[Meet the President] At just 13 years old, UNIST already boasts 'world-class' research environment

As head of a university located in one of the farthest corners of the country from Seoul, Lee Yong-hoon is confident that his school has what it takes to attract the world’s brightest minds.

Lee Yong-hoon, president of the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), has great ambitions for his 13-year-old university and is confident that its groundbreaking research will pave the way for a bright future. [PARK SANG-MOON]

As head of a university located in one of the farthest corners of the country from Seoul, Lee Yong-hoon is confident that his school has what it takes to attract the world’s brightest minds.

In the 13 years since the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, also known as UNIST, was established in the southeastern industrial port city of Ulsan, the school has shattered expectations, landing coveted spots on global rankings — as Lee constantly pointed out in a recent interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily.

It came in 11th in this year’s Young University Rankings by the Times Higher Education, which lists the world’s leading universities that are 50 years old or younger. The rank was the highest among Korean universities.

On Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers list, 70 scientists based in Korea were recognized and 10 were from UNIST, the largest figure for any Korean institute.

The secret, Lee highlighted, comes down to the university’s “world-class” research environment.

“Our biggest strength is that we have nearly 70 billion won [$54.4 million] worth of research equipment and some 50 full-time workers solely dedicated to maintenance,” Lee said.

“This allows our students and professors to focus all their energy on research,” he continued, “because unlike other universities, they’re not sparing any time checking whether the equipment actually functions properly.”

In the interview, Lee discussed how UNIST is striving to take its research capabilities to the next level and how international students can benefit from joining the journey.

The following are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Q : How would you introduce UNIST to prospective international students?

A : UNIST was founded in 2009 and officially recognized as a government-funded research institute for science and technology in 2015, becoming the fourth such institute in Korea. Throughout the years, the university has made great leaps in the chemical and chemical engineering fields such as secondary batteries, solar cells, graphene and semiconductor materials. In particular, UNIST has been concentrating on new technologies linking AI with other fields while aiming to play a key role in the “smart transition” of the country’s southeastern industrial zone through the application of AI and big data deep learning methods.

An electric vehicle produced by a 3-D printer during research led by Professor of Mechanical Engineering Kim Nam-hun in 2017 [YONHAP]

Q : How is UNIST different from other domestic research institutes for science and technology?

A : All our courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels are conducted in English and we offer a world-class research environment. Our UCRF, known as the UNIST Central Research Facilities, overlooks 70 billion won worth of research equipment and offers close guidance to any student who wishes to use it. While other universities normally rely on graduate students for maintenance, we have some 50 “managers” at the UCRF for the task, who also teach students how to use the equipment for their research.

An aerial view of the school campus in Ulsan [UNIST]

Q : Who are these managers?

A : They’re professionals with master’s degrees, some with a Ph.D., in their respective fields who used to work for companies. Since the university was established, our first president made a wise and tough decision to hire 40 full-time managers, who, today, have become somewhat like our secret weapon. And because we have such good research equipment, we’re able to attract distinguished professors who wish to use it, which in turn allows us to up our research capabilities.

Research conducted in the UNIST Nano Fabrication Cleanroom has been published in numerous journals, including a paper featured in Nature by Professor of Chemistry Shin Hyeon-suk, whose team developed a new material that’s expected to pave the way for miniaturizing semiconductors. [UNIST]

Q : What’s UNIST’s globalization strategy?

A : We hope to build a global network through which our professors and students can communicate with the world’s greatest scientists. We specifically plan to launch a program next year that sends our professors abroad to visit the top experts in their respective fields, preferably with one of their students following in tow. The mission is to visit those experts and see what research they’re up to, perhaps even invite them to UNIST for a month or even a week. We want to push our faculty members and students out of their comfort zones and encourage them to interact with the world’s greatest, because the more they do so, the more likely they will become the world’s greatest themselves. That’s what I call globalization.

