KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Message from the President
Highlights of Young Generation Technical and Leadership Conference (YGTLC)
Conference Chair Report
Keynote and Plenary Speech Summaries
Sessions and Workshops
Post YGTLC Comments
Awards
KSEA HQ News
National Mathematics and Science Competition (NMSC) Report
National High School Physics Contest (NHSPC) Report
Scholarship Results Chapter News
The 25th South-Western Regional Conference
The First Florida Regional Conference - Florida US-Korea Conference
on Biomedical, Nanosciences, Engieering and System Techonology (Florida BNEST 2015)
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03
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15
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20
21
23
APS News
Korean Physicists Symposium at
the 2015 American Physical Society March Meeting
The Association of Korean Physicists in America:
A Partner is Fostering U.S.-Korean Physics Collaboration
25
KSEA Sponsors
29
KSEA Sponsor Advertisements
31
KSEA Organization
51
43rd Admin Publication Team
53
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Message from
the President
Dear KSEA Members,
My term is ending with a few matters unresolved. We move forward leaving areas of improvement
to the incoming administration.
I would appreciate all the members for your dedication to KSEA. It has not been an easy and
smooth ride this year. However, we did work hard to better continuity and integrity of KSEA.
Kookjoon ahn, phD.
KSEA President
Structure Liaison Engineer
California Department of Transportation
We tried to promote US-Korea cooperation in UKC 2014 with quality presentations and with
many participants who shared leading edge knowledge and experience in science and engineering
for a better future of us.
Our membership growth was moderate due to the passion and sacrifice of all members who
devoted time and efforts for KSEA. I am deeply indebted to all of them for this. Paid numbers
are about 5400. About 1460 exercised their voting right this year resulting in greater than 25% of
voting rate. This passion exposed the strength of KSEA membership and also the weakness in our
IT system that needs improvement.
Our YG grows impressively. Their activities are well planned and executed. They prepare
themselves for KSEA’s bright future since they are the ones who will lead KSEA in near future. I
am confident our YG is on the right track to that future. One of our YG leaders got elected as the
leader of YGF alumni in YGF 2015 in Korea.YGPF 2014 in UKC 2015 was successful.YGTLC
2015 Ygnite (YGTLC) 2015 in Orlando was bright too.
Our career development programs are also getting into maturity. The opportunities are given
equally to all members in academia, industry, and public service areas including undergraduate
students who are starting their careers for the first time in their lives.
Six regional conferences were held all over the country. Southwest RC in San Diego marked the
25th anniversary, Northeast RC held 24th event. And there are more: 9th Northeast RC in Portland,
5th West Gulf Coast RC in Houston, One RC in NC, and the first RC in FL.
NMSC 2015 was great. We ran a pilot contest for the third grade. The third grade students liked
the program very much contrary to the concerns on being too young to compete.
The 2nd KSEA Techbook on Biomedical Engineering was finished in a time manner and expect
publication by Springer-Verlag.
We also performed resources database project on distinguished scientists and engineers of nonKSEA members. This area needs more attention for cooperation and membership development.
My sincere appreciation goes to each and every one of you.
Kookjoon Ahn
KSEA President
2 /// KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3
Highlights
of YGTLC 2015
Soojung claire hur, PhD.
YgTLC conference chair
RJF Principal Investigator
Harvard University
the 11th Annual Young Generation Technical & Leadership Conference “Ygnite 2015: Emergent Leaders and innovation”
The 11th anniversary Young Generation Technical and Leadership
Conference (YGTLC 2015) successfully began a new decade, igniting the spirit of collaboration among Korean-Americans in different
fields to help them break past personal goals, glass (or bamboo)
ceilings, and develop their careers. Bright young professionals, graduate, and undergraduate students from various cities across America,
Canada, and Korea actively participated in sessions designed especially for their topical interests, broadening their interests, skills, and careers. The topical interests covered state-of-the-art research projects
and cutting-edge technology, as well as workshops and sessions on
Figure 1. YGTLC 2015 Conference Chair and Coentrepreneurship. In addition, the special joint session (designed for chairs. From left: Daegene Koh, Kyungwon Amy Han,
SJ Claire Hur, and Eddie Cho
senior KSEA leaders who attended the KSEA 43rd midterm council
meeting) facilitated even greater interaction with YG participants and
bridged various gaps through the sharing of life lessons and experiences.
