On the 15th of September, 2000, the Center for High Energy Physics (CHEP) was formally inaugurated at Kyungpook National University after it was approved as one of the designated Excellent Research Centers supported by the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology in June, 2000. The inauguration was a significant occasion since Korean high-energy physicists have waited a long time for such a center to focus and coordinate their research.

The CHEP played important roles in the international experiments, including AMS, CMS, CDF and BELLE, in which the Koreans were participating while it kept exploring the chances for establishing domestic experiments and international experiments led by Korean physicists.

In June 2018, The CHEP was selected as one of the Focused Research Centers supported by the Korean Ministry of Education. Since then, it has been involved in various high energy and astroparticle physics experiments including collider experiments (CMS and Belle), underground experiments (COSINE and AMoRE), and space experiments (ISS-CREAM and AMS). It also has been involved in nuclear theory, cosmology and astronomy that study nuclear structures of stars, relativistic astrophysical phenomena and gamma ray bursts. The CHEP has been one of the pioneer institutes in the development of scintillators and the precision characterization of photo-sensors for particle and radiation physics applications as well as various interdisciplinary applications. It also has been developing nano material-based soft optical devices for various interdisciplinary applications.

The CHEP will continue to carry out its research in the fields of high energy, astroparticle, nuclear physics, cosmology, and detector and device development.

Looking forward to working and collaborating with the physicists in the related fields.

Sincerely yours,

Hong Joo Kim