The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has ended a 16-month management vacuum by appointing mechanical engineering professor Bae Choong-sik as its 18th president. An authority in eco-friendly power and carbon-neutral propulsion engineering, the brand new president offered a blueprint to combine synthetic intelligence (AI) throughout KAIST’s schooling and analysis upon taking workplace.
KAIST’s board of administrators introduced on the twenty ninth that it had elected Professor Bae as the brand new president through the 296th extraordinary board assembly held on the Kim Jae-chul AI Graduate School’s Yangjae Industry-Academia Campus in Seoul. Three remaining candidates have been put to a vote that day: President-elect Bae, laptop science professor Ryu Seok-young, and bio and mind engineering professor Lee Do-heon. The new president will probably be formally appointed after receiving consent from South Korea’s Minister of Education and approval from the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT. His time period is 4 years.
President-elect Bae graduated from Seoul National University’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Imperial College London within the United Kingdom. He joined KAIST in 1998 and has served as head of the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and dean of the College of Engineering, mentoring roughly 700 college students over his 30-year tenure. He was just lately chosen as a Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) chair professor in recognition of his analysis achievements in power and carbon neutrality.
Beyond analysis, he has been extensively concerned in nationwide science and expertise coverage. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he served as head of KAIST’s COVID-19 Response Science and Technology New Deal Task Force, contributing to the institution of a science-based disaster response system. He has additionally served as chairman of the Carbon-Neutral Fuel Technology Research Council, chairman of the Climate Subcommittee underneath the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Science and Technology Diplomacy Advisory Committee, and a full member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea. At SAE International (previously the Society of Automotive Engineers), he turned the primary Korean chosen as an SAE Fellow, the very best grade of membership within the powertrain area, and has twice obtained the SAE Best Paper Award.
In his acceptance remarks, President-elect Bae made clear his intention to place AI as the core engine of KAIST’s innovation. “AI is no longer a technology confined to specific majors but a foundational skill that all members must acquire,” he emphasised. “Whether it’s semiconductors or biotech, it’s difficult to say which field is more important—AI must be utilized across the board.” He added, “Alongside fundamental AI research, we will build a research system that tightly connects the entire spectrum of future industries.”
The scientific neighborhood views the brand new president’s position as extra essential than ever, given KAIST’s central place in nationwide strategic expertise competitors spanning AI, semiconductors, biotech, quantum computing, and carbon neutrality. President-elect Bae is anticipated to lead the strengthening of KAIST’s analysis competitiveness and the formulation of future convergence science and expertise methods, drawing on his experience and coverage expertise in power and carbon neutrality.
This appointment additionally carries important weight in concluding the management vacuum that has persevered at KAIST for over 16 months. KAIST has successfully operated underneath an performing president system since former seventeenth President Lee Kwang-hyung’s time period resulted in February final yr. Political circumstances, together with the aftermath of martial regulation and a change in authorities, prevented the board from convening for an prolonged interval. Even when conferences have been ultimately held after a lot issue, candidates repeatedly failed to safe a majority vote, sending the appointment course of again to sq. one.
Notably, throughout a board assembly final February, a vote was held on three candidates—former President Lee Kwang-hyung, electrical and digital engineering professor Kim Jeong-ho, and former Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) President Lee Yong-hoon—however the appointment movement was rejected as no candidate secured a majority. This marked the primary time in KAIST’s historical past {that a} presidential appointment movement was rejected by the board, sparking calls from inside and out of doors the institute for board accountability and governance reform. The abstention of quite a few administrators, together with authorities officers, through the vote led to interpretations of political motivations.
With the election of a brand new president, voices are calling for KAIST to speed up its normalization. “It’s true that conflicts spread within the institute while the leadership vacuum persisted and multiple candidates came forward only to fall short,” one KAIST professor mentioned. “Members need to rally around the new president, and the new leadership must also effectively manage these conflicts.”
KAIST’s upcoming duties might be distilled into three essential priorities. First is the AI-driven schooling innovation emphasised by President-elect Bae—integrating AI into all majors to domesticate convergence expertise and establishing a system that makes use of AI comprehensively throughout analysis fields. Second is resolving inside conflicts brought on by the 16-month management vacuum and restoring belief amongst members. Third is additional strengthening KAIST’s analysis competitiveness in nationwide strategic expertise areas such as semiconductors, biotech, quantum computing, and carbon neutrality.
Once President-elect Bae’s appointment course of is finalized, KAIST is anticipated to embark on full-scale organizational restructuring underneath new management. Attention is concentrated on what methods KAIST will deploy in home and worldwide science and expertise competitors, centered on the dual pillars of AI and carbon neutrality.