Figure 2. YGTLC 2015 Organizers
Figure 3. Group Photo (YGTLC participants only)
This year, we had a total of 196 attending participants and approximately 70 council members. We received
299 applications, of which 255 acceptances were sent out. We reserved 2 spots for YG officers from each
applying institution to recruit more young leaders to the conference. This proved to be more popular than
we anticipated, resulting in slightly more undergraduate students represented in the three tracks: 28% young
professionals, 33% graduate students, and 39% undergraduates. Career fields remained diverse with 46% from
engineering and computer science, 31% from sciences, and the remaining 22% from professional fields related
to science, technology, and health. The Young Generation participants ranged in age from 18 to 37 with the
median age at 25 years old. Second, 1.5, and first generation Koreans comprised 17%, 62%, and 20% of the
total participants respectively. Attendees also enjoyed a diversity of geography with 3% from Florida, 27%
from the West Coast, 30% from the Midwest, and 38% from the East Coast. Our outreach was a huge success,
with 62% of the participants being newcomers attending this conference for the first time, while the rest were
veteran attendees continuing to remain active contributors to KSEA.
Overall,Ygnite 2015 was a huge
success. The conference drew press
coverage from the local Orlando
news, and we received extensive
positive feedback from participants,
organizers, council members, and
speakers.
Figure 4. Group Photo with KSEA council member
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 3
Highlights of YGTLC 2015
keynote and plenary speech summaries
betty kim, MD, PhD.
Mayo Clinic
christina yoon
yoon consulting
daniel lee, PhD.
University of Florida
During Friday’s lunch session, Dr. Betty Kim from the
Mayo Clinic gave a talk called “The Journey of Curiosity: Becoming a Neurosurgeon 101.” She started her
speech with a description of her childhood as the only
Asian in the countryside of Canada. Then, she walked us
through her life and shared her experiences overcoming obstacles and hardships to become a female neurosurgeon. After her talk, many participants were able
to meet her and ask questions. She was very interactive
throughout and after the conference, responding to several emails and phone calls from participants asking for
Figure 1. Friday lunch keynote speaker,
advice and mentoring. To all participants, it was a valu Betty Kim, MD, PhD.
able time learning how to succeed as Korean American
in their field of interest.
Christina (Tina) Yoon is the founder and principal consultant at Yoon Consulting LLC, a national
consulting firm serving nonprofit organizations in all sectors, with a focus on institutional advancement. During her talk on Friday evening, she shared her life stories on how she set a stone
in mission-driven nonprofit organizations and the consulting field, after being a scientist and a
researcher at Pfizer & MIT for several years. As a scientist, a consultant and a Korean-American
leader/advisor for President Obama, she gave many helpful advices to young students and professionals who are still on their ways to find and achieve their dreams. Her honesty in sharing her
personal struggles inspired many participants.
Dr. Daniel Lee spoke during the Saturday Lunch session on the topic of precision agriculture.
Since Dr. Lee was one of our local speakers, he introduced many students to the idea of applied
engineering. In his case, revolutionizing the citrus industry, one of Florida’s key economies. To
identify citrus patches that suffer from disease, Dr. Lee utilizes sensors to capture images of the
fields and apply signals and algorithms to identify fields to avoid. This in turn saves citrus farms
thousands of dollars in revenue. Many students resonated with his advice to seek out awards and
recognition instead of just sitting and waiting to be recognized. He stated that while humility is a
virtue, works need to be highlighted for better grants and funding for a successful career in academia. For them, Dr. Lee’s work helped expand their vision in how they can approach real-world
problems with their technical skillsets.
Dennis Kwon is a producer for the Discovery Channel Science program MythBusters, based in
San Francisco. He treated participants with an exclusive behind the scenes look at MythBusters, a
show that earned him two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Reality Programming. After earning his Mechanical Engineering degree and working in the aerospace industry, Dennis shared his
journey of becoming a producer for MythBusters, along with his efforts of changing the public
image and perception of engineers.
dannis kwon
mythbusters
4 /// KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3
YGTLC 2015 SESSIONS &
WORKSHOPS
sessions and workshops
Breakout sessions
Lean Startup workshop I & II
Moderator: Phillip Han
Organizers: Phillip Han, Michael DH Kim, Erik Reinertson
Based on the Lean startup method, the workshop was a two-day session where participants formed
teams, brainstormed viable products or solutions, and mapped out assumptions based on various
strengths and weaknesses of their proposed ideas.
On the first day, we discussed the difference between a large company (waterfall development) and a
startup (agile development) and clarified that a startup is not smaller version of a large company. Also,
we expanded on the definition of a startup, which Steve Blank describes as “an organization formed
to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.” We introduced the business model canvas and
divided participants into 8 groups.
