Nine Proposals from Yonsei University Selected for WCU Project Nine proposals from Yonsei University have been selected for the Korean government’s World Class University (WCU) Project, a project for which the government will spend 165 billion won in the first year, and a total of 825 billion won over the process of five years, in order to bring universities to the level of “world class universities”. Yonsei will receive 7.7 billion won in funding during the first year, and a total of 38 billion won in the entire program. The number of proposals accepted in the social sciences was very low, with only two Economics proposals accepted. Significantly, both of these proposals were from Yonsei University. In the first category, “Type 1: Establishing new academic departments or specialized majors,” Professor Seo Jin-Keun’s (mathematics) proposal for “Computational Science and Engineering(CSE)” and Professor Chung In-Kwon’s (biology) proposal for “Integrated Omics for Biomedical Science” were accepted. The universities selected for Type 1 will be allowed to increase their student population according to the size of the new department. Professor Seo’s team plans to open a graduate program in Computational Science and Engineering(CSE) through the WCU program. The CSE program will be an interdisciplinary graduate program which takes a comprehensive approach to the multi-step process in which the problems in areas such as engineering, medical imaging, natural science, and industry are solved. For this project, experts in the field will join the Yonsei faculty, including Professor Max Gunzburger of Florida State University and Professor Carsten Carstensen of the Humboldt University of Germany. Professor Chung’s team will establish a graduate program in Integrated Omics for Biomedical Science, where domestic and international researchers of various areas within the discipline will come together to pioneer the development towards the post-genome era. International scholars who will be participating in this project are Professor Sung-Hou Kim of UC-Berkeley, Professor William Hancock of Northeastern University, Professor Jürgen Roth of the University of Zurich, and Professor Nam-On Ku of the University of Michigan. For the second category, “Type 2: Recruiting foreign scholars to existing academic programs,” Professor Kim Jin-Woo’s (economics) Global Economy and Market Design project and Professor Kim Dong-Ho’s (chemistry) Smart Nano-complex project were selected. Professor Kim Jin-Woo has invited Professor Yeon-Koo Che of the University of Columbia in order to conduct research on global economy and market design. In the face of the changes caused by technological and environmental innovations and discoveries, the project aims to encourage interest and research and also educate students regarding the designing of markets that will effectively distribute resources in the future. Professor Kim Dong-Ho will work with Professor Jonathan Sessler of the University of Texas at Austin and Professor Dongil Lee of Western Michigan University to develop innovative nano-based technology, accelerate the development of nanoscience in Korea, and ensure a secure position in relation to more developed countries. For the third category, “Type 3: Inviting distinguished world-class scholars,” the projects of Professors Jang Yong-Sung (economics), Lee Myong-Euy (Wonju, chemistry and medical chemistry), Lee Won-Tae (biochemistry), Oh Young-Joon (biology), and Park Joonhong (Civil and Environmental Engineering) were selected. Professor Jang has invited Professor Richard Rogerson of Arizona State University, who is the editor of American Economic Review, to give a graduate lecture and cooperate on a research project to develop a new economic model. Professor Lee Myong Euy will invite Professor Robert West of the University of Wisconsin-Madison to lecture on organometallics and conduct research on the development of silicon material. Professor Lee Won-Tae will invite 2002 Nobel Laureate in chemistry, Professor Kurt Wüthrich of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich. In addition to conducting research, Professor Wüthrich will teach an undergraduate course on “Frontier Bioscience,” lead a graduate seminar, and participate in various academic activities. Professor Oh will be inviting Professor Moussa Youdim of the Techion-Israel Institute of Technology to teach an undergraduate course on biological microsystems. The two professors will also conduct research to derive potential new medicines from the neuron protecting properties of M-30 and VK-28 derivatives. Professor Park will work with Professor James Tiedje of Michigan State University on pyrosequending-based metagenomics technology transfer, the development of technology for using microorganisms to detect hydrogen and butanol producing resources, and also technology for low-energy low-carbon-producing sewage processing technology using microorganisms.