“Nexon founder Kim Jeong-joo and IDIS CEO Kim Young-dal were both’desk ventures’ that I started while in my lab, but I didn’t do anything. I just kept doing something else, but I didn’t interfere with my studies and invested the bonus I received in startups. As president, I will not spare any support so that our capable students can start a business to their heart’s content.”
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Lee Kwang-hyung, an emeritus professor in the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, who is famous for being a Korean venture start-up loaner and a’geek professor’, was elected as the next president to lead the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). On the morning of the 18th, KAIST announced that it held the 271th temporary board meeting at the Sky Lounge on the 5th floor of the Academic Cultural Center in Daejeon, and appointed Lee Kwang-hyung, an emeritus professor in the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, as the 17th president of KAIST. The position of the president is confirmed with the consent of the Minister of Education and the approval of the Minister of Science, Technology and Information. The term of office is four years from the 23rd.
President Lee, who was appointed professor in the Department of Computer Science at KAIST in 1985, is currently serving as an invited chair professor in the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering and the Graduate School of Literature Future Strategy. In addition to the Vice-President of Academic Affairs, he has held major positions both inside and outside the school, including the Dean of Academic Affairs, Dean of International Cooperation, Head of the Institute of Science Gifted Education, and Co-Chair of the Vision 2031 Committee.
Many first-generation venture entrepreneurs in Korea came out of his computer science and graduate school labs. The total annual sales of companies founded by Lee’s students, including famous venture entrepreneurs such as Kim Jeong-ju (Nexon), Kim Young-dal (IDIS), Shin Seung-woo (Neowiz), and Kim Jun-hwan (Olaworks), reached about 2.5 trillion won, creating more than 7,000 jobs. Have been doing. Like the `venture start-up loan`, KAIST also put forward `technology commercialization` as a major task.
President Lee said, “Technology commercialization is the answer to how KAIST can connect the results of global creative leader education and research innovation that defines problems to the creation of social values,” he said. “(At least one laboratory per professor’s laboratory · We will start the 1 Lab 1 venture movement that encourages graduates to start a business.” Promoting the importance of venture start-ups from an early age, he published a book titled’Toward a 21st Century Venture Power’ in 2000 with late Professor Lee Min-hwa, urging for institutional change to foster ventures. President Lee said, “Many of the topics we discussed with the professor have now come true, but it is regrettable that the culture that tolerates failure has not yet taken place.” “It is said that American startups have experienced an average of 2.5 failures. We also acknowledge the necessity of failure. We need a social atmosphere.”
President Lee has been known as a person who pursues new attempts and ideas since his professorship. It is also a model of Professor Park Ki-hoon, who appeared as a new generation professor in the TV drama’KAIST’ in the late 1990s. At the time, the artist Ji-na Song conceived a drama representative character, Professor Park Ki-hoon, based on Professor Lee’s behavior and phrases that deviated from stereotypes, and Professor Lee helped write the script by reading the script and commenting. In the drama, Professor Ki-Hoon Park always emphasized the question, but President Lee also promoted educational innovation through the `Qing Kaist` as one of the five major tasks of KAIST.
President Lee said, “For the past 50 years, KAIST has focused on solving various scientific and technological problems, as well as the mission of developing technology for the development of the national industry, which is the goal of its establishment.” “We will focus on creating global values for sustainability and prosperity in Korea.” “In particular, technology commercialization is an answer that can connect the results of global creative leader education and research innovation pursued by KAIST to social value creation.” It will lay the groundwork for self-reliance.”
Mr. Lee also has a brilliant career outside. He was also a visiting professor at Stanford Research Institute in the US and Tokyo University of Technology in Japan. In addition, President Lee is the president of the Fuzzy Intelligence System Society, the President of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics, the President of the Future Society, the President of the Ministry of Science and Technology Policy Research, the Chairman of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE Computational Intelligence Society), the highest ranking national future of the National Assembly. He worked as a responsible professor for the strategy process. Currently, President Lee is a full member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology and the Korean Academy of Engineering.
Awakened to the convergence between disciplines, President Lee founded the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering in 2001, advocating the convergence of bio and information and communication technology (ICT). In 2009, he led the establishment of the Graduate School of Intellectual Property and the Graduate School of Science Journalism, and in 2013, he led the establishment of the Munsul Future Strategy Graduate School, Korea’s first future research institute.
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