I am Sang-Mook Lee, the head professor of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Program in Computational Sciences. Some people say that Sciences started about 2600 years ago when the ancient Greek philosopher Thales predicted solar eclipse. As aforementioned case, human beings have constantly endeavored to understand natural phenomena for such a long time. I assume that all of you are well aware of Newton who discovered universal gravitation, Einstein who discovered the theory of general relativity, and Watson who discovered DNA, and such discoveries of natural phenomena have greatly contributed to our bountiful lives of humankind. However, human beings face serious issues of global level such as global warming, climate changes, earthquake, and volcano despite the breakthrough in sciences and these issues still remain as unknown fields.

It is essentially required to integrate various fields of studies covering physics, chemistry, and mathematics and to have more than the professional knowledge of specific fields in order to understand unknown field of nature. Especially, for the past several years, epoch-making developments in mathematical calculation method, computer software and hardware have made complicated and vast calculation possible which was impossible in the past. Computational Sciences suggests new ways to understand nature based on the epoch-making developments of mathematics and computers. Not only is Computational Sciences limited to understanding of nature only, but it is also widely applied in various fields such as engineering, finance, economy, and even human & social sciences.

For example, predicting the stocks, forecasting weather and climate, and expecting traffic density are common in our daily lives with help of Computational Sciences. Developments of environment-friendly automobile and passenger plane, which minimize environmental pollution, were accomplished through Computational Sciences. Besides, restoration of cultural properties which have historical and archeological values, and brilliant special effects and images that commonly appear on TV and movies are possible due to Computational Sciences.

As importance of is increasing every day, demand of related professionals is explosively increasing world-wide. In advanced countries like US, Europe, and Japan, education of is actively carried out in undergraduate and postgraduate schools led by the government and private firms, and many professionals are turned out every year. In order to keep pace with the advanced countries, few of domestic universities including Seoul National University have established Computational Sciences & Technology(CST) course, yet professional education for undergraduates is not accomplished. Therefore, Seoul National University established Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Program in Computational Sciences from March 2011 to provide systematic education.

Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Program in Computational Sciences has integrated various fields of studies such as Human & Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Engineering, etc to prepare and prevent natural disaster that human beings face and to preserve our cultures. In fact, it will become foundation for genuine intellectuals who will lead our lives to the fullest.

Head professor / Sang-Mook Lee

Head professor / Sang-Mook Lee