Thesis citation score similar to Yale University, higher than Stanford University
QS assessment within rank 150 in the world, contending for 1st place in Korea with Seoul National University
Professor Park, Ju-Hyun of Electronic Engineering who is 'expert of thesis', published about 290 theses including 170 SCI theses for the last 10 years
[July 19, 2011]
Recently, Yeungnam University (president Lee, Hyo-Soo) has put up its name on the world's top 150 in the field of mathematics in the '2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities' announced by 'QS(Quacquarelli Symonds)'. The only domestic universities that have placed within rank 150 in the world are Yeungnam University and Seoul National University. KAIST was within rank 151~200.
There is an assessment that such remarkable performance of Yeungnam University is due to the research performance of Professor Park, Ju-Hyun (44, Electronic Engineering, see photo). Since 2000, Professor Park had as many as 170 SCI theses (Science Citation Index) that people say it is difficult to write even 1 thesis per year. If we add up the domestic journals and the theses presented to domestic/foreign symposiums, the number reaches up to 290 theses. It was like writing 26 theses per year including 16 SCI theses.
The domestic press media have also focused their attention to such remarkable research ability of Professor Park. <Chosun Ilbo> had put up an article of interviewing Professor Park at the top of paper with a title of "One 'Monster Professor' Upgrades the Mathematics of Yeungnam University to Yale University Standard" on the 'Social Issues' section (page 14) dated July 18th. Subsequently, the paper has put up a criticism called "We See the Hope of Korean Academic World from Him" with a title called 'Scholar and Thesis' also on the [Manmullsang](page 38) dated July 19th.
According to the article, Yeungnam University has received a high score of 83.5 points in the 'citations per thesis' which is one of QS evaluation indices. This is similar to the worldly famous Yale University (85.5 points) and higher than Stanford University (74.2 points). Having many number of citations means that so many excellent theses have been written.
The press was more interested in the secret of producing such outstanding performance by Professor Park. The article indirectly shows the secret of Professor Park through the evaluation of professors who work with him saying "he has great ability to concentrate", "he has extraordinary brain" or "he researches like a monster". The strict rule of Professor Park famous for researching by coming to school early next morning even after drinking heavily is not delaying the research work. People say he starts his day by reading the theses of scholars throughout the world uploaded on the internet overnight by coming to the lab 8 in the morning everyday even during the vacation.
Professor Park was assigned to Yeungnam University for the first time in 2000 at the age of 33. His main area of research is control engineering. Among this field his area is not the applied field such as robots, but the Nonlinear Dynamics which is the field of basic theory. It is so called 'basic study' of finding patterns in complicated nature.
Another secret is finding a different subject every 2~3 once he feels that he achieved certain level of performance in one subject. The reason why the theses wrote by Professor Park was widely cited and became famous was because he constantly developed the areas that no one else had dealt with.
Professor Park has presented a total of about 290 theses including about 170 SCI theses since 2000. It was like presenting 26 theses per year. Because of this, Yeungnam University has recently put up its name in the world's top 150 in the field of mathematics in 'QS Academic Ranking of World Universities'.
In 2008, he was appointed as the first Korean lifetime assistant chief editor of an SCI level international journal called 'Applied Mathematics and Computation'. Being in charge of as a chief editor deciding whether to publish theses is considered as greatest honor for scholars. 'Applied Mathematics and Computation' is an SCI level journal which totally includes the field of applied science (mathematics, engineering, physics and biology, etc) that can be interpreted based on applied mathematics while the editing team organization almost never changed after being founded in 1975 and famous for strict management of standards. And professor Park was appointed as lifetime assistant editor. The Elsevier Company of the United States publishing this journal has officially approved the research performance of Professor Park by expressing the fact that the reason for appointing Professor Park is because not only he has spread a vigorous writing activity in the field of Nonlinear Dynamics for the last 10 years, but also devotedly performed the role as a reviewer on the theses applied to be printed on the journal.
In addition, Professor Park is in charge of thesis evaluation on about 50 SCI level journals such as participating as editorial staff of SCI level journal called 'Journal of The Franklin Institute' which is one of journals with longest history after being founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1826. Even in Korea, he is participating as editorial staff of 'control robot system society' and founding member/assistant chief editor of journal at 'IEMEK', etc.
On such research performance of Professor Park, even other professors say that "he accomplished a very difficult thing". That is because the situation is that there is relatively great shortage of graduate school students in the universities of non metropolitan area compared to the leading university of Seoul with plenty of researchers from having many graduate school students. However, Professor Park said "The research of a scholar is same whether it might be in Seoul or in Daegu. The research is something which is done your own" and became humble by saying " It seems that I was somewhat neglecting the research from having a lot of foreign activities these days and I'm trying to catch a new subject of thesis by settling myself once again".
