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Dr. Lee, Byung-gwon, the 23rd President of KIST (March 13, 2014)
- Date : 2014-03-25
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The inauguration ceremony for the 23rd President of KIST was held at KIST Seoul on March 13.
KIST is the first comprehensive research institute founded in 1966, and over the past 50 years it has been leading the paradigm in science and technology research, driving economic growth of the nation. Welcoming the new president, KIST unveiled its renewed direction based on extensive research capabilities accumulated since its beginning and robust human network and infrastructure as a leading research institute of the nation.
Dr. Lee, Byung-gwon, the new president of KIST said, “Concerted efforts to resolve current social issues” was the top priority for KIST. This reiterates KIST’s commitment to addressing social issues and securing future resources to tackle the problems of the nation including population aging and shortage of energy and food resources. Also, to contribute to establishing a creative economy, the national initiative of Korea, the new president added, “KIST will make every efforts to ensure basic and core research achievements to be directly linked to the capability enhancement of SMEs and to encourage technology-based business start-ups.” As a researcher who has been with the institute for more than 30 years, President Lee promised to keep the door to his office open to freely communicate with all staff.
KIST will mark its 50th anniversary in 2016 and as such, President Lee in his inauguration speech stated, “KIST will prepare for the next coming 50 years renewed spirit of challenge based on the lessons learnt from the past 50 years.
President Lee, Byung-gwon graduated from Seoul National University in 1980 majoring in Chemical Engineering and earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Akron, U.S. in1989. He joined KIST in 2004 as the head of Environment/Energy Division and served as the vice president since 2012.