and his research group have discovered that PST-1 (POSTECH number 1), the newly named synthetic small-pore zeolite molecular structure, selectively adsorbs hydrogen.The zeolites’ ability to discriminate between molecules of different sizes and shapes has long been recognized. However, examples of selective adsorption of the smallest gases in zeolites are scarce.PST-1, the synthetic small-pore zeolite with the natrolite topology and a potassium gallosilicate composition, was discovered to adsorb only the smallest ga..

In the Steven Spielberg movie A.I., robots not only resemble humans in looks but read their facial expressions, reacting accordingly. With the new technology developed by Professor Daijin Kim (Department of Computer Science and Engineering) and his group, the movie may soon become reality.Automatic expression analysis is difficult because people’s faces vary so much. Existing software could effectively recognize only extreme expressions, which is not particularly helpful in real-life situations. But the system developed by Professor Kim’s team recognizes even slight facial movement..