Welcome Address

HYUN, Syng-IL, Ph.D.

President

Kookmin University

Distinguished delegates, Ladies and gentlemen!

It is my honour to be here to welcome all of you to 'The 3rd International Conference and the Korea-U.S. Joint Seminar on Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) in the East Asia - Pacific Region' held in central Seoul, Korea.

First of all, to the guests from abroad, I would like to extend my heartfelt welcome to you in the season of beautiful autumn colors in Korea. Surprisingly, we have 15 distinguished guests joining this event despite awful suffering from the Earthquake, last month from Taiwan. I would like to express our deep sympathy to those who have been suffered from the Earthquake. It is also remarkable to find that another 13 distinguished scientists joined from the U.S. in order the share the experiences and ideas with the colleagues in this region. It is my knowledge that the U.S. pioneered the Long-Term Ecological Research for the last 20 years. Moreover, 10 distinguished delegates from Japan, China, Russia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia came to this Conference to exchange ideas in activating the Long-Term Ecological Research Networks and the conservation of biodiversity in this region.

As a social scientist, I feel that ecology and social science have common grounds in science, such as the basic methodologies and approaches. One of the themes of this workshop is LTER, that is Long-Term Ecological Research. Although I am not so much accustomed to the history of LTER, establishing long-term aspects upon any phenomenon either in society or in nature is very important premises to secure sustainability. Especially, in the age of environment, to monitor the change and to predict future development of environmental condition are critically important. We all are aware of the global change of environment with great worry and care. In this aspect, to study the long-term change of ecosystem and establishing networks among the study sites in local, regional and global scales is of critical importance.

I heard that more than 60 papers from 10 countries will be presented during the event. I sincerely hope that your active presentation and discussion on the issues will bear wonderful fruits toward the central theme, 'The activation of national networks and promotion of cooperation on LTER and biodiversity conservation in the East Asia-Pacific region.' I firmly believe that this Conference will provide a firm stepping stone for the development of LTER networks in this region as well as the basis for development of significant joint researches among scientists in the region in the future.

As the president of a host organization, I am trying to support this kind of activity very much. In doing this, well coordinated and cooperative efforts among the researchers, host organizations, and the sponsoring agencies are considered to be the key points in securing the success of almost every work. In this regard, I would like to thank Dr. Chung Duk Kim, the president of the KOSEF (Korea Science and Engineering Foundation), Korea Research Foundation, and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which have made it possible to host this seminar and Conference of the Long-Term Ecological Research in Korea. In addition, the efforts of the scientists from the Forestry Research Institute and those affiliated in the Ecological Society of Korea are greatly appreciated in preparing this event.

Finally, I wish all the participants have a great time in science during the Conference period and all the foreign guests have wonderful stay and field excursion in this beautiful season in Korea. Thank you very much! 감사합니다!