Kwon Kyunghwan, POSTECH Emeritus Professor Who Elevated South Korea's Mathematics Standing, Passes Away

The world-renowned mathematician, Professor Emeritus Kwon Kyunghwan of POSTECH, passed away in the United States on the morning of the 29th of last month (local time) at the age of 95, the Korean Academy of Science and Technology announced on the 1st.

The late Professor Kwon Kyunghwan is recognized as a figure who opened new horizons in the study of topology, one of the most important fields in modern mathematics.

Professor Kwon Kyunghwan graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Seoul National University in 1952 and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1958. He subsequently served as a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Florida State University, a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and a professor and department chair in the Department of Mathematics at Michigan State University.

He returned to Korea in 1990 upon invitation from POSTECH and served as a professor and department chair in the Department of Mathematics until 1999, dedicating himself to research and nurturing future generations. Upon his retirement in 1999, he established the ‘Kwon Kyunghwan Endowed Chair Fund’ to promote the development of mathematics in Korea and support young scholars.

The late professor was selected as a recipient of the Science and Technology Merit Award by the Government of the Republic of Korea in 2018.

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