The appointment of KAIST's next president has fallen through.
KAIST's board of directors held a meeting on Feb. 26 to appoint the 18th KAIST president and held a vote, but the appointment was rejected because no candidate met the threshold of winning a majority of attending directors, KAIST said.
The board discussed the appointment of the 18th president, considering three finalists who were selected in March last year: incumbent President Kwang-hyung Lee (이광형), professor Jung-ho Kim (김정호) of the Department of Electrical Engineering and former UNIST president Yong-hoon Lee (이용훈). It did not reach a conclusion.
After the rejection, KAIST will begin a reapplication process to select candidates again from scratch. Incumbent President Lee's term ended on Feb. 22 last year, a year ago. Given that the appointment process usually takes more than 3 months, the vacancy for a new president is expected to be prolonged.
Jin-ho Lee
jhlee26@d-today.co.kr