Seoul National University has hired its first foreigner to teach in its College of Natural Sciences.

SNU announced on Sunday that it had hired Piotr Jablonski as an associate professor in the department of biological sciences.

The 48-year-old Pole will teach students beginning in March.

In 2005 the university hired Robert Ian McKay, an Australian, to teach in the School of Computer Science and Engineering, and the following year, it appointed German composer Ronald Breitenfeld as a full-time professor in the College of Music.

Jablonski came to Korea in 2005 after marring a Korean woman and since then has taught ecology at Ewha Womans University.

His studies have focused on birds and insects in the Demilitarized Zone.

An official from SNU said Jabloski’s deep knowledge of ecology and research experience appealed to the school.

The university said it would continue to hire more foreign professors as part of its globalization project.

January. 14, 2007