PHOTOS: COURTESY OF POSTECHMoving forward, POSTECH is dedicating its academic efforts to further strengthen
its role as a leader in climate change research, not only by improving the faculty’s
capability to predict climate disasters, but also by better quantifying the impacts of
global warming on important natural resources, such as water, food, and energy.
To make this goal a reality, POSTECH is encouraging multidisciplinary
research collaborations across fields, and has recently established the School
of Convergence Science and Technology and the Graduate School of Artificial
Intelligence.Next steps
Climate researchers are playing an ever-increasing role in mitigating the
effects of global warming. At POSTECH, Min says, climate research groups are
actively expanding their ability to create research impact by fostering the next
generation of talented scientists. Faculty members from other fields, such as
energy and materials, are conducting related research, such as developing zero-
carbon technologies that will help countries meet their carbon-neutrality goals
and translating research outcomes into real-world applications through close
collaboration with industry. The whole is more than the sum of its parts, and in the
case of climate change, a holistic view is essential to solving this crisis.References
- J.-Y. Park, J.-S. Kug, J. Bader, R. Rolph, M. Kwon, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 112 ,
5921–5926 (2015). - S.-W. Park, J.-S. Kim, J.-S. Kug, Nat. Commun. 11 , 2098 (2020).
- E. Weller et al., Sci. Adv. 2 , e1501719 (2016).
- S. Paik, S.-K. Min, C. E. Iles, E. M. Fischer, A. P. Schurer, Sci. Adv. 6 , eaba1212 (2020).
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Sponsored bytemperature, but our study on the physiological feedback of vegetation suggests
this can happen even without the greenhouse effect,” explains Kug.Focusing on the future
POSTECH’s academic heart lies in forward-thinking research that will enable
citizens across the world to live sustainably. Areas such as artificial intelligence,
battery technology, health care, and smart cities are firmly on their radar, for
example.
From 2016 to 2021, a fifth of the papers published by POSTECH related to the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, a clear demonstration of their
commitment to pursuing research that will underpin future policies aligned to
environmentally sustainable living.
Climate scientist Seung-Ki Min explains that he has been researching how
humans have influenced the climate for two decades, particularly regarding how
the increase in human-made greenhouse gases has and will affect extreme weather
conditions, such as heat waves, heavy rainfall, and tropical cyclones.
His current research focus is on ways to prepare for the imminent effects of
the climate change crisis. “If we can improve the predictability of extreme climate
disasters under different emission scenarios, this will better inform the policy makers
who are preparing climate change adaptation measures,” says Min. “In this way, the
work of climate scientists will affect peoples’ lives more and more in the future.”
Min’s climate research is challenging. Data from weather and climate systems
are inherently noisy, and identifying the signals that indicate the influence of human
activity is no easy task. In particular, oceans introduce considerable variability, and
understanding their role in climate is imperative. Using advanced climate-modeling
approaches, Min demonstrated that the Indo-Pacific warm pool has been expanding
in recent decades due to greenhouse gas increases ( 3 ). He also quantified the
causes of diverse responses of global hydrology to volcanic eruptions.
“Climate models show different degrees of land precipitation reduction
after volcanic eruptions, but the causes remain uncertain. Through systematic
comparisons of many climate models, we found that various El Niño behaviors
following volcanic eruptions could explain a large portion of the uncertainties. This
has important implications for so-called climate engineering that mimics volcanic
influences by blocking out sunlight,” Min explains ( 4 ).Left, Jong-Seong Kug; Right, Seung-Ki Min0128Product.indd 357 1/20/22 6:57 AM