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The IBS Center for Quantum Nanoscience Receives the Highest Grade in its Fifth-Year Performance Evaluation
The IBS Center for Quantum Nanoscience (QNS) at Ewha Womans University received the highest grade in its performance evaluation, which is conducted on IBS research centers that have been in operation for five years since their inception. The Institute for Basic Science (IBS), a government-funded research institute established to conduct world-class basic science research and now operates a total of 33 research centers including the QNS at Ewha Womans University, conducted the first performance evaluation for research centers that had been active over five years since their foundation. This performance evaluation is an essential process that determines whether each research center continues to be operated, and is based on qualitative assessment of scientific excellence, talent acquisition and cultivation, organizational management, etc. The evaluation committee, comprised of distinguished global scholars in basic science, recognized the world-class scientific excellence of the QNS in this evaluation. During the evaluation, the QNS presented outstanding research results, suggesting the potential of the world’s smallest storage medium and successfully performing the world’s smallest magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), based on its research environment including world-class, low vibration laboratories, and ideal research culture. The QNS was also highly acclaimed for its cultural diversity with a high proportion of foreign researchers, as well as for nurturing next-generation talents, especially women leaders. Indeed, women account for 45 percent of the researchers at the QNS. Ewha launched the QNS on January 1, 2017, under the agreement with the IBS. Andreas Heinrich, Director of the QNS, joined the university as a distinguished professor of the Department of Physics and the first director of the QNS in 2016 after leading research at IBM in the United States for 18 years, and has laid the foundation for the research center by not only designing the low vibration laboratories, but also establishing the state-of-the-art research facilities. With his unique leadership and professionalism, he has brought unprecedented achievements in the short span of five years. The QNS’s research focuses on designing qubits (quantum bits), the basic unit of information in a quantum computer, by using quantum spins on surfaces. Heinrich said, “So far, the QNS has gone through big challenges and I am proud that it has grown to this level in a short span of time with its host Ewha Womans University,” and he added, “The evaluation standard in Korea is so high that we are all making our best effort to meet that standard.”
The Office of International Affairs Hosts the 2022 International Summer College during Summer
Holding the International Summer College offline in three years since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic Providing various cultural activities, such as a Korean royal palace tour and Korean food making, and the first internship opportunities The Office of International Affairs hosted the welcoming ceremony for 2022 Ewha International Summer College Session I on June 29 (Wed.), at the Lee Sam-bong Hall of the ECC building, announcing the beginning of this year’s Summer College, the university’s major global summer program. The Summer College, Korea’s first summer school launched in 1971, has since provided a wide range of courses with credits and cultural activities for international students from various countries every year. The program, designed based on the long tradition of 52 years and Ewha’s education know-how, boasts a high satisfaction rating from participating students for enabling them to take high-quality academic courses taught in English and experience activities related to Korean history and culture. This year’s program consists of two sessions, one for four weeks and another for two weeks, with over 300 participating students. The participants in the International Summer College Session I, which is conducted for four weeks from June 29 (Wed.), included foreign university students from the United States and Europe as well as Ewha. Among them were students from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey and Boston College in the United States and the University of Toronto in Canada participating through faculty-led programs. Staying in the dormitories at Ewha, they took academic courses in English in seven different fields: Art & Music, Business & Economics, East Asian Studies, Humanities, Social Science, Science & Engineering, and Korean Language. In addition to the regular courses, participants also experienced Korean culture every Friday through various activities such as field trips to the royal palace, cooking Korean food, and a visit to Hybe Insight and Jogyesa Temple. Ewha International Summer College Session II took place for two weeks from August 9 to 23, offering the Introductory Korean Studies program, which consists of Korean language classes of different levels, special lectures for English and Japanese by track, and Korean cultural activities. The Office of International Affairs has made efforts to provide more education opportunities for students from foreign universities even when the pandemic restricted overseas travel, by launching Ewha International Winter College in 2020 and hosting both summer and winter colleges online. This year’s Summer College, in particular, offered internship opportunities to the participants for two weeks before the session began, as part of efforts to develop and expand the program to improve students’ satisfaction.
