John Gerard Fisher 교수
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“CNU Is a Nice Place for Achieving My Goal”
-Prof. John Gerard Fisher-
By Park Hyo-gyeong, Student Editor
At the beginning of this semester, Chonnam Tribune reported several new foreign professors who were appointed this year, 2010. Prof. John Gerard Fisher, whom I met, is one of them. He is from Britain and received a doctorate degree in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield. In 1999, he came to Korea as a researcher for Korea Institute of Energy Research and taught at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) as a research professor. Then, on July 1st of this year, he was appointed a professor of School of Material Science & Engineering of Chonnam National University (CNU). Before joining CNU, he worked as an assistant research professor at KAIST, but he was looking for a permanent faculty position in a Korean university. He saw an advertisement recruiting foreign faculty members on the CNU website, and he contacted the head of School of Material Science & Engineering, and he was able find his place at CNU.
Within a few short months of his arrival, he became famous among students of the College of Engineering. It was already known that he had worked in KAIST before coming to CNU and he has received much attention by achieving a good deal of research results in the field of green energy materials. Green energy might well be an unfamiliar field to many students, myself included, so, I wanted to introduce him and his field of study, green energy, to CNUians. I visited his office with bated breath.
Prof. Fisher looked very kind and earnest. He answered all my questions with earnestness. I also felt that he was very passionate about his specialty, green energy. He said, “Green energy means sources of energy that are renewable and do not harm the environment.” In the field of green energy, he is studying ceramics processing in particular. “Most of my study is abnormal grain growth in ceramics and also growing single crystals. When I was at KAIST, I mostly worked on electronic ceramics. But at here, CNU, I will work on ceramics for green energy application such as fuel cell batteries.” Prof. Fisher’s laboratory focuses on the processing on environment-friendly ceramic materials and ceramic materials for energy applications.
During the interview, he gave a nod to CNU and CNUians. He said, “My dream is to help the students in my department to increase their understanding of materials science and to improve their communication abilities in English. Then, I hope to establish a research laboratory that will carry out useful research in green energy materials. The prospects for green energy are very promising. The amount of research in this area has steadily increased over the last decade and will continue to increase, so I would like to promote internationalization in the department by attracting students from abroad, particularly Europe. Finally, I hope that my work will be a benefit for both Korea and the world.” He has a wonderful, engaging dream. While speaking, his eyes were bright with excitement. Leaving his office, I said to him that the students of his lecture will promote internationalization by learning English from his English lecture. Agreeing with that, he added, “Maybe it will be good practice to improve their English skills.”
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