Each group came up with a startup idea and filled out the canvas to prepare for a final pitch at the
end of the session for 1.5 minutes. Winners were based on the votes by the participants and the
judges. The winning team was selected and awarded $15 Amazon gift cards to each member.
Better Communicator: “The Office Space”
Moderator: Dennis Cha
Organizers: Dennis Cha, Chris Kim, Kenny Lee, Jinhwa Chun
The purpose of this session was to learn how to better communicate with your supervisors, direct
reports, future employers, peers, and many others; to assess others’ and your negotiation abilities and
rooms for improvements; and to create lasting habits applicable to future negotiation and persuasion.
The session was broken down into 25 mins of introduction to negotiation (What/why negotiation,
Quick negotiation exercise, and Personal assessment), 45 mins of negotiation exercise (Introduction
to Recruiter vs. Applicant situation), and 10 mins of review.
Summary:
Conducted an interactive discussion about what is negotiation, why negotiation is important in life,
and how to improve negotiation skills
Quick exercise of a common negotiation situation--Boyfriend vs Girlfriend
Audience rated themselves as how effective of negotiators they are
Introduced the most common situation of negotiation--Recruiter vs Applicant, and had each of the
audience grab a partner according to how they rated themselves
Ran the negotiation exercise
Audience rated themselves according to given metric for how much as a recruiter (applicant) they
negotiated for their own benefit
Reviewed themselves by giving feedback to each other’s partner
Repeated the Recruiter vs Applicant exercise
Wrapped up by asking what they learned and how their opinion about negotiation changed after the
session
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 5
YGTLC 2015 SESSIONS & WORKSHOPS
Mentors for Career Tips
Moderator: Ben Yoon
Organizers: Chris Kim, Kathy Lee, Ben Yoon, Kyungwon Amy Han
This workshop provided guidance and mentorship on various career tracks to the YGTLC participants.
The mentors were selected from all disciplines of science and engineering: Dr.Yunju Yoo from Harvard dental school, Dr. Benjamin Lee from INVIA Medical Imaging Solutions, Mr. Sun Min Jung from
Boeing, and Ms.Yun Young Yim from the department of pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. The
panelists were given five minutes to introduce themselves and describe their journeys to their current
career path. The introduction was followed by Q&A session. Attendees were divided into groups to
draw a career development map using symbols, notations and drawings of metabolic pathways, computer programming algorithms and electrical circuit designs. The session was very successful.
The guide to and from Grad School
Moderators: Mina Choi
Organizers: Chris Choi, Erik Reinertson, Dae Ik Yi
Panelists: Jina Lim, Chris SH Kim, John Lee, Doo Hyun Chung, Stella Chun, Joonsook Lee
The session was designed to help undergraduate students decide between graduate school and industry.
as well as current young professionals contemplating going back to graduate school, and current grad
students who are contemplating what to do after grad school.
Mina opened the session by explaining the vision and the schedule of the events. Panelists who have
graduated or are currently attending graduate school were invited. Our goal was to bring in a diverse
group of panelists who had a different approach to and after graduate school life. Ie. Industry, research,
post doc, etc. Panelists spoke for 5-6 minutes about their journey before, during, and / or after graduate
school. They described the tough choices they had to make during their journeys and explained their
thought process, the outcomes and what they’d have done different in retrospect. Panelists were broken
up into smaller groups to ask questions and receive consultation. Each panelist brought a 4-5 slide PPT
to illustrate their findings. After this, the panelists were spread around the room with chairs were arranged around them Many of the participants stuck around to continue talking to some of the panelist.
The Quarter Life Crisis: “Life Hacks”
Moderator: MeeAe Hong
Organizers: MeeAe Hong, Ben Yoon, Soo Eung Lee, Kyungwon Amy Han
The purpose and goals for this session was to
1. Uncover the pitfalls and traps that many of us face
2. Share how to properly plan around or through pitfalls in life
3. Uncover the unique contributions and qualities that one has to shine
Getting through college is a huge part of life. The process involves doing everything it takes to look
great on our college applications and then an additional round of cramming and jamming so that we
can graduate. If we’re lucky, we get a job, married, a dog then two kids, a house, and retirement. Along
the way though we realize it doesn’t just happen like before. The navigations isn’t as easy as it was before we graduated college.
In this “Life Hacks” session, we learned and shared about pitfalls and traps that we face and how we can
overcome or get ready to face them. The session was run by Jim “Hyung” Lee. He is currently pursuing Masters in Divinity from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and he is VP of Operation
and Sales for PacificWest Energy Solutions. He provides life coaching to young professionals looking
to succeed in life and consults executive leadership on how they can effectively grow their business and
staff. The session started with taking perosnality test online (http://www.16personalities.com/free-per-
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YGTLC 2015 SESSIONS & WORKSHOPS
sonality-test). Participants had opportunity to learn about their personality type. From there how they
can solve the pitfalls and traps that they may face and set up steps to achieve goals for career, marriage,
and personal success through “life circle” activities.
