On July 23, Soo-Young Lee, the chairman of the KAIST Development Foundation, donated real estate properties worth approximately 57 million USD to KAIST, setting a new record for the largest donation the institution has ever received. Chairman Lee also donated 6.7 million USD worth of real estate in 2012, followed by another donation of US real estate properties valued at 840 thousand USD in 2013. In total, she has contributed about 63 million USD to KAIST. 

Chairman Lee graduated from Seoul National University and started her career as a reporter at Seoul Shinmun, the oldest news publication in Korea. She then later started her own agricultural and real estate firms to amass her fortune. She received an honorary doctorate from KAIST in 2012 for her altruistic contributions to the institution.

Chairman Lee cited KAIST’s impact on Korea’s advancement of both science and economy as the reason for her donation. As an example, she mentioned how almost 25% of R&D employees at Samsung Electronics, a major company that accounts for almost 16% of total national GDP, are KAIST graduates.She also added that she is fully convinced that KAIST is the institution that can contribute the most to the development of not only Korea but also the world. 

Her donation will be used to establish the Soo-Young Lee Science Education Foundation, which will help fund KAIST’s Singularity Professor program. The program serves to foster innovative professors who have the potential to change the scientific paradigm, spearhead new fields of research, or solve major scientific challenges. If selected as a Singularity Professor, the  professor will receive research funds and have all research performance evaluation deferred for the next ten years. If deemed necessary, Singularity Professors may extend the contract for another ten years. The institution will appoint two or three singularity professors annually in hopes of making groundbreaking research possible, potentially leading to the first Nobel Prize laureate from KAIST — an achievement that Chairman Lee emphasized as one of her biggest hopes. 

President Sung-Chul Shin expressed his genuine gratitude for the chairman’s selfless donations. He also added that the entirety of KAIST’s community will try its best to appreciate and honor Chairman Soo-Young Lee’s vision.