Cheol-Soo Ahn, KAIST’s endowed-chair-professor, will be moving to Seoul National University (SNU) at the end of this semester. According to KAIST and AhnLab, SNU unofficially asked Professor Ahn to join them, offering him the position of Dean of Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology. Having thought it over, Professor Ahn accepted SNU’s request.

After an official employment process, Professor Ahn is likely to work not only as the dean but also as a professor of SNU’s Department of Digital Contents Convergence. Consequently, his lectures at the Graduate School of Innovation and Technology Management at KAIST will come to an end as of this semester.

A person involved in the AhnLab said, “Professor Ahn has always demonstrated new and challenging enterpreneurship. I think he accepted SNU’s request to embed this inspiration to students.”

With the objectives of developing and leading new technology of the future, SNU created the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology in 2009. It includes departments such as Nano Science and Technology, Introduction to Intelligent Convergence Systems, Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences and Digital Contents Convergence. Yanghee Choi, the former dean of this graduate school, ended his term last February.

SNU has been making such offers to Professor Ahn since the start of 2011, insisting that Professor Ahn is the right person to lead SNU’s Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology. Professor Ahn received his medical doctor’s degree at SNU, after which he created the information security company AhnLab in 1995 and developed it into a national venture business. Professor Ahn got a Master’s degree in Engineering and Business Management from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997 and 2008 respectively.

Though SNU stated they still have to go through an official employment process, SNU is positive that Professor Ahn’s employment will be determined soon. In fact, SNU‘s Dean of Academic Affairs says that he is looking forward to getting the approval of the SNU commission. Once this is done, a formal announcement regarding Professor Ahn’s employment will be made. The Dean of Academic Affairs is expecting the employment to be certain within this month.