KINS, which stands for KAIST Integration of Natural Sciences, is a student-run organization affiliated with the College of Natural Sciences. The club was established in 2010 with the purpose of getting students of our university to share their knowledge and pursue their interests in the natural sciences. On November 23, KINS will be holding this year’s KINS Open Seminar, an event open to the student body to attend and enjoy. The KAIST Herald met up with Euijin Jeon, head of KINS, to discuss this upcoming event and the organization he runs.
Please briefly introduce yourself.
Hi, my name is Euijin Jeon. I am a third-year student in the Department of Physics, entering class of 2011. I am also the chairman of KINS, as well as head of planning for seminars.
Could you describe your organization, KINS?
KINS is KAIST’s only natural sciences student club. Most of our members are students majoring in natural science fields, including chemistry, physics, biology, and mathematics. We look to facilitate exchange of information between natural science students and integration of different natural science fields.
What are some of the regular activities that KINS members partake in?
For one thing, our organization compiles scientific journals to create the bulletin Naturalist, but most of this work is done during the summer and winter holidays. Additionally, we work on creating a Wiki on natural sciences in hopes of promoting KAIST students’ interest and understanding of natural sciences. We also hold weekly Sunday seminars that are given by KINS members, and these seminars cover various topics, such as matrix mechanics, quasi-crystals, and relativistic dynamics.
Please tell us more about KINS Open Seminar
The open seminar will consist of several lectures, each of which will last somewhere between 40 minutes and one hour. The Open Seminar lectures will be given by several undergraduate students and one graduate student, all of whom major in different natural science fields. With these lectures, we believe that students will have an easier time understanding as compared to professional researchers’ lectures; although many lectures are given at our university by visiting scientists, it is difficult for the audience to approach these talks due to the complexity of the information discussed and the seniority or prestige of the lecturers. KINS Open Seminar will aim to produce an atmosphere of learning - one that is closer to a debate than a lecture. Hopefully, it will be a good opportunity for participants to gain new knowledge and make new friends. KINS has held these events since 2010, but previous seminars were limited to those within the organization. This year’s event is the first that has been made open to all students. Because this is the first time that the Open Seminar will be held on such a large scale, we might make mistakes or run into trouble during the hosting, but if all goes well, we plan on holding these annual public seminars in the future. The topics covered in the seminars will integrate aspects of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and engineering, and thus they are topics that can be easily understood even by those who are not majoring in these fields.
What kind of response do you expect from the undergraduate students?
In the case of students in my department, only those who are genuinely interested in physics join, and subsequently they are very passionate about natural sciences. As for students from the departments of chemistry and mathematics who I am acquainted with, it is the same – they are interested in other fields aside from their own. In fact, because the natural sciences, unlike engineering, have limitless possible applications, its students must keep an open and receptive mind. Thus I think that the Open Seminar will be very attractive to such students, who can take it as an opportunity to learn about other fields and their applicability.
Any final comments you would like to add? 

Toshihide Maskawa, the Nobel laureate in physics who once gave a lecture at our university, encouraged people to study both their major and one other subject. In other words, one should move beyond the narrow limits of his own field of study and approach the world from a more integrated perspective. Physics is basically a study of change, chemistry and biology a study of states, and mathematics a study of intrinsic essence. By coming to understand all of these fields, I believe one can learn that much more about the principles of the world we live in. I hope that through the Open Seminar, exchange among various fields of academia can be achieved. 

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