KAIST president Sung Mo Kang has been appointed as the Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Electronics. He will serve the position for two years until September 2016.
Founded in 1971, the World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international institution established to improve the world’s general well-being through active cooperation between private and public organizations, in the spirit of global citizenship. With its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, this independent and impartial forum has intellectual networks called the Global Agenda Councils (GAC) that have closely engaged with the leaders in the field of business, politics, academics, and other sectors of society to deal with various key global, regional, and industry issues.
Among the 80 councils, the GAC on the Future of Electronics manages risks and complexities regarding industry-specific issues ranging from risks in the global supply chain to the Partnering for Cyber Resilience and the Hyperconnected World Initiative. The council members discuss what shape the next generation of technology will take as a result of the “Internet of Things” revolution.
The GAC recognized President Kang’s contribution to the advancement of science as an engineer as well as a professor. Having once led the development of CMOS 21-bit microprocessors at AT&T Bell Laboratories, President Kang has also assumed leader roles in higher education as Chancellor of the University of California, Merced, Dean of Jack Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Department head of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. President Kang received his bachelor’s degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University, his master’s degree from the State University of New York, and his doctorate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Electrical Engineering.
President Kang and attended the Future Circles Initiative with other GAC chairs on November 11 and 12, as his first official act as Chair, The conference was held to discuss and brainstorm policies and strategies for the future development of United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the governmental representatives of UAE.