The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is a national research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 under the name Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIS) as the nation's first public, research-oriented science and engineering institution.

In 1981 the government merged the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and the Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) to form the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, or KAIST, under the leadership of physics professor Choochon Lee.Due to differing research philosophies, KIST and KAIST split in 1989.