The university’s Gamak Pond, seen blanketed with algae during the summer [UNIST]

Q : I also heard you started a travel program for students that takes them to nearby tourist attractions on buses every weekend.

A : Coming from Daejeon, I find Ulsan a very attractive city to live in. The campus here has such a great natural environment with clean air. Unfortunately, however, students don’t agree with me. They can’t stand the mundane campus life after their first month here because the school is surrounded by mountains. Every Saturday, I normally wake up wondering where I should visit next. Bulguksa Temple [in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang] is just a 40-minute drive from where I live. Haeundae Beach [in Busan] is a 50-minute drive. But then, it occurred to me that most students don’t have a car, so they can’t drive out of the city like me. That’s how I came up with the so-called Youth Bus, which drops off students at popular tourist destinations every weekend in nearby cities for anyone who registers. The school covers half the fee, while students are required to pay the rest, which is 5,000 won at most.

A solar cell co-developed by a UNIST research team achieved the highest power conversion efficiency (PEC) for a single-junction perovskite solar cell (PSE), breaking the world record in 2021. [YONHAP]

Q : What advice would you offer to foreigners who are thinking about studying in Korea?

A : UNIST is a university with a vision — a university that never settles and strives for the better. If you want to conduct research, UNIST is undoubtedly the best option. Our professors are young and their labs have only five to six students max, which allows them to provide more support and attention to each individual. Not only do students learn from professors, but they also gain practical knowledge from our managers at the UCRF. All of these aspects create an environment for students to quickly boost their competence and develop their career paths.

The iconic Face the Future structure near the school’s entrance, which symbolizes UNIST’s vision to contribute to the prosperity of humankind and illuminate the world with scientific and technological advances. [YONHAP]

━ President’s bio

Lee Yong-hoon is the fourth president of the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology. His four-year term began in November 2019.

Before joining the institute, he spent an extensive period of his career teaching at KAIST in Daejeon. There, he was vice president for academic affairs from 2011 to 2013; vice president of the IT Convergence Campus in 2011; dean of the College of Information Science and Technology from 2008 to 2011; dean of the College of Engineering from 2005 to 2008; and a professor of electrical engineering from 1989 to 2019, among other roles.

Off campus, he is currently a member of the 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan Establishment Committee under the Ministry of Science and ICT and the vice president of the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies.

Lee won the Best Paper Award from the Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences, also known as KICS, in 2016 and 2017 and the Best Paper Award from the 2016 Joint Conference on Communications and Information, known as JCCI. Lee was awarded a commendation from the minister of information and communication in 2003 and received a presidential citation in 2002.

He earned his bachelor’s and master’s in electrical engineering at Seoul National University and his Ph.D. in the same field from the University of Pennsylvania.

━ About the university

Name Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)

Type National

Established March 1, 2009

English slogan First in Change

Location Ulsan

Campus size 1,041,657 square meters (257.4 acres)

Undergraduate colleges and departments Colleges: 3 Schools and departments: 21

Graduate schools 21

Students (2022) Undergraduates: 2,266 Postgraduates: 2,256 Total: 4,522

Full-time academic staff (2022) 331

Administrative staff (2022) 427

Employment rate (2021) Undergraduates: 68.4 percent Postgraduates: 85 percent

English websitewww.unist.ac.kr

International students

Number of students (2022) Undergraduates: 130 Postgraduates: 204 Short-term students (language learning): 20 Total: 354

By country Kazakhstan 20 percent India 11 percent Vietnam 10 percent Other 59 percent (41 countries)

Department with the most international students (2022) Undergraduate: Department of Computer Science and Engineering Postgraduate: School of Energy and Chemical Engineering

Dormitory acceptance rate (2022) 81 percent

Average tuition of self-funded undergraduate students per semester (2022) All international students are fully funded by scholarships.

Admissions websites Undergraduate: admu-intl.unist.ac.kr Postgraduate: admg-intl.unist.ac.kr

YouTube UNIST

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]