On March 8, the inauguration ceremony of President Kwang Hyung Lee took place in the KAIST Auditorium (E15). President Lee, formerly Provost and Executive Vice President of KAIST, was elected in February and will take office for the next four years. He will succeed the 16th President Sung-Chul Shin, whose farewell ceremony was held on February 22.
President Kwang Hyung Lee, 67, is an alumnus who obtained his MS degree in Industrial Engineering in 1980. He has been an involved member of the KAIST community ever since, from taking on professorships in the School of Computing to working as part of the administration team. President Lee was a key contributor to the establishment of the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering as well as the Moon Soul Graduate School of Future Strategy at KAIST through his advocacy of multidisciplinary studies and interest in future studies. Furthermore, he has published 120 international academic papers on his own research interests, advised the first start-up companies at KAIST, and served in leadership roles in various external scientific organizations.
The inauguration ceremony started off with the appointment of the new president by Chairman Woo Sik Kim of the Board of Trustees, and was followed by President Lee’s inaugural speech. “For the next 50 years of KAIST, we should place emphasis on identifying and resolving challenges humanity faces and focus on creating global values for the prosperity and sustainability of the country and mankind,” President Lee remarked in his speech. As a means of achieving this goal, the president introduced a new culture strategy, “QAIST”, an abbreviation for “Question”, “Advanced Research”, “Internationalization”, “Start-up”, and “Trust”. The strategy proposes “one lab-one book”, “one lab-one first”, “one lab-one start-up”, and “one lab-one volunteer” initiatives, which aim to shift the education and research environment towards building students’ character, encouraging interdisciplinary and student-initiated learning, and nurturing curious students who will pave new roads. In addition, the new president highlighted initiatives for further campus internationalization and overseas expansion, as well as creating a trustworthy management committee for KAIST funds. President Lee emphasized that KAIST should become a unique, leading university, where its constituent members strive to become leaders of new fields. “If KAIST changes, other universities will follow suit. If universities change, Korea will change. Today, we are starting a journey to change Korea,” he ended.
The ceremony concluded with numerous congratulatory speeches, including those by the outgoing president, Sung-Chul Shin, and Prime Minister Sye-kyun Chung. The full livestream of the inauguration ceremony can be found on the KAIST YouTube channel. We expect numerous changes to come about with the welcoming of the new president of KAIST in the next few months.
The KAIST Herald sat down for an interview with President Kwang Hyung Lee to talk about his initiatives more in depth.