Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
한국과학기술원

South Korea

KAIST is the first and top science and technology university in Korea. In the wake of its 50th anniversary, KAIST is scaling up new research initiatives in order to become a ‘first mover.’ This is in line with its plan to pivot away from its previous role as a ‘fast follower,’ a role that led to Korea’s rapid industrialization.

Established in 1971 by the Korean government, KAIST was tasked with the very clear institutional mission to make innovations that would drive the country’s economic growth engine, especially in the fields of ICT and electronics. KAIST has fully achieved its institutional mission, creating a very successful educational model that is now being benchmarked by many other countries.

Turning 50 years old in 2021, its R&D strategy has shifted to focus on creating global value for the future. Among others, the Global Singularity Research Project aims to identify the most critical projects which will make the biggest difference in people’s lives.

This innovative research project selects the two most creative and future-oriented research projects every year. Young researchers’ projects on new materials, neuro-rehabilitation, and brain function redesign selected as this research program will surely bring breakthroughs which will serve as game changers for the future.

For more information on KAIST research, visit https://www.kaist.ac.kr/en/html/research/04.html

1 December 2019 - 30 November 2020

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) published between 1 December 2019 - 30 November 2020 which are tracked by the Nature Index.

Hover over the donut graph to view the FC output for each subject. Below, the same research outputs are grouped by subject. Click on the subject to drill-down into a list of articles organized by journal, and then by title.

Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.

Count	Share
398	184.52

Outputs by subject (Share)

Subject	Count	Share
Physical Sciences	216	102.75
Life Sciences	91	26.53
Earth & Environmental Sciences	6	2.53
Chemistry	162	87.15

Highlight of the month

Watching atoms as they dance

© PASIEKA/SPL/Science Photo Library/Getty Images

In a world first, researchers have precisely monitored how three gold atoms jive when an ultraviolet pulse induces them to form a bond.

Knowing how the atoms in molecules move during the course of a chemical reaction would provide researchers with valuable information for manipulating reactions. But it is extremely challenging to experimentally monitor how the atoms of even the simplest molecules move during a reaction.

Now, a team led by KAIST researchers has created real-time movies of the birth of a chemical bond in a reaction that gold cyanide undergoes when irradiated by ultraviolet light.

A technique known as X-ray liquidography allowed them to track the trajectories of three atoms as they covalently bonded to form a trimer. The results showed that the reaction occurred in two separate stages — not in two parallel tracks as previously thought.

The researchers anticipate that using more-intense X-rays would enable the atomic motions of many other chemical reactions to be directly tracked.

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