# Pohang University of Science and Technology

Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) is a private research university in Pohang, South Korea.

## History

POSTECH was established in 1986 in Pohang, Korea by POSCO, a steel company.
POSTECH hosted POSCO's Research Institute of Science and Technology (RIST) on campus. In 1994, POSTECH set up the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL), a 3rd-generation synchrotron light source and now a national facility. PAL-XFEL, a 4th-generation light source X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) was completed in 2016 at the cost of US$390 million, the third of its kind in the world, and will open up new frontiers and research areas in life sciences, materials, chemistry, and physics.

### Timeline

| December 3, 1986 | POSTECH founded by Founding Chairman Tae-joon Park and First President Hogil Kim |
| March 5, 1987 | First matriculation ceremony |
| March 1, 1989 | Department of Life Sciences established |
| February 7, 1990 | First commencement for M.S. candidates |
| February 20, 1991 | Conferment of first B.S. degrees |
| December 7, 1994 | Completion of Pohang Light Source |
| May 15, 1998 | Ranked 1st among Asian science and technology universities by Asiaweek Magazine |
| February 28, 2000 | Pohang Techno Park established jointly with the City of Pohang and POSCO |
| August 23, 2001 | Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics relocates to POSTECH |
| August 17, 2002 | Selected as an "Excellent University for Educational Reform" for the seventh consecutive year by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development |
| April 25, 2003 | Tae-joon Park Digital Library opens |
| September 9, 2005 | Graduate Institute of Ferrous Technology (GIFT) established |
| May 30, 2007 | National Institute for Nanomaterials Technology established |
| March 2, 2010 | Bilingual campus declared |
| June 14, 2010 | Agreement with Max Planck Society to establish Max Planck POSTECH/Korea Research Initiative |
| September 16, 2010 | Ranked 28th in the World University Rankings by Times Higher Education |
| July 6, 2011 | Department of Creative IT Engineering established |
| August 20, 2012 | Graduate School of Engineering Mastership established |
| December 1, 2012 | Selected as one of the 2012 Top 100 Global Innovators by Thomson Reuters |
| February 15, 2013 | Tae-joon Park Institute opened |
| May 9, 2013 | Groundbreaking of PAL-XFEL |
| June 13, 2013 | Four research centers of Institute for Basic Science established |
| June 20, 2013 | Ranked 1st among the top 100 universities under 50 years old by Times Higher Education |
| October 7, 2013 | Ranked 1st in Joong Ang Ilbo Korean University Rankings 2013 |
| May 2, 2014 | Ranked 1st among the top 100 universities under 50 years old by Times Higher Education (three consecutive years) |
| September 15, 2014 | POSTECH Entrepreneurship Center opened (supported by Small & Medium Business Administration) |
| September 19, 2014 | APGC-Lab and a new start-up company (exBrain) opened |
| October 6, 2014 | Ranked 1st in Joongang Ilbo Korean University Rankings (two consecutive years) |
| December 17, 2014 | The Pohang Center for Creative Economy & Innovation opened (5th floor of C$^5$) |
| June 4, 2016 | PAL-XFEL achieved first light |

### Presidents

| Number | Name | Years in office |
| 1 | Hogil Kim (ko) | 1985-1994 |
| 2 | Sooyoung Chang | 1994-1998 |
| 3 | Sungkee Chang | 1998-2002 |
| 4 | Chanmo Park (ko) | 2003-2007 |
| 5 | Sunggi Baik (ko) | 2007-2011 |
| 6 | Yongmin Kim (ko) | 2011–2015 |
| 7 | Doh-Yeon Kim (ko) | 2015–2019 |
| 8 | Moo Hwan Kim (ko) | 2019–2023 |
| 9 | Seong Keun Kim (ko) | 2023–Present |

## University rankings

In 1998, POSTECH was ranked by Asiaweek as the best science and technology university in Asia. From 2002 to 2006 JoongAng Ilbo ranked POSTECH as the leading university in Korea. In 2010, the Times Higher Education ranked POSTECH 28th in the world. In 2011, the Times Higher Education ranked the university as the 53rd best university in the world, the 6th best in Asia, and the best in South Korea. In 2017–2018, QS World University Rankings ranked POSTECH 71st overall in the world. It remains third best ranked in Korea, after Seoul National University and KAIST, in the QS Asian University Rankings. However, in the Times Higher Education rankings, it scored highly after compilers placed less emphasis on "reputation and heritage" and gave more weight to objective measures including the influence of universities' research, placing 53rd. In 2012 and 2013, the Times Higher Education ranked POSTECH 1st in its "100 Under 50 Young Universities" rankings. The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune cited POSTECH's rapid ascent as a young university to top the world rankings in less than 50 years.

## Campus

POSTECH is a 400-acre campus located twenty minutes by car from downtown Pohang, an hour by bus from Busan, and approximately two and half hours by train (KTX) from Seoul.

### Tae-Joon Park Digital Library

Completed in 2003, the Tae-Joon Park Library is 24,420 square meters with 352,977 volumes and 8,324 digital and paper journals. As of 2005, the library collection consists of approximately 320,000 books, 3,500 journals, 7,000 e-journals 25 databases, and 4,400 multimedia materials. The Library shares materials with industrial-educational-research cooperation and is part of an intercollegiate data exchange program with approximately 150 other research and educational institutions throughout the nation.

### Smart campus

In 2010, for the first time among Korean universities, POSTECH implemented a Desktop Cloud Service. However, many of the previously implemented technological services (e.g. campus smartphone applications, university website, university online portal, etc.) are defective as they have not been since updated.

## Academics
### Admissions

POSTECH admits approximately 300 undergraduate students each year. POSTECH received 1,987 applicants for freshman admission and admitted 323 for the 2014 school year. POSTECH provides the highest educational investment and the most per-student scholarship support in Korea, allowing students from all economic backgrounds the opportunity to obtain a POSTECH education.

## Research

The 4th generation light source (PAL-XFEL), which has been operational since 2015, is 10 billion times brighter than the 3rd generation light source.