With President Lee Kwang-hyung expressing his intention to resign, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) appears set to switch to an acting president system for the time being.
According to KAIST on the 27th, Lee conveyed to the school that he intends to step down as president. He is expected to submit a formal resignation to the KAIST board of directors as early as the same day, and if the resignation is accepted, Vice President for Academic Affairs Lee Gyun-min will serve as acting president.
The expression of resignation reportedly came immediately after the failure to elect the next president at the KAIST board meeting held the previous day. At the meeting, a vote was held among three candidates — President Lee Kwang-hyung, Professor Kim Jeong-ho of the KAIST School of Electrical Engineering, and former Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) President Lee Yong-hoon — but no candidate won a majority, and a final appointment was not made.
As a result, KAIST has begun a re-opened recruitment process to select candidates from scratch. It may take months or longer to appoint a new president, raising concerns about a leadership vacuum at KAIST, Korea's leading research-oriented university in science and technology.
Lee took office in 2021 as the 17th president of KAIST and has served as acting president since his term ended on Feb. 22 last year. He is also well known for having mentored Korea's first generation of venture entrepreneurs during his tenure as a computer science professor in the 1990s, including Nexon founder Kim Jeong-ju, IDIS Chairman Kim Young-dal, Neowiz founder Shin Seung-woo, and Olaworks founder Kim Jun-hwan.