Center for Relativistic Laser Science

'We are still hungry!!'

I like to share my message of happy new year in 2016 with all of you. I deeply appreciate for all your efforts of working hard to improve your own strength in science and assist the Center in many ways in 2015.

It has been hectic last year. Moving was a big burden for all of us. Too many things to take care of... Without the devoted efforts from all of you, it would have not been possible.

Yet, moving was one thing but more difficulty was on how to manage all the equipments efficiently. The idea of this building operation was collaboration to make us strong with synergistic effects. Adding two should be greater than two. To do this, sharing equipments was very necessary for collaboration in particular within the limited budget. Yet, this is somehow contradictory because the idea and spirit of sharing and collaboration were in fact not our common practice from professors' point of views. In spite of such difficulties, all the professors absorbed this concept. At this point I am really thankful to all the professors. In this sense, we are making history of establishing a new system for managing and sharing the building space in the university, not just in Korea but also worldwide. For this, I am also thankful to Equipment Purchase and Management Committee members for their time and effort to implement this system.

This is still ongoing process. While we initiated this with good intention, the implimentation of this idea of sharing by making google scheduler with superuser's devoted role still takes time. More communication and more devotion are required. We already noticed our government effort on monitoring how the equpments are maintained in each Center. More tense requirements and inspection will be coming this year. Yet, with our current efforts, I do not worry much. Yet, we have to pay attention to this.

In spite of such hectic issues, we have worked hard to deepen our science in 2015. I notice that every member demonstrated great improvement in their own research topics. I can see this progress from everyone including students and fellows. This is the most joyful moment for me personally to see such improvements from person to person. I also noticed that communication between students from each group, between research fellows, between students and research fellows have been improving significantly. We are experts in their own research area but not perfect to know everything. I am sure you do not have to know everything and you cannot know everything either. But with collaboration, you can be stronger. This is the reason of establishing Centers like us with strong government support and will be a measure of Center's strength in midterm evaluation in future. As a Director, I am very proud of you guys!

Now, it is a new year 2016, three years since we started. The second stage of strengthening our basic researches according to our research plan. While we all improved already a lot in science, I am still hungry for more. I want all of you to be stronger in science. Later when you get a job in other place, you will pursue and enjoy science the same as here. Don't forget. Unless you do well, you cannot enjoy what you are doing.

This is my small message for 2016. I am still hungry! Let's move on!

Director of CINAP

Young Hee Lee