A leading national daily highlighted JBNU's academic culture of interdisciplinary convergence and evaluated JBNU as a university that produces world-class talent and achieves significant research outcomes.

The Dong-A Ilbo, in a front-page lead article on November 12, reported that although JBNU is based in a regional area, it has risen to the ranks of the country's top universities.

The article focused particularly on the Department of Polymer -Nano Science &Technology at JBNU and cited its distinctive convergence research culture, which crosses departmental boundaries, as the basis for these achievements.

The Dong-A Ilbo analyzed that, to teach students a range of disciplines, the department hires faculty whose backgrounds and specialties do not overlap, and that integrating undergraduate courses with graduate research to combine education and research was the secret to rising to the nation's highest level.

In practice, the Department of Polymer -Nano Science &Technology has produced alumni through integrative and convergence education, including Professor Hak-Soo Choi (Class of ’93), appointed as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, Research Professor Dae-Hyuk Yang (Class of ’96) at the Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, and Research Professor Soon‑Hee Kim (Class of ’99) at Ajou University School of Medicine.

The article reported that, based on top-tier national research competitiveness, the department published more than 100 papers in Science Citation Index (SCI) journals in a single year, and achieved top domestic outcomes such as a 100% employment rate for graduates.

The Department of Polymer -Nano Science &Technology was established in 1993 as a convergence department founded on polymer and nano-materials engineering. In addition to information technology (IT), biotechnology (BT), and nanotechnology (NT), it conducts diverse research areas including biomedical engineering, displays, and renewable energy.

The department has nine faculty members and 104 graduate students. Annual SCI journal publications rose from 10 papers in 2000 to 79 in 2004, and last year increased to 118—after selection for a major project under the World-Class University (WCU) program—including research stemming from the department's 'BIN Convergence Engineering' research.