“I didn’t choose the lab life; the lab life chose me!”
Moderators & Organizers: Chris Choi, Erik Reinertsen, and Dae Ik Yi
The purpose and goals for this breakout session was to
1. Sharing tips and wisdoms in conducting / facilitating a good research
2. Exploring research fields
3. Building networks through sharing our research projects
4. Encouraging undergraduate students to have not only interest in research, but also drawing them
into research
We were able to fulfill all our goals by facilitating a fun and personal icebreakers through answering set
of both research related/non-research related questions that was prepared for the participants.
In addition, we focused primarily on the graphical presentation for research project because few tips
and changes will allow researchers to deliver their discoveries and analysis clearly and effectively. These
technical tips included font scheme, sizes, colors, contrasts, images, etc that would help the audience to
be engaged and understand the presentation better.
Then we invited four highly qualified panelists from various fields and research experiences (undergraduate, graduate, PhD & professional; Biology, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, and
Medicine) to share their own experiences in time management, looking for advisors, grants, and many
things that are related with research.
Lastly, we provided a time where participants were able to practice pitching their research to four other
participants to emphasize how important it is to capture another person in two minutes by sharing
their research without getting into too much details regardless of how great the research is. If they
could not “sell” their research, no matter how great the research is, no one will recognize the greatness.
Personal Finance: “Investing for the Long Haul”
Moderator: Daniel Lee
The purpose and goal for this breakout session was to equip participants with tools to make better
decisions with money. The session had two sections: budgeting and investing. Some topics covered
included compounded interest, effect of inflation, and basic investment concepts such as diversification and and risk vs reward. The session then provided suggestions for practical online tools, for both
budgeting and investing.
Technical/Career/Leadership Presentations
Moderators: Mina Choi,Yunyoung Yim, Dae Ik Yi, Hangaram Kim
Lecture A 1
1. The regulation of satellite cell function and myogenesis by isoforms of CCAAT/Enhancer binding protein Beta by Hwabin Lee
2. Investigation of the Function of the MbtH-like protein CchK from Streptomyces coelicolor of
the by Jane Ryu
3. Transcriptional regulation of immune cell development for mucosal immunity by Seung Hyun
Tracy In
4. A cellular automata model for pulse-coupled biological oscillators as a self-stabilizing clock synchronization algorithm by Hanbeak Lyu
5. An unexpected link between DNA replication and mitosis by Seungbeen (Steven) Lee
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 7
YGTLC 2015 SESSIONS & WORKSHOPS
Lecture A 2
1. 3D graphene-Gold nanoparticle hybrid structure for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy by
Juyoung Leem
2. Discovery of a new gene causing infertility in both men and women by Arthur Lee
3. Resveratrol as a Treatment in a Mouse Model of Heart Failure by Ty Teayeob Kim
4. Treating Ischemic Disease using a DNA-Based gene therapy approach by Sungwon Lim
Lecture B 1
1. A Vocational Joyride by Christine Kyuyon Yo
2. Working on a startup while being employed by full time(at another startup company!) by Yi John
Yoon
3. What I’ve Learned from technology by Scott Lee
4. Product Development Across the Globe by Sara Park
5. Past, Present, and Future of Surgical Microscopes in Neurosurgery by Jang Jon Yoon
Lecture B 2
1. Heavy Hydrocarbons-a Massive Resource by Doo Hyun Chung
2. Infrastructure Asset Management: The other side of Civil Engineering by Michelle Kim
3. Understanding Interplay between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the use of activity tracking
devices by EunJeong Cheon
Summary: The purpose of these sessions was for selected participants, who signed up to be lecturers,
to share their research and career experience with others. They were asked to present for 12 minutes
and take questions for 3 minutes. Everyone was well prepared and ready for the presentation.
Essay Presentations: “Essay Story Telling”
Moderator: Ben Yoon
This session was for essay writers to explain and excite interest in their essays by explaining their essays
to the other writers. They would come up to the front and then give a brief introduction of who they
were and what they wrote their essay about.
YG Groups: YG Summit”
Moderator: Dennis Cha
Organizers: Dennis Cha, Chris Choi, Soo Eung Lee, Kathy Lee
The purpose of this session was to
1. provide better understanding of the expectations and requirements as a YG chapter
2. share experiences, discuss ideas, network with other chapters
3. encourage taking initiative as a leader and have ownership.
