Jason Koski/University Photography.

A delegation from South Korea's Seoul National University met with College of Agriculture and Life Sciences faculty and administrators Feb 16. From left to right: Joon-Ho Lee, James Haldeman, Mooha Lee, Elizabeth Earle and Soo-Un Kim in front of Warren Hall. Haldeman is director of International Programs in CALS and Earle is professor of plant breeding and genetics. Copyright © Cornell University

A delegation of researchers from South Korea's Seoul National University (SNU) visited Cornell Feb. 15 to 18 to promote the joint Brain Korea 21 (BK21 -- 21 stands for 21st century) program, an established collaboration between the two universities.

BK21 is a human resource development program initiated by the South Korean Ministry of Education. The Cornell-SNU collaboration focuses on biotechnology because of both universities' leading roles in medical and veterinary science and agricultural and environmental research as they relate to biotech. The main aim of BK21 is to prepare the next generation of leaders by improving research infrastructure and graduate training in Korea.

"The basic aim of BK21 is not research," said Soo-Un Kim, head of BK21 and a professor in the School of Agricultural Biotechnology at SNU. "It is a human development program; most of the money goes into supporting the students."

Phase one of the collaboration began in 1999 with a loose agreement between the two universities' colleges of agriculture expressing a desire to work together, subject to necessary financing. Soon after, the Ministry of Education in Seoul funded BK21. Over the last seven years, 20 SNU graduate students have conducted research at Cornell for three to 12 months at a time.

Several BK21 students later returned to Cornell to pursue doctoral degrees, and some have written joint papers with Cornell faculty members.

Along with Kim, the visiting delegates included Mooha Lee and Joon-Ho Lee, both SNU professors. The three of them met with Cornell faculty and administrators to assess phase one of the agreement. "The most important thing was that the students returning to Korea after training at Cornell were motivated, compared to before they were sent to Cornell," said Kim. "That was a big boost in the morale of the laboratories where they worked."

"I found students from the BK21 program to be bright, talented and motivated," added Alice Pell, a professor of animal science at Cornell and a BK21 faculty adviser. "Transnational education programs such as BK21 certainly help further diversify the student population at Cornell, which is a great benefit for all."

The delegates also proposed phase two of the collaboration. They await approval and funding from the South Korean government, which is expected in late March or early April; discussions will then begin at Cornell about how best to proceed for phase two's seven-year term.

"They would like to see some of our students going there," said James Haldeman, senior associate director of International Programs in Cornell's College of Agriculture. "They would also like to see greater faculty exchange."

The program will continue to send SNU students here, and the group is exploring the possibility of a dual graduate degree program and internships. Discussions are also underway about the potential of a distance-learning component. Numerous Cornell graduate courses (including 80 percent of Cornell's graduate plant science courses) have been professionally videotaped and put on CDs.