Provided a new concept and principle of accelerator research
Reformer in science education who led the establishment and growth of the POSTECH
(Late) Kim Ho-gil
President of Pohang University of Science and Technology (1933~1994)
- Academic background
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1956
B.S. at College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Seoul National Univ. (Physics)
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1964
Ph.D. in Science at Univ. of Birmingham, UK (Nuclear Physics)
- Professional career
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1966 ~ 1978
Professor of the Univ. of Maryland
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1978 ~ 1983
Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
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1983 ~ 1985
Dean, Yeonam Industrial College
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1985 ~ 1994
President, Pohang University of Science and Technology
- Awards
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1985
Order of Civil Merit, Camellia Medal
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1994
Sanghuh Culture Prize
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1994
Order of Civil Merit, Rose of Sharon Medal
Professor Ho-Gil Kim is an internationally recognized accelerator physicist with prominent achievements in the research and development of accelerators, essential for particle physics and a reformer of science education who prepared the foundation of a qualitative leap of Korean science and technology education, leading the establishment of the Pohang Univ. of Science and Technology.
He graduated from Seoul National Univ. in 1956 and went to Birmingham University, UK with a scholarship from the IAEA in 1961. Studying particle physics, he acquired a Ph.D. from the university in two-and-a-half years, the shortest ever in the history of the university. His thesis for his Ph.D. degree was about the Theory of Regenerative Extraction, theoretical research related to the behaviors of particle accelerator beams.
Later, Professor Kim served at the Physics dept. and Electronic Engineering dept. of the Univ. of Maryland, USA, performing research on nuclear physics and plasma physics. Especially, he became an internationally renowned expert in the research of particle accelerators and in 1969, he visited the USSR to participate in the International Accelerator Association, registering as the first official Korean visitor to the USSR before formal diplomatic relations between the two countries. Among many of his achievements in the research of cyclotron, which is the particle accelerator in a circular orbit, he invented “Kim’s Coil” for the acceleration of particles. He moved to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California as Senior Scientist in 1978 where he exerted himself for the development of a new type of particle accelerator in the world’s best particle accelerator research environment.
He also contributed to the networking among Korean scientists in USA. In 1971, he took up the position of secretary of the Korean Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA) to prepare the inauguration with the president, professor Sun-Gyeong Kim, Physical Chemist at the Temple Univ., USA, and then became the president of the sixth association in 1977. He, however, never acquired US citizenship during his stay of almost 20 years. This must be because of his hopes to contribute to the development of Korean science some time in the future.
He returned to Korea as the founding dean of the newly established Yeonam Industrial College. However, he failed to realize his aspirations to grow the college into a four-year university as the government broke its promise. Later, with the establishment of the POSTECH, he took up a new challenge as the founding president of the POSTECH in 1985. Professor Kim introduced a new concept of a “research-oriented university” to Korea and induced over 60 Korean prominent scientists from abroad with the active support of the POSCO. Then the university implemented new systems of selecting outstanding students, early opening of graduate courses, selecting professors with Ph.D. degrees only, establishing a system led by prominent professors, etc. and grew into an internationally watched university. With the success of the POSTECH in a short period of time, other universities in Korea also followed suit with the model of the research-oriented university.
Professor Kim greatly contributed to the development of research capabilities of the POSTECH not just as the president, but also as a particle physicist. He promised to construct the light source accelerator even at the stage of establishing the university and succeeded to keep his promise, overcoming many hurdles such as the huge budget burdens and limited capabilities in Korea. He utilized his experience as a world-leading accelerator researcher to direct the construction of the accelerator and made achievements in accomplishing the domestication of major technologies in the process as well.
However, Professor Kim suddenly passed away during an in-campus athletic event in April 1994. Pohang Light Source was completed in December that year, after his death. It is the fifth 3rd-generation light source accelerator in the world and the first and only particle accelerator in Korea so far. Pohang Light Source has successfully implemented more than 13 thousand research projects, greatly enhancing the basic science capabilities of Korea. This can be his inheritance with his characteristics of a researcher and reformer of science education.