00:00:00 Thank you for watching.

00:00:30 I would firstly like to say what a very real pleasure and honor it is to have this opportunity

00:00:40 of congratulating President Kang and also other leaders of Tumen University and other

00:00:53 leaders of Gwanju City, as well as Dean Lee and Professor Yang, and also Doctors Kim and

00:01:05 Hong, directors of the Centers for Hydrogen Storage and for fuel cell programs, and in

00:01:17 addition, delegates from my own university, the University of Texas at Dallas.

00:01:24 I wish to thank all of these people for their great foresight in instituting an energy laboratory

00:01:39 here at Tumen National University today.

00:01:46 I am, of course, very greatly disappointed that I cannot be here in person to dedicate

00:01:59 the Alan MacDairmid Energy Institute, but unfortunately my doctors do not permit me

00:02:10 to take long distance traveling at the present time, but I want to assure you that even though

00:02:20 my body is not present, I am very much with you in spirit on this very, very important occasion.

00:02:28 Now, I think we all fully realize the very great importance of energy in the world today,

00:02:41 that energy is probably the single most important energy problem facing all of us in every country

00:02:52 in the world today.

00:02:56 We know very well that the world cannot continue to use fossil fuels, gasoline, coal, gas,

00:03:12 because this will continue to liberate carbon dioxide, which will add to the greenhouse effect

00:03:23 with warming of the world, which will bring about drastic changes in climate as well as flooding

00:03:32 low-lying areas in various countries.

00:03:37 Now, what we need at the present time is the support of governments, the support of scientists,

00:03:51 the support of industry, and above all, the support of individual people in a given country

00:04:02 to institute a crash program, which will cost a lot of money, but which will be a savings in money

00:04:16 for the future generations of people in the world.

00:04:23 This will involve looking at alternate energy sources, which are most suited for the individual country,

00:04:37 for the individual climatic conditions, for the sociological government positions,

00:04:44 and this will cover areas such as biofuels, windmills, tide power, photoelectrolysis of water,

00:04:56 solar power, and many other subjects such as this.

00:05:02 It will also involve a very great collaboration between a variety of persons,

00:05:11 between chemists, physicists, biochemists, electrochemistry, geologists,

00:05:22 very, very much collaborative interaction, a highly interdisciplinary field.

00:05:34 And we will find that this will have many beneficial side effects from a crash collaborative program such as this.

00:05:48 Now, I myself tend, since I come from a small agricultural country such as New Zealand,

00:05:58 I myself am very keen on the whole area of biomass,

00:06:06 and I would like to read for you a recent statement by the USA Department of Energy,

00:06:14 and this statement concludes by saying,

00:06:18 The ability to use the full range of cellulosic material from grasses or trees to waste paper

00:06:28 would enable ethanol production to meet the entire US demand for gasoline.

00:06:36 And this is a statement in print by the USA Department of Energy.

00:06:45 Now, I come, as I said, from a small country, New Zealand,

00:06:52 and, of course, Korea is a small country,

00:06:57 but Korea is one of the world leaders in technology today.

00:07:08 The question is, why is this?

00:07:11 Korea has no natural mineral resources.

00:07:17 It has no natural energy resources such as petroleum,

00:07:22 but it does have four, shall we say, raw materials.

00:07:28 It has air, it has water, it has sand for silicon chips, and it has people.

00:07:36 Air, water, sand, and people.

00:07:41 But every country in the world has air, water, sand, and people.

00:07:48 Why is it, then, that Korea is so advanced technologically?

00:07:54 And, obviously, it comes down to people.

00:07:58 So, the sociological climate in Korea and the excellent educational system,

00:08:10 this combination of these two factors, and possibly other important factors,

00:08:16 have led Korea to be a leader in technology in the whole world.

00:08:24 And, of course, now is the time for Korea to be a leader in alternate energy forms,

00:08:33 not only for Korea, but for the whole world.

00:08:40 One is always faced, will a country be a leader, or will a country be a follower?

00:08:53 So, with the formation of the McDiarmid Energy Institute here at Cheonan University,

00:09:06 Korea is taking an important step to become a leader in this very, very important area to the whole world.

00:09:21 So, we, my colleagues from the University of Texas at Dallas,

00:09:32 and my friends and colleagues from Cheonan University, and other persons in Korea,

00:09:45 we hope that we can cement our friendships in the future by carrying out,

00:09:55 and by visits from one university to the other,

00:10:00 not only of administrators and of key scientists,

00:10:04 but hopefully also of junior scientists, students, and postdoctoral persons,

00:10:11 so we can lead the world in the future.

00:10:15 And I would like to again stress the importance of people.

00:10:23 As we had mentioned, air, water, sand, and people.

00:10:28 People are the most important component of future advances.

00:10:35 And this is where I want to share with you the statement,

00:10:41 and by concluding with the statement which we have in front of us,

00:10:48 science is people.

00:10:51 Our world was formerly limited to relatively small regions where we lived and worked.

00:11:02 But today, our world is becoming smaller.

00:11:08 Our world today is now potentially the whole world,

00:11:13 an international, educational, cultural organization of people

00:11:20 where we can all benefit from each other,

00:11:24 learning from each other, and teaching each other.

00:11:30 I hope by this time next year to be with you both in body and in spirit.

00:11:41 So, her dansi, kamsahamnida.