Scientific Advisory Board Meeting

The Scientific Advisory Board meeting was held on Thursday-Friday last week. This is probably the most important official event held this year for the Center. 5 external scientists, 4 from the US, visited for a two-day event featuring faculty seminars and break-up sessions for interviews. The interview part was an interesting one in which graduate students and research fellows were all invited for small-group Q&A sessions, discussing not research, but the Center's operation. The seminar session, occupying most of Thursday, was good for everybody to learn what other groups in the Center are up to. Repeated questions raised by the Board, as well as by ourselves in a wrap-up, are (i) how to define a grand theme of the research for the whole Center, (ii) how to attract talents to work here, and (iii) how to balance global and local (Korean) ways to operate the Center in terms of culture and language. Many who participated in the Meeting came away with an impression that the Center is now more stable and generally on the right track, compared to last year.