YG Summit was an interactive, two-day session for YG officers to come together to freely discuss ideas
and opinions on various topics -- ie. budget, publicity, work delegation, events. The first day opened
up with an icebreaker session to facilitate a relaxing, amiable atmosphere. The session proceeded with
live poll, which allowed the entire group to share responses regarding concerns, where each YG chapter
stands in different aspects, and distinct ways to make improvements. Prior to the conference through
a survey, many officers had voiced the difficulty in balancing academic and social events in addition to
coming to an agreement on the size of the board committee. These issues were dealt through a debate
at the end of the session.
The second day featured panel discussion, activity on promoting KSEA, and a second round of debate
on whether quality or quantity is important in event planning and executions. Participants made active
contributions throughout the three hours and came to the conclusion that a group media would allow
them to stay in touch and help each other make better decisions for KSEA and their YG chapters.
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YGTLC 2015 SESSIONS & WORKSHOPS
sessions and workshops Con’t
Topical Discussion Groups
Select participants were given approximately 30 minutes to lead a small group of their fellow participants in a discussion about a topic of their choice.Participants were given the option of selecting any of the 11 sessions available to attend. Topics included healthcare, start-up & entrepeneurship, data science, as well as current trends in technology and culture. The sessions were designed
to encourage more topical networking through the smaller group dynamics as well as participants
having the choice to choose a topic.
Poster Session
Organizers: Hangaram Kim, YunTae Dennis Cha, Dae Ik Yi, Yun Young Yim, Erik Reinertsen, YJ Jin
1. Poster submissions list was categorized by its field of study based on the title & abstract (9 categories = biomedical; ChE; Chemistry&Physics; Civil Eng; EE/CS; Finance/biz/isye; Mech Eng;
Other;YG)
2. Each posters were given its unique poster IDs (e.g., BM01, ChE01..) for identification purposes.
3. Poster participants were divided in half evenly, randomly assigned to either session A (Friday) or
session B (Saturday). Participants were informed about their poster ID and the session (A or B)
during on-site registration.
4. Poster boards were set up in the Majestic prefunction area (hallways), with sticky notes with
poster IDs attached. Participants were asked to find their assigned spot & set up their posters in the
morning of the presentation.
5. Peer judging: participants in session B were asked to judge posters from session A, and vice
versa.. Each poster was to be judged by five different judges to ensure “fair” evaluation.
6. Peer judge list was randomly generated using spreadsheet, then manually checked/rearranged
to make sure diverse and balanced judging (i.e., biomedical poster doesn’t get all five biomedical
judges, etc.)
7. Master judging sheet was available at the info desk during the poster session, so the participants
would know which five posters to judge. Participants were also encouraged to judge other posters
which they were not assigned to, in case of no-shows.
8. Judging form: used Google form to ensure fast tally. Link for the online evaluation form was announced via Whoova app (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uCvIf90eS0w6zIgQvZCKsdB61Y
gcj1w8NEPOHpDo9Dc/viewform)
9. Wi-fi connection was made reliable for the large number of participants trying to go online at
the same time during the session. Paper and pen option was also avilable but discouraged.
10. Evaluation results were collected and analyzed by Erik & YJ (I have no idea how they did it).
Six winners across fields were selected and awarded “Outstanding Poster Presentation” awards.
Joint councilor Session
Moderator: Jinhwa Chun
Organizers: Jinhwa Chun, Claire Hur, Ben Lee, Ben Yoon, Kathy Lee, Chris Kim
This joint session between KSEA council members and Ygnite 2015 participants was intended to
provide both networking and career development opportunities. In addition, this joint session also
tried to provide a cultural and generational understandings between different age groups of KSEA.
Participants were generally well mixed in groups and actively participated in ice breaker and life
graph activities.
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 9
YGTLC 2015 SESSIONS & WORKSHOPS
Team Competition
Organizers: Jonathan Kim, Jinhwa Chun, Dennis Cha, Sooeung Lee, Michael DH Kim, Stella Chun
Ice breaker:
The ice breaker was divided up into their respective tracks - undergrad, grad and YP.
We divided up the groups into three because there were no other sessions where the groups would
be in their respective tracks. Each participants were given a “name” in secret, and by asking yes or
no question, they had to find out who they were. Once they found out who they are, then the
participants would have to find their respective groups. i.e. apple, banana, kiwi,... would be Fruit.
Within their group, they were given M&Ms and played never have I ever, and had a chance to find
out more about each other.
