Methane, a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential more than 30 times that of carbon dioxide, undergoes a natural reaction that converts it into the useful resource methanol. However, the mechanism by which this reaction proceeds remained an unresolved scientific problem for a long time.
 
This 'miracle of nature' has finally been revealed by the research team of Professor Seungjae Lee at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) (graduate students Yunha Hwang and Soyeon Park). Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), the team determined, at atomic resolution, the structure and operating mechanism of the protein complex that converts methane into methanol in nature.
 
The results of this study were published online in the latest issue of the international journal Advanced Science.
 
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas but also a resource that can be widely used, for example as a fuel. In nature, a protein called soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO), possessed by some mic

Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) Northeast Asian Law Research Institute (Director Professor Song Mun-ho) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Faculty of Law, Hue University, to promote academic exchange and cooperation in education and research.
 
Both universities will conduct joint research on legal issues and case law newly emerging in the age of artificial intelligence and will continue to expand international cooperation among flagship national universities. They also plan to collaborate on establishing sound legal frameworks to help both countries advance as AI and digital powers.
 
Furthermore, Director Song Mun-ho and Dean Doan Duc Luong shared a joint vision to create an "Asian Research Belt for Virtual Asset Law and AI Law" encompassing Taiwan, China, India, Japan, Vietnam and other countries, and agreed on the importance of building a regional platform for legal cooperation in Asia.
 
As part of this effort, the two institutions held a joint i

JBNU Department of Child Studies (Chair: Professor Kim Ri-jin) has proactively introduced a new training approach in line with this year’s restructured childcare teacher in-service training system and is presenting a new direction for the continuing education of current childcare staff.
 
Beginning this year, general in-service training for childcare teachers and childcare center directors will be reorganized to reduce childcare staff workload and strengthen field-centered job competencies. Ahead of these changes, JBNU has drawn attention by piloting a new training method called "elective and distributed in-service training."
 
The JBNU Department of Child Studies is developing new in-service training courses that reflect actual demands from local childcare settings with budget support for incumbent staff training from the Glocal University 30 project starting in 2025. As part of this effort, it has developed five new courses to date and is delivering face-to-face training

Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) College of Engineering students left the classroom to visit leading overseas universities. The visits aimed to broaden their global perspectives and strengthen practice-oriented engineering education by meeting engineers and distinguished scholars from around the world in person.
 
The JBNU College of Engineering recently announced on the 3rd that it had operated a 'Glocal Engineering Design' program at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore to enhance students' global engineering capabilities.
 
The program involved 10 JBNU College of Engineering students and the course instructor Nam Chang-woo, Vice Dean of the College of Engineering (Professor, Department of Organic Materials and Fiber Engineering). Professor Nam and the students participated in a two-week Project-Based Learning (PBL) course with students from NTU's Department of Materials Engineering, developing engineering problem-solving skills focused on real-world issues.

Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) has officially launched a faculty union. The branch of the National Professors' Union of Public Universities (hereinafter the NPUU) at JBNU held its inaugural general meeting on January 20 and began official activities, the branch said on the 2nd.
 
The NPUU JBNU branch began preparations for its establishment around April last year, centered on the JBNU Faculty Council. After about nine months of discussions and procedures, it officially launched on that day. With this, JBNU became the NPUU's 17th branch nationwide, and it has secured an institutional foundation for protecting the rights and interests of faculty at national universities and for strengthening the public mission of universities.
 
The inaugural general meeting was attended by 17 JBNU-affiliated union members, as well as Choi In‑cheol, Chair of the NPUU (Department of English Education, Kyungpook National University); Lee Jun‑woo, Vice Chair (Department of Management and A

Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) Professor Dongjun Park (College of Engineering, Division of Chemical Engineering) has established a new global collaboration framework to promote international collaborative research.
 
Since being selected for the BK21 Project Division's 'JBNU-G International Research Collaboration Support Program' in September of last year, Professor Park's research team has been actively pursuing cooperation with leading overseas research institutions.
 
As a result, the team recently signed an international research consortium MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Professor Brian Eliceiri's research team at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in the United States.
 
The agreement was pursued to establish a foundation for research cooperation through international collaborative research and academic exchange, and to sustain mid- to long-term research exchanges.
 
Under the agreement, the two institutions will conduct collaborative res

Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) will pilot a multi‑LLM‑based generative AI service to strengthen the university community's AI utilization capabilities and to advance the campus as an AI-enabled campus.
 
JBNU announced that it will introduce a generative AI service that enables students, faculty, and staff to easily use the latest AI technologies by selecting from a variety of AI models on a single platform.
 
The service to be introduced goes beyond single‑model offerings. It features the ability to select and use a total of nine cutting‑edge AI models on one platform, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Grok, Llama, Gemma, Sait, and Solar. Users will be able to choose the optimal model according to their purpose, which is expected to mitigate the limitations or biases of specific models and produce more refined results.
 
JBNU opted to purchase service usage credits at the institutional level and provide them to members, rather than adopting indi

Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) JBNU-BK Innovation Promotion Team operated a customized mentoring program to strengthen graduate students' practical job competencies and received a positive response.
 
The JBNU-BK Innovation Promotion Team announced on the 30th that it recently conducted the "Practical Customized Mentoring for Graduate Students" program for graduate students.
 
The program is a participatory employment support program focused on personality and job interviews and individual feedback conducted with current employees from major corporations by job function.
 
