What Is the Secret Behind the Shy, Short Korean Girl Becoming the World's Top Physics Society President?

Kim Young-ki, Distinguished Professor of Physics at University of Chicago, Reveals at Science Gifted Lecture
Emphasizes Patience, Perseverance, and Effort... "To Collaborate Well, Know Strengths and Weaknesses and Engage in Much Dialogue"

Professor Kim Young-ki, University of Chicago, USA.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] A small girl born in a rural village near Daegu in 1962. With a bright expression and a small stature, that girl has now become the next president of the American Physical Society, a global physics community with about 50,000 members. The protagonist is Young-Kee Kim (60), a distinguished professor at the University of Chicago.

Breaking the glass ceiling as an Asian American woman in U.S. society, Professor Kim has become the leader of the world's top academic organization. What is her secret? Professor Kim gave an unexpectedly ordinary answer about steady patience and effort as the key to her success. The following is a Q&A from a lecture she gave on the 26th, hosted jointly by the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity and the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies during her visit to her homeland.

- What should one do to become a world-class scientist?

▲ Just be a scientist. (laughs) To become a scientist, I want to emphasize perseverance and patience. Research is like a marathon. It’s not about running fast. It took 100 years to discover various small particles (like the Higgs) that I showed earlier. Many scientists achieved this over a long period. Even now, about 15,000 people work together. You have to endure and persist like running a marathon. But you can’t do that unless it’s a field you like. So first, you need to find what interests you, what you’re good at, and what you enjoy, and practice repeatedly. Science is about finding problems and answers through lots of practice, repetition, effort, and persistent hard work when no one knows the problem or the answer.

- How do you proceed with collaboration as the president of the American Physical Society?

▲ When working with many people, you first have to recognize that everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Knowing this well and gathering all strengths through lots of dialogue and interaction can make science, or any other task or technology, progress much better and faster.

- I’m curious about the direction of physics for future generations. What direction will trendy research topics take?

▲ Setting good questions is very important. Research is about finding questions in natural phenomena. Trends mean the era’s most frequent tasks or questions. Ultimately, trends depend on how well good questions are created in that field.

- How do you overcome slumps that you might experience?

▲ That’s a very difficult question. I don’t think I’ve ever fallen deeply into a slump. If research or experiments become boring, I overcome it by switching to data analysis or paper writing, moving between fields. Also, since I’m always with students, I absorb their energy. I also feel a responsibility not to fail for the students’ sake. Hobbies are important too. Sitting and endlessly pondering the same problem doesn’t help. You need to stop, go outside, do something different, and physical strength is important. Exercise and other hobbies clear your mind and heart. On weekends, I walk around the lake between school and home for 1-2 hours. Especially gardening. Touching soil with my hands is really good.

- What led you to study abroad?

▲ I only became interested in studying around my 3rd or 4th year of university. I could have gone to work, but I wanted to study more. So I decided to go to graduate school and planned to go abroad. But since I was not well prepared for studying abroad, I prepared while doing my master’s course and then went abroad.

- You became a world-class physicist. Which career path is better, continuing studies domestically or studying abroad?

▲ If you want to continue research, I think it’s good to go abroad at least once. When you go abroad, Korean people do well. Many scholars don’t come back to Korea often, and there are many good facilities. More importantly, you need to face challenges, talk with people from different backgrounds and research fields. The spirit of facing and overcoming difficulties is very necessary. That makes you stronger. Only then can you succeed more and become stronger.

- Korea is individually excellent, but why does it lag behind collectively?

▲ I’m not sure if I can answer that. We started academic work quite late. We caught up and grew very fast. But the overall culture is not easy to advance quickly. So the culture seems somewhat behind. We came fast, but other countries started science and such much earlier than us. Our strength is that we came fast. But whether we culturally caught up that much, I’m not sure.

- There are fields like new materials and bio, but what is good about physics?

▲ The definition of physics has become somewhat ambiguous. For example, biophysics is related to biology but researches using physics concepts and principles. Science fields are very intertwined. Physics goes far beyond what we simply think. It’s not narrow but very broad. Other fields are not narrow either. There are many interrelations and entanglements. So physics should be thought of more broadly.

- What does it mean to become president of the American Physical Society as a minority identity of a woman and Korean?

▲ The American Physical Society has existed for over 130 years, and there have been some female presidents. There have also been presidents of Chinese origin. I understand I am the second Asian American to hold this position.

(Moderator) Professor Kim teaches physics at the University of Chicago, the home of American physics, and becoming president of the American Physical Society is a completely different meaning than for an ordinary American. It requires about 3 to 4 times the effort and recognition. It has very important significance. It is also a great achievement and strength for Korea’s future young science professors and scientists.

Meanwhile, Professor Kim graduated from Korea University’s Department of Physics in 1984 and completed her master’s degree before earning her Ph.D. at the University of Rochester in 1990. She worked as a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and currently serves as a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago. She made significant contributions to Higgs particle research while serving as deputy director at the U.S. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), a leader in global particle physics research, from 2006 to 2013. Since 1990, she has participated in Fermilab’s Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) proton-antiproton collision experiment group. From 2004 to 2006, she was elected co-spokesperson of CDF, leading over 850 scientists from 12 countries. Currently the vice president of the American Physical Society, Professor Kim was elected next president last year and will take office in 2024.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.