KUSCO supported the US-Korea Conference (UKC) 2011: “US-Korea Summit on Science and Technology of 40 Years,” at the Canyons Resort, Park City, Utah on August 10-14, 2011, co-organized by Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA) and the Korea Federation of Science and Technology Societies (KOFST).

This year, UKC 2011 was especially remarkable due to the 40th Anniversary of KSEA. Under the theme of “US-Korea Summit on Science and Technology of 40 Years,” there were more than 1,000 attendants from various fields including academia, governments and industries not only from Korea but from the U.S. UKC 2011 brought more dynamic programs for scientists and engineers including 18 interdisciplinary invited sessions, 13 technical group sessions, 19 forums, 41 exhibition/recruiting booths, etc.

The UKC 2011 consisted of four different sections: Forums- research/rail, roundtable industry, accelerator, science and energy, Science Track- physics, computing, chemistry, environment, energy and institutes, Engineering Track- robotics, transportation, offshore, mobile comm, Nano and construction, and Health Track- immunology, brain, pharmaceutics, RNAi, and cancer.

Over one hundred distinguished researchers were invited, and keynote speakers included Mr. Philip Coyle, Associate Director of White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP); Prof. Mario Capecchi of University of Utah, the 2007 Nobel Laureate in Medicine; Prof. Sylvester “Jim” Gates, a member of President Obama’s Council of Advisors of Science and Technology (PCAST); and Prof. Philip Kim of Columbia University, who is renowned for his groundbreaking research in Graphene. In addition, there were over fifty exhibition booths from major corporations from the US and Korea who conducted interviews to hire the brightest minds.

UKC is one of the core programs at KUSCO with the largest funding every year.  For this year, Dr. Se-Jung Oh, President of KUSCO & NRF, gave an opening remarks as well as plenary presentation regarding “Status of Korean S&T and the Role of NRF.”

KUSCO has supported UKC since 1999 in order to promote S&T cooperation between Korea and the U.S. Since 2006, KUSCO has acted as a co-organizer and it has been incorporated into KUSCO program since 2010. Over the year, KUSCO is very pleased to see how UKC has been grown and where it stands now.

UKC 2012 is planned to be held on August 8th ~ 12th in Los Angeles, CA.