Dongguk to create biomedical hub
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Kim Hee-ok, president of Dongguk University
By Park Yoon-bae
By Bahk Eun-ji
Dongguk University plans to create an international academic-industrial biomedical cooperation hub on its campus in Ilsan on the northwestern outskirts of Seoul.
“It is a core part of our school renaissance plan,” Kim Hee-ok, president of the university, said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.
More than 300 billion won has been so far invested in the hub, which will host around 2,500 students, researchers and professors as early as 2015.
Dongguk professors and researchers are working to develop medical devices and technology such as intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging, in cooperation with top universities overseas, including the University of South California and Houston University. IVUS is a technology that allows imaging of the interior of arteries and veins.
Kim said the Ilsan hub will integrate research of Western and Oriental medicine, pharmaceuticals, life science and biotechnology.
The Ilsan campus, opened in 2011, houses pharmaceutical and medical colleges as well as a general hospital, with a bio-system engineering college under construction since last month.
Dongguk has its old campus near Mt. Nam in Seoul and is famous for its ties to Buddhism and emphasis on humanities studies, so the Ilsan campus represents a shift on the schools’ focus.
The 66-year-old leader of the university said that the biomedical center will meet soaring demand for medical and health care services as well as promote academic-industrial cooperation with many research centers supported by government agencies and companies in the area.
“The prime reason we started to focus on nurturing science and engineering is that our society needs more and more talent in these fields,” he said.
Dongguk’s literary alumnae include, among others, Han Yong-un, also known by his penname Manhae, a poet and philosopher whose work, “My Lord’s Silence,” inspired resistance against imperial Japan. He was one of 33 signatories to the 1919 Declaration of Independence at the height of Japanese colonial rule.
Kim said that this humanities tradition will be preserved.
“Science and engineering have to be based on a firm grasp of the humanities. In this sense, we are pursuing our renaissance plan to create a balance between the two,” he said.
Kim, who studied law at Dongguk from 1968 to 1972, served as vice justice minister between 2005 and 2006 and Constitutional Court judge. He took up his current post in March 2011.
Park Yoon-bae