A 2022 UN International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development celebratory event was successfully held by Korea University.
The event was a festival where elementary, middle, and high schools and the public could enjoy basic science together and cultivate the spirit of science.

Korea University’s College of Science successfully held its 2022 UN International Year of Basic Sciences celebratory event on August 19 (Fri) and 20 (Sat) at multiple venues, including the Asan Science Building and Mediheal Earth & Environment Science Hall.

The goal of the event was to increase interest in the field of basic science by facilitating links between elementary, middle and high schools, universities, and various regions, and to motivate participants to expand the horizons of basic science.

  Key events:
  ▸Program (1) : Forum for the Promotion of Basic Science
  ▸Program (2) : Basic Science Storytelling ─ public lectures by researchers in basic science
  ▸Program (3) : Science is Life, Life is Science ─ an arena for experience, exploration, and practice
  ▸Program (4) : Basic Science Presented by our Young Science Aspirants

In the Forum for the Promotion of Basic Science, the deans of Colleges of Natural Sciences at universities in the Seoul area reflected on the past and present of basic science and held lively discussions about its future direction. Keum Jong-hae, the president of the Korean Mathematical Society and the Korea Basic Science Association, gave a keynote lecture on the topic of Korean Basic Science, Opportunities and Challenges, and Lee June-yub, director of the Natural Sciences Division of the National Research Foundation of Korea gave a lecture on the status and prospects of basic science research projects. In addition, Jho Eek-hoon, dean of the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Seoul, delivered a presentation on the theme of ‘How should the College of Natural Sciences change?’, and Lee Jun-ho, chairman of the Korea Promotion Committee for the International Year of Basic Sciences, made a presentation on the theme of sustainable development and basic science.

In the Basic Science Storytelling program, Korea University professors gave mathematics-themed lectures on 'The Role of Mathematics in Modern Science' and 'Categories of Infinity'. There was also a physics-themed lecture on 'Faraday's Guitar Concert', and a chemistry-themed lecture on 'Everyday Curiosity, Chemistry in Food'. The audience was mostly made up of elementary, middle and high school students. Professor Lee Sang-won of the Department of Chemistry at Korea University gave a public lecture on the interesting topic of ‘The Cancer Moonshot: The Journey to Conquer Cancer’, and Professor Lee Jong-phil of Konkook University's Sang-huh College shared an interesting take on science seen from the perspective of the public on the topic of ‘Why is science so difficult?’
 

The Science is Life, Life is Science program was an arena in which the experience, exploration, and practice of science unfolded.

The program was designed to inspire interest and curiosity in science by incorporating various activities including solving mathematical puzzles such as the determination of the shortest delivery route, the use of coding mathematics to create Voronoi diagrams incorporating colored chocolates, participation in physics experiments including the demonstration of the circular motion of electrons, and biological experiments including the observation of fruit fly mutations.

Lastly, the Basic Science Presented by our Young Science Aspirants program allowed students to display and explain the contents of various mathematical and scientific fields of research on posters, either individually or as teams. Participants' understanding was deepened when their posters on specific topics in science were evaluated by experts in the fields involved.

The UN has designated 2022 as the year of basic science. To celebrate this, various events for the promotion of basic science are being held around the world in 2022 and 2023. In Korea, various types of event are scheduled to be held at the natural science colleges and science colleges of 27 universities nationwide, led by the Ministry of Education and the National Council of Natural Science College Deans.

The Ministry of Education launched the Korea promotion committee in February in order to oversee continuous planning of university events during the course of the year, and in April a ceremony was held at Seoul National University to announce Korea’s participation in the 2022 UN International Year of Basic Sciences.

The celebratory event was a science festival designed to be enjoyed by not only university researchers and students, but also elementary, middle, and high school students and local residents, and it laid out the schedule of events, the areas to be focused on and the collaborations with regional universities that will take place during the year.