Message from AP Director Kwangbok Lee
(Jan. 2012 - Dec. 2013)

It is my honor to serve as the Director of the Asia Pacific Board (APB) for two years from the beginning of 2012 and to address you in this message. The APB encompasses the fastest growing region in the world, with great people and exciting opportunities. Moreover, the Asia Pacific region, known as Region 10 in IEEE, is also the region with the largest number of members. One quarter of all IEEE members are from the AP region, with members numbering nearly 100,000. There are approximately 12,000 IEEE members in the AP region who belong to the IEEE Communication Society (ComSoc). With a large and rapidly growing membership, we have numerous opportunities to provide benefits to our members and to make great contributions to IEEE ComSoc.
In the IEEE Communication community, the APB is highly respected. We organize regular meetings during the ICC and Globecom, publish newsletters and maintain our own web pages, promote regional conferences, and present young researcher awards. These APB activities have provided IEEE ComSoc members with excellent opportunities to make friends, to share knowledge, and to discover new research topics. I have personally made good friends and have been exposed to interesting research topics through APB activities. All of these activities are the results of the hard work done by all of the past directors, including Prof. Yamanaka, and many APB officers and volunteers. I greatly appreciate their hard work.
Communication industries have been going through a lot of changes. They have become more globalized and have experienced broad technical changes. Smart phones with many features are now more common than ordinary cell phones. Communication technologies are now being integrated into health services to enable E-health services. Communication technologies are also being integrated into conventional power systems to realize what are known as Smart-Grid systems. Overall, we observe the convergence of communications, computers, entertainment, health, and other areas. We are now at the beginning of a new convergence era.
Communication industries have been going through a lot of changes. They have become more globalized and have experienced broad technical changes. Smart phones with many features are now more common than ordinary cell phones. Communication technologies are now being integrated into health services to enable E-health services. Communication technologies are also being integrated into conventional power systems to realize what are known as Smart-Grid systems. Overall, we observe the convergence of communications, computers, entertainment, health, and other areas. We are now at the beginning of a new convergence era.
During these changing times, the needs of AP regional members and communications industries are rapidly changing. We should identify new needs and try to meet these needs while continuing to support conventional needs. Through these efforts, the APB will go through this transition period smoothly and will therefore continuously be able to provide benefits to AP regional members. As a result, the APB will become a board which is universally admired and will become a leader in the IEEE ComSoc community.
During these changing times, the needs of AP regional members and communications industries are rapidly changing. We should identify new needs and try to meet these needs while continuing to support conventional needs. Through these efforts, the APB will go through this transition period smoothly and will therefore continuously be able to provide benefits to AP regional members. As a result, the APB will become a board which is universally admired and will become a leader in the IEEE ComSoc community.

Professor Kwangbok Lee
Seoul National University, Korea
E-mail: klee@snu.ac.kr

Biography

Kwangbok Lee received his B.A.Sc. and M.Eng. degrees from the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, in 1982 and 1986, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree from McMaster University in Canada in 1990. He was with Motorola Canada from 1982 to 1985 and Motorola USA from 1990 to 1996. In March 1996, he joined the School of Electrical Engineering at Seoul National University in Korea. He has been the head of the School of Electrical Engineering since 2011. He was the director of the Institute of New Media and Communications from 2007 to 2009. He has been serving as a consultant to a number of wireless industries. His interests are in the research and development of cellular and wireless LAN communication systems.
Prof. Lee was an Editor for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Wireless Series in 2001 and has been an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications since 2002. He was a Division Editor for Journal of Communications and Networks (JCN) in 2006. He was a co-chair of the International Conference on Communications (ICC2005) Wireless Communication Symposium and has been the chair of the IEEE Communications Society Seoul Chapter since 2005.
He received the Best Paper Award from CDMA International Conference 2000 (CIC 2000), and the Best Teacher Award in both 2003 and 2006 from the college of engineering, Seoul National University. He received the ‘Special Contribution Award’ from Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology in 2005, and ‘Korea Engineering Award’ from President of Korea in 2010.

++++++++++++++ APB Steering Committee for 2012-2013 ++++++++++++++
Director:   Kwangbok Lee (Seoul National University, Korea)
Past Director:   Naoaki Yamanaka (Keio University, Japan)
Vice Director:   Wanjiun Liao (National Taiwan University)
Vice Director:   Muralidharan Raghavan (India)
Vice Director:   Takaya Yamazato (Nagoya University, Japan)
Secretary & Treasure:  Ohsoon Shin(Soongsil University, Korea)
Secretary:   Wan Choi(Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea)
TAC Chair:   Sewoong Bahk (Seoul National University, Korea)
MCC Chair:   Jianwei Huang (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
ISC Chair:   Jaehyun Kim (Ajou University, Korea)
MDC Chair:   Chenyang Yang (Beihang University, China)
CCC Chair:   Kohei Shiomoto (Japan)
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(Note: TAC: Technical Affairs Committee; MCC: Meeting & Conference Committee; ISC: Information Service Committee; MDC: Membership Development Committee; CCC: Chapter Coordination Committee)