Part I: Commercial Filming
In their teams, each team was assigned a category: health, infrastructure, education.. etc. Then the
team had to envision what 2035 would be like and create an item/idea. Each team was given an
analysis sheet, which helped them guide through the brainstorming activity. Afterwards, the teams
were tasked to created 30 seconds - 90 seconds commercial for their product. There were no postediting allowed, and encouraged the users to use the Pause button on their smartphone video app.
Part II: FAQ
Each participants were given a sheet with names and blank spaces, with the questions to be answered. Participants were to go around and find and chat with the people they were assigned. Participants were to fill at least 20 rows (min. 8 of the given participants and min. 12 of blank spaces)
10 /// KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3
Ygnite 2015
Testimonials
ygnite 2015 testimonials
My Ygnite experience this year was a very eye opening experience. I started off without even
knowing what I really was supposed to be doing for YGTLC. I just thought I would do YGTLC as
an organizer just because it sounded interesting and I prefer organizing than actually doing things
because I am an awkward turtle. Anyhow, the point was as I progressed, I realized that the main
thing was just starting and that even as an organizer the main fun thing was just meeting people.
Actually going to the conference was also interesting, I got to see all the people I met online in
person and for people who I met previously as a participant, I got to know many of them better.
benjamin yoon
Student
University of Michigan
It was a little crazy, but I got to get really close with the organizers and even during the sessions I
met a lot of people. I do have to admit, that it was a little less structured than I would have liked
seeing that they were getting volunteers for everything on the day of and sometimes it felt like
we were all just going crazy about what was happening, but I think that happens with all conferences on a scale such as this. There were so many things that was going on, and I was running back
and forth, but it was an adrenaline of happiness as I was working on so many sessions and helping
arrange everything. The flexibility and the freedom that we had was something that really made
this conference all the more exhilarating. I remember when I was leading my essay session, and
even my other session about mentors for careers, things really didn’t go as planned. In fact, nothing
went right for those sessions as one of them had not even half of their participants show up. But
at the end of the day, I think it led to everyone having networking time and being able to get to
know people a lot better. It was a light, almost comical environment where people ended up meeting each other and had a topic to talk about right away, and I think that lead later into the sitting
arrangements.
The seating arrangements that we had at Ygnite I think really kept me on my toes. We were always
meeting new people, and if you wanted to meet people you definitely could. I realize that there
were some awkward moments where discussion was hard to reach because there was an age difference or an experience gap, but I think that really helped people prefer for the future as well as
life is not always interacting with those who are similar to themselves. I had to do that myself, with
interacting with people that I had never met before where they had already known each other before. Being an awkward turtle can make things difficult at times in social situations, but the people
at Ygnite really made it so I never had to worry about that. From the first day, where I didn’t know
anyone and I was the one guy that didn’t order a Cuban sandwich at the restaurant and made
everyone else stay, to the last day where I felt like I was up in the clouds for the entire day, I had an
amazing time.Ygnite will always have a special place in my heart.
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 11
Ygnite 2015 Testimonials
When a graduate student first suggested creating a YG chapter at my school and attending the
YGTLC conference, I did not understand in what way it would benefit me. Once I was added to
the Facebook group, I was further perplexed by the hype surrounding the conference. Coming
from a relatively less known school with a small Korean population, I doubted whether I, with a
rather introverted personality, could be a part of that hype.
clara kim
Student
Vanderbilt
On the first day of the conference, I felt very awkward and sometimes out of place. I felt like I had
so little in common with people there; it was difficult to initiate or carry a conversation. The awkwardness faded away as the day progressed, and the FAQ sheet forced me to approach people and
have a conversation. The random seating arrangements for meals also helped tremendously; being
in a smaller group setting made it easier to be more active. We were constantly propelled to meet
new people and initiate conversations, which is pretty intimidating for introverts; however the
friendly atmosphere and awkward but very funny questions from the FAQ sheet made the process
much more relaxing.
I thoroughly enjoyed the contents of the conference, including speakers, lectures, posters, and dinners with KSEA representatives. An accidental seminar that I attended would inspire me the most,
and hearing about different stories and passions gave me new perspectives on how to approach
difficulties in life and career. I especially liked talking to professors at the Saturday dinner/Sunday
morning sessions, hearing about their life stories and how they overcame their obstacles.
Reflecting back on the conference, I would summarize it as a weekend well spent with passionate, inspirational, intelligent individuals. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire conference and being in a
professional environment was very interesting and helpful to me.
