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Biography of
Young Suh Kim
Professor of Physics, Emeritus
Department of Physics
University of Maryloand
College Park, Maryland 20742, U.S.A.
home page
brief bio
- Recent History of Korea.
- Division of Korea. Like to know how Korea was divided?
- Korean War for three years and one month from
June 1950 to July 1953. I was not old enough to be drafted to the army, but
we had to move from one place to another during these difficut years.
Korea has been one country for more
than 4,000 years. The division was made in 1945 when two different armies (the United
States and the Soviet Union) came to two different regions of Korea (south and north
of the 38th parallel). My family was in the North, but moved to Seoul (capital city
of the South) in 1946 to avoid the communist rule being set up there.
- My Korean Background. I came to the United States in
1954. America is highly competitive society, quite different from
the Korean environment. Thus, I have to give up the Korean way of thinking to
adapt myself to the American way.
No! I needed my Korean Wisdom to get ahead in
America. In short, Americans believe in money, but Koreans believe in Jokbo (genealogy).
I have to believe in both.
- On the money side, I have to do enough savings and investments for the college
expenses for my two grandchildren. I like to be richer, but this seems to be
my limit.
- On the genealogy side, I am more ambitious. Albert Einstein was not my
biological grandfather, but I wanted to his scientific grandson by filling
in a empty spot in his scientific world.
- My High School Education in Korea. Koreans believe
in education of their children. The Korean War (1950-53) lasted during my
high-school years (1948-54). I talk about my high school years during the war.
I talk about my high-school background in the competitive academic world.
- Undergraduate Years in Pittsburgh. I was a student at
the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, now known as
Carnegie Mellon
University. I worked hard there and received excellent grades. On March 12, 1958,
during my senior year, I received a letter from Princeton University telling me
I ranked very high among the 15 students admitted to their graduate program in physics.
It was the happiest day in my life.
Going to Princeton! I was ready to meet Einstein, even if he died there three
years earlier, in 1955. Everybody who went to Princeton thought in this way.
Einstein's name was this strong, and his name is still strong.
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While preparing a paper for publication in 1961
at Princeton.
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- Princeton Years. I went there in 1958, and received my PhD
degree in 1961, and stayed there for one additional year as a pot-doctoral fellow.
My Princeton background serves as the most valuable asset in professional world and
in my social life. I am always introduced as a Princeton PhD.
On the other hand, the life there was highly competitive. I would be less than
fully honest if I say I was never treated negatively for my national origin by
my American friends. Korea during my time there (1958-62) was regarded as
an underdeveloped country receiving American economic aids.
- Princeton without Einstein? Einstein came to Princeton in
1933 and died there in 1955. For many years after 1955, many ambitious students
went to Princeton to talk with Einstein. Einstein was a God-like figure. I went to
Princeton in 1958 (3 years after 1955), but I still talked with Einstein.
How?
- I am known as Wigner's youngest student at Princeton. My
Princeton thesis advisor was
Sam Treiman. He was a good advisor to me. He taught me how to write articles
logically and stylishly. However, I am known as Wigner's younguest student. Why?
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Physics faculty photo of 1963, at the end of
the my first academic year as the faculty member. I am the youngest person
in this photo.
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- University of Maryland. I came to the University of Maryland
as an assistant professor of physics. I became promoted to associate and full professor.
In 2007, I retired from my teaching and other university duties. I am now an emeritus
professor and still maintain my office on the university campus, and I publish my books
and articles with the university address.
- Construction of my own Family.
- Wisdom of Korea. The Uninvited States is a highly competitive
world. I needed something extra to get ahead in this competitive world. I am blessed
with the wisdom of Korea.
- My Christian background, much stronger than those of
American and European colleagues in science.
- Crisis as Opportunity.
The life in the academic world is
highly competitive. I sometimes had to fight against authorities and establishments.
I could make substantial progresses only by overcoming those difficulties.
- Washington, DC. I came to the Washington area in 1962,
since the University of Maryland in this area. I lived in this area since then.
- I travelled around. I collected photos of interesting
places in the world.
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On his grave stone in London, Karl Marx says
"Philosophers have interpreted this world in various ways. The point
however is to change it."
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- Physics and Philosophy. I am a PhD which means a wise-man
in philosophy. There were many philosophers in history who shaped up our way of life and
our way of thinking. Immanuel Kant and Georg Hegel were among the philosophers who shaped
up the way we think these days. Einstein studied thoroughly the philosophy of Kant when he
was a high-school student. I review my research efforts according to the framework of
Kant and Hegel.
