The 25th Memorial Ceremony for Kim Ho-gil
The 25th Memorial Ceremony for Kim Ho-gil
  • Reporter Kim Su-min
  • 승인 2019.05.17 11:22
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▲Professors and faculty members in front of the statue of Dr. Kim
▲Professors and faculty members in front of the statue of Dr. Kim

On April 30, at 11A.M. the 25th memorial ceremony for Mueunjae Kim Ho-gil, the first president of POSTECH, was held at the Mueunjae Memorial Hall. He paved the way for POSTECH to becoming a world-class university, but was passed away in an unexpected incident in April 1994. Attended by his bereaved family and the faculty members, the ceremony was followed by a special lecture and the memorial forum that highlighted the achievements of the deceased.
 The ceremony was attended by many professors and faculty members: Ms. Kwon Bong-soon, the representative of the bereaved and the wife of Dr. Kim Ho-gil; President Kim Doh-Yeon; Professor Kim Seung-hwan (PHYS), the chairman of the Mueunjae Memorial Association; Lee Ji-youn (PHYS 88), the chairman of the POSTECH Alumni; senior professors and faculties who were with Dr. Kim during the initial period of POSTECH.
 There was a time to dedicate the certificate of the individual of science and technological merit in front of his portrait, which was recently awarded to Dr. Kim who contributed to the development of science and technology in Korea. The Ministry of Science and ICT selected Dr. Kim on April 22 and awarded the certificate at the commemoration for the Science and ICT Day. Dr. Kim Ho-gil, also known as the first Korean accelerator physicist, established the new concept such as ‘Kim’s Coil’ and the principle of the collective acceleration, built the third-generation light source, and led the foundations of POSTECH and Yonam Institute of Technology. By these contributions, he was selected as the man of science and technological merit.
 On April 25, there was a memorial lecture on the theme of ‘the modern mathematics of space’ by Professor Cha Jae-choon (MATH), the first Muenunjae chair professor, at the International Conference Hall in the POSCO International Center. In the lecture, he introduced the story of mathematicians exploring space from the past to the present, the challenges of today’s advanced research, and an intuitive perspective on mysterious intricate problems in various dimensions. The Mueunjae Memorial Associations, which was found to honor Dr. Kim’s legacy inherit and spread his spirit inside and outside POSTECH, annually holds such special lecture that anyone can attend.
 Like his pen name Mueunjae, which means that there is no boundary among studies, Dr. Kim left great achievements in science, society, and to the nation, not only in POSTECH, as a world-class accelerator physicist, an educational innovator who led the advancement of university education through the foundation of POSTECH, and a Confucian scholar who had profound knowledge of the traditional Confucianism. Mueunjae refers not only to the integrity of Dr. Kim’s personality but also to his broad and in-depth knowledge that transcends the boundaries of natural sciences and humanities. It is a pen name given to him by Dr. Shin Gwan-gyeol of The China Institute of Social Sciences while he was visiting Korea in 1989.