A fortune left to young scientists
Published: 04 Sep. 2009, 21:59
Myung Hyo-chul, president of the Korea Institute for Advanced Study, gets a checkup on Tuesday at Kyung Hee Medical Center in Dongdaemun, Seoul. By Kim Kyung-bin
Myung, who has been diagnosed with a terminal case of pancreatic cancer, announced on Monday that he had made an agreement with Kim Wan-sun, president of Korean Women in Mathematical Sciences, to provide support to young women in basic sciences like mathematics and physics.
“There are very few female scientists involved in the fields of basic and theoretical science,” said Myung. “It is important to foster the education of these scientists now because of the growing number of women involved in the field of social work.”
Myung’s commitment to support KWMS comes on the heels of another agreement he signed on Aug. 17 to donate the bulk of his fortune, valued at 300 million won ($240,900), to KIAS.
The donation represents his entire fortune, with the exception of the apartment he maintains in Seongbuk District, northern Seoul.
The funds will be used to support students at KIAS who are studying the basic sciences. The institute is the only state-run research institute in Korea doing work in mathematics, physics and computational sciences.
Myung, who lost his wife during the 30 years he spent in the United States, will leave his apartment to his three daughters.
Although Myung continues to struggle with his illness, he is still engaged in the institute’s administrative affairs, working from his room at Kyung Hee University Medical Center in Dongdaemun, northern Seoul.
Kim Jae-wan, vice-president of KIAS, visited Myung’s hospital room on Tuesday to give him a report about progress on the institution’s new location in Gyeonggi. KIAS is currently located in Dongdaemun.
“KIAS is modeled on the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey in the United States where internationally renowned scientists like Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer and John von Neumann once worked,” Myung said. “I do my best to enlarge the scope of the institute’s work as well as to recruit internationally recognized scholars to come here.”
He said that although Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Max Planck’s Quantum Theory remain as theoretical achievements in the basic sciences, they have completely altered human civilization. He believes this serves to support his argument that Korea should improve its research and study of the basic sciences for the future of the country. The country’s primary focus now is on the applied sciences, he said.
Myung learned he had a terminal illness last July when he went to the hospital for a stomachache.
At that point, cancer cells had already metastasized into his kidneys and rectum.
Doctors began treating Myung immediately, but soon stopped because of the ensuing side effects.
Myung earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematical sciences at Seoul National University. He earned his doctoral degree in mathematics at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, in the United States after moving there in 1966.
After spending over 20 years teaching at the University of Iowa and serving on the editorial board of Hadronic Journal, a Florida-based academic periodical, Myung returned to Korea in 1996 and became a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon. He became the president of KIAS in 2007.
By Lee Jong-chan [[email protected]]
Myung Hyo-chul, president of the Korea Institute for Advanced Study, gets a checkup on Tuesday at Kyung Hee Medical Center in Dongdaemun, Seoul. Myung donated 300 million won ($240,900) to the institute to support young people studying the basic sciences By Kim Kyung-bin
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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