- I love music. Einstein was a music lover. So were
many other physicists. I do not know why they had to love music to to physics.
In any case, I am a physicist and I like music.
- Art museums in the world. In physics, the language of
pictures and cartoons play important roles. It is of great interest to me to see how
traditional artists described the world as they see.
- Life-time achievements I review what I have achieved
and what I still need.
- What do they say about me?
I said enough about myself in my previous webpages. I said I filled in the
empty spot in Einstein's work on how things appear to moving observers, using
the mathematics during the war-time high school years in Korea (1951-54).
Let us hear what others are saying about me.
- When I brag, they run away from me.
- Princeton's Einstein Genealogy.
- Further contents of Einstein's E = mc2.
Bohr and Einstein met occasionally to discuss physics. Bohr was interested in
the electron orbits of tht hydrogen atom. Einstein was worrying about how
things appear to moving observer. Then how does the hydrogen atom appear
to moving observers? Did they ever discuss this problem?
- I talked to Einstein as Moses did to God.
- Kant, Hegel, and Einstein.
- Photos from Trier. Karl Marx and St. Helena
- Dirac in 1962. I met Dirac in 1962. It was like
Nicodemus meeting Jesus (Gospel of John). I was born again.
- Maxwell, Marconi, and Sarnoff on wireless communication
and radio broadcasting.
- Niels Bohr, 100 years ago, found what we cannot
explain with Newtonian mechanics. His discovery eventually became quantum mechanics.
- Bohr and Einstein on the hydrogen atom. Bohr was
interested in the hydrogen atom. Einstein was worrying about how things appear
to moving observers. Bohr and Einstein were good friends, and they met occasionally
talk about things including physics. However, there are no written record to indicate
they ever discussed how the hydrogen atom (quantum bound state) appears to moving
observers. This created a job for me.
- Quantum mechanics of moving bound states in Einstein's world.
- In prison for 20 years. It usually takes 10 years to become a full professor
after the initial appointment as an assistant professor. I became a full professor in 1992,
30 years after my appointment in 1962. Thus, the delay of 20 years. There is every reason to
regard this as an imprisonment or a form of punishment. I am proud of this punishment.
- Prices for saying what they belive. Socrates, Galileo, Einstein, Wigner, Who else?
- Prejudice againt Koreans.
I came to the United States in 1954, and the United States has been very nice to me.
On the other hand, I had to meet a number of Americans who attempted
to downgrade my scientific ability based on my national origin. They did not know that
I attended the best high school in the world before coming to the United States.
- Further contents of Winger's 1939 paper on his Little Groups.
- Bridges in Physics and many scenic briges in the world.
- Some people became unhappy when I started publishing papers with
Eugene Paul Wigner (Nobel 1963). They were gentlemen and scholars famous in their professional
field (same as mine). However, they behaved like beasts. If the word "beast" is too harsh for
them, I could use a gentler word. How about King Herod?
- Bridge to Einstein. Eugene Paul Wigner published many papers in
physics. For them he received the Nobel prize in 1963.
There is one paper which the Nobel committee did not recognize. This was his paper on the Lorentz
E = mc2 from Heisengerg. Einstein derivable
from Heisenberg. Crazy?
group published in 1939.
I say this unrecognized paper builds the bridge between him and Einstein. This is the reason
why Wigner liked me. I then formulated my papers in high-energy physics in the scientitic
language created by Wigner in his 1939 paper.
- Photo with Einstein. Orren Jack Turner was a talented photographer in
in Princeton. In 1947, he took a photo of Einstein, and he took mine in 1961. This allows me
to put those two photos into one frame. The question then is whether I deserve to be next to
Einstein.
- Einstein from Facebook. There are many photos in my phase book. I have
a number of Einstein photos there.
- Einstein photos from Princeton. Is Princeton meaningful without Einstein?
- If I sing Einstein, who will listen?
- Heisenberg talks about Einstein. Einstein did not like Heisenberg.
Yet, Heisenberg visited Einstein in 1955, and he wrote a story about his meeting with
Einstein.
- E = mc2 from Heisengerg. Einstein derivable
from Heisenberg. Crazy?
Webpages dedicated to Albert Einstein.
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