Pohang University of Science and Technology
Pohang University of Science and Technology is a private research university in Pohang, South Korea.
History
Pohang University of Science and Technology was established on December 3, 1986, by POSCO, a South Korean steel company, with Founding Chairman Tae-joon Park and the university’s first president, Hogil Kim. The university was founded as a research-focused institution and also hosted POSCO’s Research Institute of Science and Technology on campus. In 1994, POSTECH established the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory, a third-generation synchrotron light source, which later became a national research facility. In 2016, the university completed construction of the PAL-XFEL, a fourth-generation light source, at a cost of approximately USD 390 million. PAL-XFEL was the third facility of its kind in the world at the time of completion, intended to support research in various fields including life sciences, materials science, chemistry, and physics.The university held its first matriculation ceremony on March 5, 1987. The Department of Life Sciences was founded on March 1, 1989. The first master's degrees were conferred on February 7, 1990, and the first bachelor's degrees on February 20, 1991. The Pohang Light Source was completed on December 7, 1994. In 1998, Asiaweek Magazine ranked POSTECH first among science and technology universities in Asia. On February 28, 2000, the university, in collaboration with the City of Pohang and POSCO, established the Pohang Techno Park. The Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics relocated to POSTECH on August 23, 2001. The university was recognized by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development as an “Excellent University for Educational Reform” for seven consecutive years starting in the late 1990s. The Tae-joon Park Digital Library opened on April 25, 2003. The Graduate Institute of Ferrous Technology was established on September 9, 2005, followed by the National Institute for Nanomaterials Technology on May 30, 2007.
On March 2, 2010, POSTECH announced its bilingual campus initiative. An agreement with the Max Planck Society was signed on June 14, 2010, to establish the Max Planck POSTECH/Korea Research Initiative. On September 16 of the same year, Times Higher Education ranked POSTECH 28th in its Times [Higher Education World University Rankings|World University Rankings]. The Department of Creative IT Engineering was created on July 6, 2011, and the Graduate School of Engineering Mastership was established on August 20, 2012. In December 2012, POSTECH was included in Thomson Reuters’ list of the Top 100 Global Innovators. The Tae-joon Park Institute opened on February 15, 2013, and the groundbreaking ceremony for PAL-XFEL took place on May 9, 2013. On June 13, four research centers under the Institute for Basic Science were established at the university.
POSTECH was ranked first among the top 100 universities under 50 years old by Times Higher Education in 2012, 2013, and 2014. It was also ranked first in the JoongAng Ilbo Korean University Rankings in both 2013 and 2014. The POSTECH Entrepreneurship Center, supported by the Small & Medium Business Administration, opened on September 15, 2014. The APGC-Lab and a startup company, exBrain, were launched on September 19. On December 17, 2014, the Pohang Center for Creative Economy & Innovation opened. On June 4, 2016, PAL-XFEL achieved first light, marking the start of its operational phase.