2020 begins with opportunities and some ... confusion.

First of all, the winter of 2019 ~ 2020 has been unusually warm. This is generally a good news for university employees and students. But then there came a corona virus scare, from about January 20th, which caused cancellations and postponements of a host of events. They include: graduation ceremony, college admission ceremony and freshmen welcome nights, annual scientific meeting of KSMRM, and other research meetings, formal and informal. On top of that, the university announced that the first week of the 2020 Spring semester will be delayed by one week, to March 9th, and even then the first two weeks will only have on-line classes, with recorded or streaming videos, so the students stay home. This is unprecedented, and effectively extended the winter vacation. While confusing, a positive side of this unusual happenings is, of course, more research time for the month of February, provided the virus outbreak should remain under control.

In terms of  opportunities, the GBME department has recently received a government grant for overseas trainee fellowship for graduate students and post-docs. In the Lab, Hyeong-Seop Kim is planning to spend 6 to 12 months in US to learn MRI RF coil design and fabrication. Separately, the Ministry of Education is accepting applications for a relatively large-scale educational grant, called Brain Korea IV, the 4th version of a popular, 7-year financial support program for the nation's graduate schools. Several faculty members of the BME department are working to draft the proposal, to be submitted by mid-April.