Break the frame to go to the promising field!
- 성균융합원
- Hit2785
- 2018-08-29
Break the frame to go to the promising field!
Prof. Kim Hyung of Global Biomedical Engineering Department
When singer-psy gained explosive popularity worldwide on YouTube, few would have expected it. He did his work hard and silently in his field and became the highest level in his field.
Why could not we predict the emergence of these world-class Korean Wave stars? This is because it is not a work that is deliberately 'planned' by the national or large-scale agency to deliberately create such world stars.
Many of the students interviewing me are concerned about the future after graduation and asking what research areas are promising. I also have anxiety about the future when I am a student, so I understand my students' worries. However, I am sad that it is difficult for students to find autonomy for themselves. Unfortunately, there is no one who gives. In particular, the framework of science has to create itself.
Even me, it is very difficult to predict what kind of discipline will emerge in the future. About 10 years ago, when I went to the US National Institutes of Health to study primates and cognitive science, my friends thought negatively. At that time, I was not even expecting and not even thinking about what field would be promising in the future. I just started to study with the thought that I should recognize the importance of primate research. Luckily, I started to study in Korea, and research has already been activated rapidly in China and other Asian countries.
When I think about 'what if I had made a different choice in accordance with a stereotypical framework that would allow me to succeed as a researcher at that time?', I feel that there will be regrets in one corner of my mind even if it is solved well. That regret is due to the idea that I have not adhered to the truth that I truly pursued after I adhered to the existing framework of success. The important point here is that, rather than adapting itself to a formal framework established in the past, it should be able to accurately grasp the direction and essence of the current pursuit, and choose autonomously regardless of the existing framework.
The social environment is also important for escaping the existing framework. In this regard, the K-pop market seems to be ahead of Korea's educational and scientific community. Nevertheless, we are making continuous efforts. In particular, I believe that the 'Nobel Prize' projects in Korea are the product of popularization that came out to pursue creativity by breaking the existing framework through free research of each individual.
If a certain framework is already in place, its members should be free within it. If you are not free, you can not reveal the truth. Students should also have an attitude of asking and discussing in the freedom of study. Also, the person listening to this question should "discuss", "trust", and listen to his free ideas and logically discuss the questioner. Through these discussions, you can have more free thinking and develop more feasible ideas.
Just as PSY and BTS freely made 'good music', If a researcher freely pursues 'pursuit of truth', he or she will become 'naturally' a world-class scholar. I am still hoping that any student who dares not even imagine anyone will break the existing framework and float around the world.
<Prof. Kim has been studying primate learning and memory mechanisms at the Cognitive Circuitry Lab (www.cocila.net) of the Department of Global Biomedical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University.>