Starting with an orientation, the program proceeded with mock interviews conducted in the same format as real interviews, followed by individual feedback. Then, networking time was provided between the current employee mentors and participating students for Q&A on interview preparation strategies and understanding of job roles.
 
Mentors who are current employees from major companies such as S

The National Association of Faculty Councils of National and Public Universities (hereafter, the Association) has elected Han Sang-wook, Chair of the Faculty Council at JBNU (College of Education, Division of Science Education (Physics Education)), as its 29th Standing Chair. His term begins on March 1.
 
The Association held its 10th meeting on January 23 at Gangneung-Wonju National University and conducted a vote to elect the Standing Chair. It announced that Professor Han, who received a majority of the votes among three candidates, was elected as the next Standing Chair.
 
Professor Han proposed plans to operate the Association democratically and systematically, focusing on the Standing Committee, the Joint Chairs' meetings, and the Policy Committee. He also made the enactment of a National University Act to advance higher education and the resolution of issues directly related to professors' rights and interests—such as funding for teaching, research, and student guida

JBNU completed major assignments under the broadening of admission units and released the results at 2:00 p.m. on the 29th.
 
According to JBNU, after accepting major applications from January 5 to 12 and conducting deliberations by each college’s Major Assignment Operations Committee, 82.5% of the total 2,770 applicants subject to assignment (excluding special admissions for international students) were placed in their first-choice major.
 
The university said that, despite being the first year of implementing the broadening of admission units, major assignments were carried out stably overall.
 
JBNU formed the "Admission Unit Broadening Communication Council," which includes university headquarters, faculty, and students, and will hold regular monthly meetings to minimize student confusion and anxiety that may arise during implementation. The university will continuously collect student feedback on the overall major assignment process and review and improve issues t

Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) students and other young people from Jeonbuk and Uzbekistan visited Uzbekistan to assess the local applicability of social problem–solving ideas derived through the Bridging Glocal Camp. This marked the start of a field-based international development cooperation experiment in which participants go beyond desk-bound thinking to see, listen, and ask questions firsthand.
 
The Jeonbuk International Development Cooperation Center, operated by JBNU, conducted a dispatch from the 19th to the 25th to validate global social problem–solving ideas generated during the domestic Bridging Glocal Camp through on-site investigations in Uzbekistan.
 
This dispatch was significant in that Jeonbuk–Uzbekistan youth formed mixed teams and participated from the camp stage. They refined their ideas by incorporating feedback from Uzbek students studying in the Jeonbuk region. An 11-member survey team visited everyday sites in Uzbekistan, including Tashkent

JBNU was recognized for research excellence in the recently released 2026 THE World University Rankings by Subject. In particular, JBNU ranked first among flagship national universities in the Research Quality category, a key indicator of qualitative research performance, in the fields of Engineering and Natural Sciences, demonstrating its world-class research level.
 
According to this year’s results announced by THE (Times Higher Education), the UK-based global university ranking organization, JBNU entered the global rankings in seven of the 11 evaluated subject areas, solidifying its status as a research-focused university.
 
The most notable achievement in this evaluation is the Research Quality indicator. JBNU ranked first among flagship national universities in the fields of Engineering and Natural Sciences.
 
In particular, in Engineering the Citation impact and Research Strength indicators scored 61.5 and 64.1, respectively, representing up to more than a twofo

Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) G-Lamp Project Group is convening leading domestic and international scholars in basic science to expand international collaborative research in the fields of materials and energy.
 
JBNU G-Lamp Project Group announced that it will hold the 'Second International Basic Science Outcomes Forum' on the 29th at the JBNU Jinsudang 77th Anniversary Memorial Hall. The forum builds on the expanded network of leading researchers from the first International Basic Science Outcomes Forum held in February last year and will further broaden the sharing of basic science outcomes.
 
The JBNU G-Lamp Project Group plans to expand opportunities for exchange among prominent domestic and international researchers centered on the Materials and Energy Basic Science Research Institute, a priority-theme research institute, and to establish a foundation for expanding international collaborative research that will lead the materials and energy fields.
 
World-ren

Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) proposed a solution by adjusting occupancy per room in the Residence Halls and reached an agreement with students on Residence Hall accommodation issues.
 
JBNU said that on January 26 at 1:00 p.m. it held a meeting with President Yang O-bong and the JBNU Student Council and reached a final agreement on a plan to maintain domestic students' Residence Hall capacity at the same level as last year while responding to the sharp increase in demand from international students.
 
The core of the agreement is to designate Daedong Hall, the entire Hunsan Geonji House, and part of Chambit Hall as Residence Halls for international students, and to increase occupancy per room to four so that domestic students can be accommodated at the same scale as in previous years.
 
In addition, the capacity of the portion of Chambit Hall used by domestic students was increased to three per room to ensure that the number of domestic students accommodated does n

Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) has partnered with KAIST (President Lee Kwang-hyung) to strengthen AI education and research capabilities in proactive response to the government’s AI hub university development policy.
 
JBNU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with KAIST on the 26th (Mon) at 6:00 p.m. at the University Headquarters to establish a cooperative framework for cultivating AI talent and enhancing research competitiveness in the AI field.
 
This agreement was pursued to advance AI education and research capabilities in line with the government’s AI hub university development policy and to contribute to national and local community development. The two universities plan to establish a practical cooperation framework based on each institution’s educational and research infrastructure and to undertake joint measures to strengthen competitiveness in the AI sector.
 
Under the agreement, the two universities will cooperate on developing and operating