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Ygnite 2015 Testimonials
post YGTLC comments
“It was a great opportunity to meet awesome people and hear their stories. Thanks KSEA!” - Jei Min Yoo
(Software Engineer at Microsoft)
“Ygnite 2015 [YGTLC] was nothing short of phenomenal. Through Ygnite, KSEA continues to inspire
young professionals to become leaders in our field. The powerful speeches delivered by internationally
renown speakers, incredible mentors and mentees from across the nation, and the welcoming aura of the
KSEA community, all make Ygnite a transformative experience that motivates me to return every year. “ Chai Yoon Linda Kim (Senior Undergraduate at Duke University)
“Loved Ygnite 2015 [YGTLC]! It was a remarkable experience that reaffirmed my roots and identity as a
proud Korean American. Of course it was impressive to notice the unparalleled intellectual capital that this
group boasts. But more importantly, it was energizing to see strong bonds instantly form that make KSEA
such a standout community.” - J. Daniel Kim (PhD Candidate at MIT)
“This was my first experience going to the YGTLC. I enjoyed discussing and sharing information about
KSEA from different schools. I feel very grateful for this wonderful opportunity to meet new people!” Janice Sim (Sophomore Undergraduate at University of Michigan)
“As a junior scientist working in a research lab, I found Ygnite 2015 to be very intellectually satisfying. It
was so nice to catch up what other fellow Korean graduate and undergraduate students have been exploring in their respective science fields.” - Seung-been Steven Lee (Post-Bac Technician at University of
Washington)
“Thank you all for giving me this unique experience! I really enjoyed the diverse set of activities and opportunity to communicate with awesome people. I’m looking forward to attend the next Ygnite!” - Wonseok Ham (PhD Candidate at Harvard University)
“KSEA’s Ygnite [YGTLC] is a great program that provides connections among Korean Americans all over
the United States from individuals who are thinking about going into a field, to individuals that are studying within their fields, and finally to individuals who are already professionals in their fields. Exceptional
work was done by all the Ygnite organizers of 2015’s Orlando event, especially to the co-chairs, Kyungwon
Amy Han, Daegene “DK” Koh, and Eddie Cho, as well as the chair Dr. Claire “SJ” Hur. “ - Hyunsoo Lim
(Dental Student at New York University)
“Ygnite 2015 [YGTLC] was a bomb diggity time that was so amazing and memorable that it will remain
etched deep into my memory for the rest of my life. The people that I have met and the connections that
I have made I think will play a part in the rest of my future.” - Benjamin Kyunghan Yoon (Senior Undergraduate at University of Michigan)
“This is my 4th Ygnite [YGTLC] and I am again grateful for being able to participant. Thank you to the
organizers for being innovative and providing sessions that not only help me reflect on my career path, but
also in developing my network. I have met so many passionate individuals and hopefully, I had a chance to
inspire others!” - Carol Rim (PharmD Candidate at University of Arizona)
“The conference was full of energetic people. I learned so much from my peers and got to network with
very smart people. It was the most enjoyable conference I ever attended because I got to hang out with the
organizers and became friends with them.” - John Yoon (Software Engineer at Nutanix, San Jose, CA)
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 13
Highlights of
YGTLC 2015
awards
award Name
Recipient
Synopsis / notes
Team competition 1st
YCare - Katherine Cho
Jay Han
Kevin Yonghoon Cho
Sookyung Kim
Jessica Park
Soo Baik
Na Yeon Kim
Jae Yup Lee
Jun Woo Jeon
Participants created a short promo
video about a hypothetical future
technology
Team competition 2nd
Amazon Portal - Daniel Ha
Janice Sim
Woo Sung Kim
Hannah Kim
Yun Young Susan Yim
Julia Lee
Hanbaek Lyu
Alex Taejune Kim
Won Seok
Team competition 3rd
Doncha - Hyerim Cho
Eunjeong Cheon
Ty Taeyeob Kim
Jeongmin Hyun
Sungeun Sung Kang
Se Eun Sally Park
Hyun Ho Peter Shin
Michael Kim
Team Competition FAQ Winners
Se Eun Jacqueline Kim
Taegyu Kim
Essay Contest Honarable Mention
Hana Kim, Jean Young Kang, Sang Hyuk
Ray Cho, Yun Ju Yoo, Veronica JungYeon
Kim, Sanghyun Park
Essay Contest 3rd
Veronica JungYeon Kim
Essay Contest 2nd
Yun Ju Yoo
Essay Contest 1st
Hana Kim
Outstanding Poster Presentation
Award
Carol Rim
Outstanding Poster Presentation
Award
Jeongmin Hyun
Outstanding Poster Presentation
Award
Tae Won Kim
Outstanding Poster Presentation
Award
Won Seok Ham
Outstanding Poster Presentation
Award
Hyerin Kim
Outstanding Poster Presentation
Award
Soo Kyung Kim
Outstanding YG Group Poster Award
Jessica Park
Outstanding YG Group Poster Award Kyu Don Josh Min
14 /// KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3
These participants were successful
in meeting the most number of new
people
KSEA HQ News
National Mathematics & Science competition (NMSC)
2015
Mathematics and Science are very important in our rapidly changing technological and
scientific age. Proficiency in math and science is the gateway to all kinds of careers. The KoreanAmerican Scientists & Engineers Association (KSEA) offers the National Mathematics & Science
Competition (NMSC) to challenge and inspire students. The KSEA NMSC is also dedicated to
elevate mathematical abilities, talents, and scientific innovation of all students. We also want to
express that math and science can be fun too. Sports, games, and everyday fun activities all have
their base from math and science. This year NMSC has reached its 14th year for Math and 10th
year for Science. We have held the National High School Physic Contest (NHSPC) since 2013.
