Congratulatory Remarks at Dedication Ceremony for IBS Center for Quantum Nanoscience

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honor and truly my pleasure to join you here today to celebrate the dedication ceremony for the Center for Quantum Nanoscience (QNS). I would like to congratulate and thank Director Andreas Heinrich for inviting me to today’s event.

I would also like to recognize and thank President Heisook Kim of Ewha Womans University for providing continuous support to QNS and making the Research Cooperation Building a reality. It wouldn’t have been possible without the support from Ewha and members of QNS. The building will serve as a research home for both QNS and Ewha students and faculty. As the name of the building suggests, it will become a research hub facilitating new research collaborations among researchers around the globe.

The Center was launched January 2017 and is led by Director Heinrich, a pioneer in the shrinking of digital storage going down to a single atom. This is remarkable, as they have not yet been open three years, and yet their research was recognized by major international awards. This is just the start of the groundbreaking research output. I am confident that with Director Heinrich’s leadership, and commitments from the members of QNS, they will lead to create more exciting research outcomes at their new building. If you want to know the future of quantum nanoscience, this is where it will be created.

The building will house up to eight scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs) with the lowest vibrations levels in the nation. The center also has one of only two electron spin resonance scanning tunneling microscope (ESR-STMs) that exist in the world. This competitive edge will open doors for unique research routes and international collaborations. Currently, researchers from 11 nations work here together and they have had over 100 international visitors.

This dedication ceremony is held in conjunction with the IBS Conference on Quantum Nanoscience hosted by QNS. We are honored to have prestigious members of the scientific community with us at the conference. Including Professor Daniel Loss from the University of Basel in Switzerland, a professor of theoretical condensed matter physics, who we heard from this morning. And Professor Roberta Sessoli from the University of Florence in Italy who is a leader in molecular magnetism, who we will hear from tomorrow afternoon. A number of other distinguished speakers are also here at Ewha and I hope this conference will provide a great opportunity for both established scientists and aspiring students to exchange ideas and inspiration.

Before I conclude, I would like to emphasis the work Ewha Womans University has done in providing the support to construct the Research Collaboration Building. This structure is essential as it will facilitate research that has never been done before. I look forward to seeing more collaborations between IBS and Ewha Womans University. I hope IBS will repay the generosity of Ewha, by offering promising opportunities for upcoming female scientists.

Thank you again to Ewha and to everyone here with us today.

KIM Yeongduk
Acting President of IBS