It is interesting that a scientific explanation can be given about the differences between a successful and unsuccessful sports player in major professional games such as the USA Major League Baseball or NBA, or the UK Premier League. POSTECH Professor Woo-Sung Jung and Professor H. Eugene Stanleya at Boston University, USA, formed a joint research team to study the above. Titled ‘Quantitative and Empirical Demonstration of the Matthew Effect in a Study of Career Longevity,’ their paper illustrated how the Matthew effect works on professional sports in Korea, the UK and the USA, an..

Professor Kimoon Kim and his team revealed that cucurbiturils, small nano-sized molecules, can enable the analysis of many types of cancer and of stem cells in a very simple manner similar to fishing. Named after the plant family ‘Curcurbitaceae’ and shaped like hollow pumpkins, cucurbiturils can hold various ions or molecules like ferrocene inside, and can have ions attached on top and below through host-guest interactions, which means they have great potential for various applications. The compound was first synthesized in Germany around a century ago and its structure was elucid..

In 2008, POSTECH Alumnus Dr. Donghun Lee made an unexpected discovery during his study of single dopants in Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) semiconductors, which are used for satellites or military products. A dopant is a substance that produces a desired electrical characteristic for semiconductors, and Dr. Lee had been studying a defect semiconductor where one of the lattice points had a dopant atom missing. He experimented by pushing the atom to the next lattice point, and surprisingly, the atoms automatically rearranged themselves to fill the vacant places as in a puzzle game. Now the defect produ..

Professor Kwang Soo Kim has come forth with a revolutionary and unprecedented method for DNA sequencing that can potentially decode 3 billion pairs of human genes in an hour. The field of DNA sequencing caught the world’s attention when the Human Genome Project was successfully completed in 2003, and many developed nations have since been competing to develop ways to increase the speed of genetic sequencing and analysis. This research is closely related with treating intractable or rare diseases and therefore will have important implications for life science. Professor Kim, well-known fo..

A new drug delivery system, whose nanopores open or close depending on electrical stimulus, has been established by Professor Jin Kon Kim, Director of National Creativity Research Initiative Program for Block Copolymer Self-Assembly. The device can also be manipulated by a remote controller while being planted inside a human body. Published on Nano Letters (11(3), 1284-1288 (2011)), an authoritative journal on nanoscience, the article, ‘Electrically Actuatable Smart Nanoporous Membrane for Pulsatile Drug Release,’ discusses how the new device can freely control the release of drugs..

* Link : http://www.koreaherald.com/opinion/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110713000882With Korea part of an ever more globalized world...Balancing globalization and reality in the lecture hallLectures conducted in English have become commonplace at Korean universities in the last few years. It has been reported that universities in Seoul conduct between 20 and 40 percent of their lectures in English. A desire to keep in step with globalization and bump up Korean universities’ place in world rankings have been cited as the rationale behind the push for more English lectures. But the move toward t..

* Link : http://www.koreaherald.com/business/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110628000753The most valuable economic resources are human resources, and Korea needs to improve its use of its most precious assets.A survey released last week reported that the average worker in Korea retires in his or her mid-50s. This is much earlier than their Western European OECD counterparts, who usually retire at 65 or older, and for whom even early retirement is usually 60 or older.The survey results raised an issue that has puzzled me for a long time: Why do so many Korean workers retire in their mid-50s? This is tru..

On July 2, POSTECH was featured on Toyokeizai, an leading Japanese weekly magazine.Featured Article on POSTECH in Toyoukeizai

* Link : http://world.gmw.cn/2011-04/26/content_1889001.htmAn article featuring President Baik's interview titled "POSTECH to Collaborate with Tsinghua University for the Advancement of Humanity" appeared in the April 28th issue of the Guangming Daily, a newspaper in China.

* Link : http://www.koreaherald.com/opinion/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110426000627In the wake of the tragic suicides of four KAIST students in recent months, some suggested that study in English at KAIST puts undue stress on students, contributes to academic underperformance, creates communication barriers between students and professors, and encouraged the suicides.In the past several weeks, I reflected on my English-only teaching experience at POSTECH. I asked what would happen if Caltech or MIT set up a Korean branch and offered courses in English only, except for language-specific courses? I p..