On January 18, 2015, Prof. Inwoo Han, President of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), visited NAOC and gave a presentation that introduced Korean Astronomy and Space Science research programs. Prof. Han began by summarizing the history of the Korean Astronomical Society, the Korean Space Science Society and KASI, including key issues related to science and technology policy of the government and human resources. He noted that the Korean government has a budget that devotes 5% of GPD to science and technology, which is among the highest fractions of GDP allocated to science and technology in the world. He also displayed an organizational chart for KASI and gave an overview of astronomical facilities in Korea, which include radio telescopes and a solar telescope. He continued by saying that the facilities for radio astronomy in Korea have joined in VLBI projects with similar facilities in Japan, Europe and Australia.

Prof. Han then described some international projects in more detail in which KASI is a contributor. One of these projects is the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). KASI is supervising fabrication of secondary mirrors that will be part of the GMT. In addition, it is managing G-CLEF, which is also part of the GMT. G-CLEF has the goal of searching for Earth-sized planets through radial velocity observations of stars. Prof. Han continued by elucidating the KMTNet project, which uses several dedicated telescopes with large fields of view located in the southern hemisphere to continuously monitor areas of the night sky. KMTNet will contribute to ongoing research in microlensing, variable stars, extrasolar planets and surveys of supernovae. Prof. Han also outlined projects managed by KASI to track space weather and satellites.

Prof. Han ended his talk by saying that KASI would like to continue joining in international collaborative research efforts, especially around East Asia. He also said that KASI welcomes visits by international students and researchers.