Science & Technology / GIST Despite being a latecomer, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST, www.gist.ac.kr) is firmly implanting its image as a competitive science and technology graduate school nationwide, claiming to stand for the principle of having affairs run by a select few. GIST is a research-oriented graduate university which can nurture high-grade science technology manpower on the order of 360 master's track students and 440 doctoral track students, for a total student body of 800. The Institute, established in 1995, began to produce doctoral graduates in 2000 and master's graduates in 1997. "GIST is deemed to have succeeded in preparing the Institutes's spring into a worldwide research institute beyond this," assesses president Huh Sung-kwan, GIST, who served as minister of the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs (MOGAHA), Republic of Korea, from September 2003 through December 2004. As a justification of the principle of having affairs run by a select few, the president said that GIST is maintaining a top level in the field of research orders plus number one ranking over the recent five years in the number of papers inserted into international academic journals per professor. Last year, their inserted paper number was 5.7 papers per professor. Both students and faculty have high insertion ratios In particular, Huh notes that the Institute is most proud of its students' high paper insertion ratio as well, which illustrates high research activity among the student body. The students have submitted papers to international academic journals in a ratio of 6.4 papers per doctoral graduate. It is easy to see that GIST has quickly succeeded in becoming on par with other leading science and technology groups at home in a short period, but Huh concedes that the real question is how to leap into a worldwide research-centered university while maintaining its growth speed. In conjunction with this, the president introduces that GIST's development goal is to spring into a worldwide researchoriented science technology university by 2014. To that end, he has committed himself to doing his best in producing science technology talent to get abreast of the world level. He desires for his Institute to secure the highest global level of core technology in a certain field through selection and concentration, thereby playing a spearheading role in the local as well as national economy's development. Huh said if he is successful, citizens of the world will be able to regard GIST on a par with other global science technology universities such as MIT and Caltech University. He further introduces that GIST students are receiving good assessments from international academic rallies, adding that 350 students, more than half among its registered 660 students last year, have participated in international academic rallies or done joint research with overseas research teams.

100% Selected in the Second Stage BK21 Project Q: What, in your opinion, what must GIST do so that it may grow big as a world-class research-centered science technology university A: GIST's pursuit strategy to accomplish our goal, which is to grow as a worldwide first-class research-oriented science technology graduate school, can be summarized as differentiation, concentralization and globalization. More specifically, our propulsion strategy is first of all to nurture high-grade science technology talent to lead national science technology innovation. In terms of research, it is most important to secure the core research capacity of a specialized field with selection and concentration. Last but not least, to spread such developed research outcomes also can't be neglected. Q: What is the difficulty for GIST in securing highgrade science technology talent equipped to compete on the international arena A: Securing high class science technology talent equipped with international competitiveness is an important task not only for GIST, but also for all universities. In the case of our country, human power of an intermediate grade is excessive whereas high-grade manpower is suffering from a shortage. It is true that our handicap as a latecomer and unfavorable geographic location in the national capital-centered society have been functioning as the Achilles' tendon in inducing superior talent. Therefore, it is very pivotal to operate innovative curriculum based on the principle of having affairs run by a select few so that GIST may nurture superior talent as high-grade brain equipped with international competitiveness. Q: How is the present status of major research projects such as Brain Korea 21 Project in which GIST takes part A: GIST gained the outcome of 100% selection as our four project corps were all chosen in the second stage BK21 Project. These four project corps came to receive a subsidy of 15.7 billion won (around $16.53 million) over the next seven years. Such outcomes are even more significant in that even though we are located in the provinces, we gained them by competing with the Metropolitan area's universities. Besides, GIST's actual research contract results are on the rise year after year as research orders per one professor increase from 540 million won in 2004 to 570 million won last year.