In 1974, KSEA proposed to initiate a joint conference series with KOFST to be held in Korea with travel subsidies for the speakers by KOFST. In different names, the conferences were held either biennially or triennially since then and the tradition still continues. KOFST named the co-organized conferences “과학기술 종합심포지움 (1974)”, “국내외 한국과학기술자 학술대회 (1976)”, “제5차 국내외 한국과학기술자 종합학술대회 (1978)”, “제7차 국내외 한국과학기술자 종합학술대회 (1980)”, “1982 국내외 한국과학기술자 학술회의 하계 심포지움 (1982)”, and “세계한민족 과학기술자 종합학술대회 (1990).”

In 1980, the KSEA Council decided to participate in the 1980 conferences only as individual members in one’s discipline, but not in the name of KSEA. In early days, the conference attendees were predominantly KSEA members from the US. Aside from the exact number of KOFST-initiated conferences in Korea, upon KSEA History Committee’s recommendation the 2019 Mid-term Council decided to include the following 5 conferences as “UKC Conferences” based on the criteria of the conference organizers of KSEA and KOFST. As shown in the table, the 5 conferences were held in Korea in 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980 and 1982. Due to the limit in KOFST budget allocated only for the speakers, the numbers were sometimes small.

However, the attendees often landed jobs in Korea, producing a sizable impact each year. Examining numerous reports by the former presidents of KSEA, there were several other conferences held in Korea which many KSEA members participated but were not counted as UKC perhaps because of the 1980 Council decision. Regardless of the counting method, many KSEA members participated continuously from 1984 to 1990, even though no UKC credit was claimed during that period. For brevity, the details are omitted.

It is of great importance to note that these conferences in Korea, while the number of KSEA participants became relatively smaller, created a great momentum in recruiting them permanently to Korean universities, R&D centers, and businesses. Consequently, the investment made by KOFST and Korean government was instrumental in harnessing the US-educated brain power for accelerating the “Miracle of Han River.”