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KIST President Lee Byung Gwon’s Editorial in Science (February 26, 2016)
- Date : 2016-03-08
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Public Relations Team
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KIST President Lee Byung Gwon authored a special editorial entitled “KIST at 50, Beyond the Miracle” for Science, the prestigious international science journal, in the February 26, 2016 (Vol. 351) issue. This is the second time that Science acknowledged the significance of KIST in the field of science and technology. In 1970, there was an extensive article about KIST in the March issue of the magazine titled “‘Korean Science Institute: A Model for Developing Nations?” which described in detail KIST’s establishment backdrop and process. In the special editorial President Lee addressed how Korea, one of the least developed, war-torn country right after the Korean War, was able to build the 11th largest economy in the world and earned a spot in the G20 in merely 50 years. He asserted that the advancement of science and technology was one of the major factors in Korea’s dramatic growth, and that KIST was the main player in achieving such national feat by revolutionizing the science and technology research. He further commented how KIST’s success lead to 16 more research institutes being established in Korea, which collectively transformed Korea from a poor country with agriculture as the main source of livelihood to an economic powerhouse which possesses advanced technologies in various fields, such as semi-conductors, automobile, steel, ship building, electronics, machinery, petro-chemical, etc.
The editorial introduces major projects the present day KIST is working on, one of them being the establishment of Vietnam-Korea Institute of Science and Technology, abbreviated V-KIST, in Vietnam. V-KIST is modeled after KIST and is a shining example of global cooperation. President Lee said stated in the editorial that the rapid development of Korea in the past 50 years is considered nothing short of miracle and KIST is renewing its commitment to become the leader in R & D, and to improve the quality of life for everyone. Science is the academic journal acquired by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1990. It was first published in 1880 and is recognized as one of the world’s top scientific journals.