[ED. 'Brain Korea 21' is a $1.2 billion proposal by the Ministry of Education of South Korea to help upgrade a few selected Korean universities to the world-class status in science and engineering. The proposal ran into a stiff opposition by science faculties at universities that are unlikely to be the 'chosen few,' as well as by those in humanities and social sciences. The opposition came to its head when thousands of professors held protest rallies and demonstrations. An editorial in the Korea Herald, as reported in IEKAS 99-27 (7/27/99), has called for scrapping the whole idea. It is against this backdrop that Professor Zang-Hee Cho writes. The editorial is reproduced and appended to his letter.]
Zang-Hee Cho
Professor of Radiological Science
University of California at Irvine
zcho@uci.edu
Member, the US National Academy of Sciences
[ED. A brief biosketch of Professor Cho follows his letter.]
Dear Professor Han:
I would like to make several comments on the swirling controversy over the so-called 'Brain Korea 21' proposal.
First, I am not at all surprised by the sequence of events from its very beginning. As yet another example of ill-conceived initiatives by policymakers, the whole idea started without understanding exactly what are the roots of the problem in Korean research universities. Also, as is the norm among science initiatives in Korea, it is an idea of one-person, this time a former Minister of Education and perhaps a handful of his advisors, not only without sincere desires to truly solve the problem of higher education in Korea but also without any consultations among the learned circle. As you recall, several years ago a similar thing happened: the Institute of Advanced Studies (KIAS) was established despite reservations and oppositions. It was the brainchild of the then Minister of Science who reportedly convinced the then President Kim Youngsam that such an institute would guarantee Nobel science prizes for Korea.
A fundamental problem is the lack of understanding of the concept in Korean society in general, especially among the policymakers both in government and universities, of just what is meant by a world-class research institution. As epitomized by the Nobel science prizes, it is the "originality" and "major impact and contribution" that define truly world-class science. In Korea, neither of these concepts mean much.
What most, if not all, professors and researchers are doing in Korea is simply repeating what other researchers have done elsewhere in the world - what I refer to as 'cleaning up' or 'janitorial' works. They are mostly content simply accumulating knowledge. Called BAKSHIK in Korean (widely learned), knowing much of many things defines a good research scholar. Due to this conceptual fixation in the Korean academics, it is the large book shelves filled with books and lots of research funds that define the directorships of research institutes such as the many so-called ERCs and SRCs, Engineering and Science Research Centers. The sad truth is that the whole place (Korea) is nothing but temples of books and ill-spent funds but without any original research. Plenty of books and research institutes with large funding, but no "world-class researchers" who can do first rate original research!
As an example, look at what Seoul National University did with the donated money of nearly $100 million dollars some years ago. What they did was they constructed a "world class Engineering Building" with splendid faculty offices and laboratories but failed to recruit a single "world class faculty!" World-class buildings, offices and laboratory spaces do not make world-class institutes! The world rankings of such premier institutes as Seoul National University or Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) attest to this.
I was asked sometime ago by one of the SCIENCE correspondents as to why Korea spent so much money on research but not a single world class research outcome? Korean Universities, I mean those called top research universities in Korea, should realize that a good university means, above all else, good faculty who could produce world class research results, not the buildings, lab spaces nor the square footage of director's office.
This brings me to the question of faculty recruitment. As you are well aware of, new faculty recruits in Korea operates under the principle of hiring younger faculty members that are easy to handle and comfortable to the senior faculty, that is, the former students and those who will not compete with them but those who will obey and follow. Also what we should remember is that a world-class research university can not be built only with money but it takes a right "philosophy." Any major funding initiatives, such as the Brain Korea 21, must have the "prerequisites." One of the most important prerequisites is the major changes in the policy of faculty recruitment in order to seek out those of who can lead the whole academic research, that is, Korea should be ready to recruit "world class professors and researchers" rather than to try to fool around again with what they have today. Whole essence is that with the currently available human resources in Korea (university faculty and researchers), one can not build world class university or research institute(s)!
Money alone can not meet the challenges envisioned by the new proposed initiative. If Korea is really serious about becoming a scientifically leading nation, it is imperative to have top scientific brains both in university and industry. One good sign of the proposed initiative is the fact that government appears to have finally realized this very fact. To achieve this goal, if they are earnest and sincere, they have many good examples to follow; just look at how such institutions as Harvard, Caltech, Rockefeller University and the Max Planck Institute recruit world class researchers! It is also important to remember that there are plenty of young future stars who can grow to the world's stars once we have a group of scientists who can truly show the scientific leadership. This can only be achieved when we have exemplary academic institution(s) with world class faculty and researchers.
[ED. A Brief Biosketch of Professor Zang-Hee Cho:
Dr. Cho pioneered, in the 70s, the first PET scanner using the scintillation crystals (Positron Emission Tomograph), a system widely used today, and made a major contribution to the field of Brain Science. Having graduated from Seoul National University in 1960, he obtained his Ph. D. from Uppsala University (Sweden) in 1966. Before joining UC- Irvine in 1985, Dr. Cho taught at the University of Stockholm, UCLA and Columbia (where he served as Co-Director of Imaging Research group).
Dr. Cho also established one of the world's first MRI lab at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, KAIST, where he had been an Endowed Visiting Chair Professor till the summer of 1997 when his appointment was suddenly terminated. Back in Irvine, Dr. Cho was elected, in the fall of 1997, to the US National Academy of Sciences. For 2000-2001, Dr. Cho will serve as the National President of the Association of Korean Physicists in America (AKPA), a post formerly served by 4 members of the KASTN's Editorial Board.]