President Shin Seong-cheol is interviewing the JoongAng Ilbo at KAIST Hongneung Campus in Cheongnyangni-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul. Hongneung Campus is where Shin studied as a master’s student in 1975. At that time, KAIST was only in Seoul. Reporter Lim Hyun-dong
There are several words that express him in the public. ‘The first alumni president’,’Park Geun-hye’s former elementary school alumni’, and’a person who will pass at once if a personnel hearing is held’ are like wrinkles deeply engraved on his forehead while suffering from sepa during his four-year term. This is the story of Shin Seong-cheol, 69, president of KAIST, who ends his four-year term on the 22nd. It literally finished. He took office as president in February 2017, when the impeachment of President Park was in full swing, and was accused of embezzlement and dismissal for business purposes by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Information at the end of 2018, less than two years ago. When he was the president of the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), in the process of joint research with the Lawrence Berkeley National Research Center in the United States, he was improperly executing research funds and illegally involved in hiring disciples. The Daejeon District Prosecutor’s Office investigated for over a year. However, the conclusion was non-prosecution. The Ministry of Science and ICT, whose new chief and vice ministers were changed, also gave up the appeal. The JoongAng Ilbo recently met with President Shin at the KAIST Hongneung Campus in Seoul.
- The past four years’ meeting will be unique.
- It wasn’t without heart trouble. It is a pilgrimage. It was a case of accusation that shouldn’t or couldn’t. While doing international joint research with world-class research institutes, I couldn’t do this even though I had a small understanding in using the huge facility. Young researchers related to me have been intimidated and insulted a lot, but I don’t want to go into details. As a result, the Ministry of Science and ICT did not appeal against the prosecution’s unprosecution, and everything was resolved smoothly. I hope to become a teacher on the other hand for the advancement of science technology and audit system.
- This year marks the 50th anniversary of KAIST. To evaluate the past years.
- I am KAIST’s first alumni president. I entered the master’s degree in 1975. It was the 3rd master’s degree. And I spent almost 50 years with KAIST. Looking back, there was a change similar to that of the Sangjeon Byeokhae (桑田碧海). 50 years ago, Korea was the poorest country with a per capita national income of $300. Advanced science and technology were urgently needed for the country to industrialize. It was a time when the elites didn’t come back after studying abroad. Currently, Korea is living in an era of 30,000 dollars. KAIST and its graduates were behind the remarkable scientific development and economic growth. 25% of the domestic semiconductor leader-level manpower and 20% of science and engineering professors are from KAIST. KAIST is a venture academy. Currently, there are 1200 start-up companies including Naver and Nexon. Total annual sales amount to 14 trillion won.
During an interview with JoongAng Ilbo, President Seong-cheol Shin explains about 20 projects in seven areas that KAIST will focus on over the next four years. Shin challenged the reappointment of the presidential office, but did not reach the triple final candidate. He described the future assignment as a homework handed down to the next boss. Reporter Lim Hyun-dong
- Still, compared to Stanford University in the United States, there is a big difference between startups.
- There will be a lot of variety in the future. ‘Hubo’s father’ Professor Oh Joon-ho’s robotic platform company Rainbow Robotics was recently listed on the KOSDAQ. Over the past four years, the university’s start-up institutes have supported 90 professors and students, and the amount of investment amounted to 200 billion won. The technology transfer import fee also exceeded 10 billion won in 2019. Education and research were all the roles of universities in the 20th century. However, as the 21st century entered, leading universities began to link research to economic added value. Stanford University is the most advanced. The number of founders of graduates exceeded 40,000, and the sales from them are 3,000 trillion won. It is 1.5 times the gross domestic product (GDP) of Korea. In this way, advanced countries are based on technology-based startups. On the other hand, if a few large corporations shake, the entire economy of the country is shaken. University should be the birthplace of entrepreneurship. I leave this homework on the successor president.
- Please tell me the problems of Korean science and engineering university education.
- He is still buried in the research he pursues. It is focusing on short-term research and tasks with high success rates required by the government. The atmosphere should be challenging, creative, and tolerating failure. Innovative research requires long-term systems. Even if there are professors with outstanding achievements in Korea, when they retire, everything, including the laboratory, disappears. That’s why I created the first-generation cooperative laboratory and the singularity professor system, which the younger professor inherits the laboratory. Professor Singularity aims to support novel ideas that pioneer human challenges. Free for research and evaluation for up to 20 years. Korea must now move beyond imitation and lead to creativity.
KAIST Hongneung Campus in Cheongnyang-ri, Seoul, is where Shin spent his master’s degree. Now the business school is in place. Reporter Lim Hyun-dong
- Recently, Bloomberg ranked Korea as the world’s best innovative country.
- I think you can have pride. Interacting with the ambassadors of developed countries, they actually rate Korea as one of the innovative countries. Even as an objective indicator, it is true that it has grown tremendously, including the 12th in the world for scientific and technological papers and the 5th in international patents. However, in terms of quality indicators, there is still a long way to go. It is ranked 30th in the world’s major academic journals and is a patent powerhouse, but it is a technology importer with an annual technology import fee of 4 trillion won. It took 80 years for Japan to receive its first Nobel Prize in Science after the Meiji Restoration. We think that the time will come to bear global fruit in 2030, 10 years from now.
- What is a desirable presidential award for university development?
- There are three key elements. The first is long-term leadership. The nation is changing universities as well, but a four-year term is not enough. The president of a world-class university has at least 10 years. MIT has 160 years of history and is now headed by the 17th president. The second is securing excellent teachers. Outstanding professors and outstanding students come out. There is a fierce professor battle between universities around the world now. Third is the expansion of resources for development. The first mission of the president of the United States is fundraising. During my tenure as president, I also raised a total of KRW 1950 billion, which means that I made more than 100 million KRW a day.
Joonho Choi, Scientific and Future Reporter, Editorial Writer [email protected]
Seoul National University, Bachelor of Applied Physics
MA in Solid State Physics, KAIST
Ph.D. in Material Physics, Northwestern University, USA
Senior Researcher, Korea Standards Research Institute
Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, KAIST Department of Natural Sciences
Vice President of KAIST
10th President of the Korean Magnetics Society
24th President of the Korean Physical Society
First, 2nd president of Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST)
Vice-Chairman of the National Science and Technology Advisory Council (2015)
16th President of KAIST (2017.2~)