Professor Gordon Dabinett reflects on his trip to Korea November 2011

The main purpose of visiting Daejeon was to give a Keynot Speech on Science Cities and Place Based Regional Development Policies at the 8th World Technopolis Association (WTA) Hi-Tech Fair Conference.  This was one of three events to be co-hosted by the WTA, UNESCO and the City of Daejeon to explore ther role of science and technology park development.  The WTA and conference are led by Professor Deog-Seong Oh of Chungham National University, who undertook post doctoral research in this department with Professor Ian Masser in 1993. 

This was my second visit to Daejeon following a presentation to a WTA-UNESCO workshop there in 2006.  The link with Daejeon (self stlyed Silicon Valley of Korea) has developed as a result of a previous TRP doctoral student, Dr Taek Ku Lee (TK), working with Daejeon Metropolitan City as the Director General of Economy and Idustry Bureau. 

The Trip was made particularly enjoyable in that I was not only able to meet with TK, but also two other Korean doctoral candidates from TRP, Dr Jae Geol Nam and Dr Tae Woon Kim.  Nam has recently secured a job in academia, as an Assistant Professor at Dankook University and is setting out to teach and undertake research on local governance. Kim is the Director of Planning and General Affairs Division in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Medical Innovation Foundation.  He is still a civil servant in Daegu City government, but was dispatched to the foundation which was established to manage the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Medical Cluster.  The opportunity to catch up with these three ex-students who graduated in 2007/08 was a very welcome, as was some of the sight-seeing of Korean culture kindly organised by Nam. The final purpose of the three day visit was to give a student seminar about science policy and 'place based' regional development in the Departmetn of International Trade in the College of Economics & Management at Chungnam National University, at the invitation of Professor Chan-Guk Huh. 

Overall the trip enabled the Department's previous links to this region of Korea to be re-inforced, but it also gave an opportunity to extend possible collaborations with academics in other Universities outside Seoul, and to explore some more of the political-economic history of his welcoming country.