steve J. Lee
Ksea vice president
Branch Chief
California Department of Transportation
NMSC 2015 was held April 18, 2015 at 34 local chapters and branches. 2,291 students from
34 local chapters and branches participated in the Math Competition (2,092 students in 2014).
For the Science Competition, 899 students participated from 13 local chapters and branches
(712 students in 2014). This is the highest number of participants for science in recent years.
The math and science contests were open to 3rd grade this year. For the first time, KSEA has
provided a separate 3rd grade level math exam (pilot for NMSC 2015). For the Physics Contest,
87 students participated from 12 local chapters and branches (82 students in 2014). KSEA provided
Certificates and Awards to the top three national winners in each grade for math. KSEA also
provided Certificates and Awards to the top three national winners in physics. National Math and
Physics winners are shown below.
MATHEMATICS National Winners
4th Grade
Chapter
Wash Metro
Last
Park
2
Enders Road Elementary
3
Attlan
Sebastian
Monroe Elementary
3
Last
First
Cho
Chapter
Champion School
Shane
Chicagoland
5th Grade
National
Ranking
Spring Hill Elementary
Koski
Chicagoland
School
JunWoo
Silicon Valley
Western NY
First
Lee
Simon
Andrew
Romona Elementary
1
3
School
National
Ranking
Deerfield Elementary
1
San Diego
Park
Andrew
New Jersey
Shin
Autumn
Cherry Hill Elementary
3
Last
First
School
National
Ranking
Tyee Middle School
2
Southern CA
6th Grade
Chapter
Jang
Hannah
La Jolla Elementary
New Jersey
Jung
Jongwon
Tenakill Middle school
New Jersey
Shin
DongHyuk
Tenakill Middle school
First
School
Seattle Wash
7th Grade
Chapter
Philadelphia
Wash Metro
Wash Metro
Jwa
Last
Heon
Lee
Samuel
Han
Justin
Chung
Alex
Pennfield Middle school
Longfellow Middle School
Kilmer Middle school
1
1
3
National
Ranking
1
2
3
8th Grade
Chapter
Last
Austin TX
Kolenbrander
Georgia
Im
Dayton OH
9th Grade
Xi
First
Hull Middle school
Stevenson High School
1
Peter
William Mason High School
1
Thomas Jefferson High
Andrew
North TX
Zhu
Kim
Junu
Westwood High school
Jeffrey
Mason High School
Nathan
Seattle Wash
Chung
Richard
Southern CA
Chen
Jason
Silicon Valley
Park
Southern CA
Cheon
Wash Metro
Kim
Southern CA
10th Grade
Chapter
Lowery Freshman Center
Julia
Mission San Jose High School
DoHyun
North Hollywood High
Temple City High School
1
1
1
1
1
1
Dominick
John
Thomas Jefferson High
Last
First
School
National
Ranking
Oh
Lauren
Torrey Pines High School
1
Choi
Silicon Valley
Choi
North Hollywood High
1
Joo
Chicagoland
San Diego
1
National
Ranking
Hwang
Dayton OH
1
School
Chicagoland
Huang
1
Shawn
William
First
Dayton OH
Perrysburg Junior high
Cedar Park Middle school
Last
Lee
National
Ranking
Joshua
Chapter
Austin TX
School
Alex
Hinsdale Central High school
Tomas
Mission San Jose High school
1
1
1
1
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 15
KSEA HQ News
11th Grade
Chapter
Last
Wash Metro
Park
Wash Metro
Jung
New Jersey
Wash Metro
First
Robin
National
Ranking
School
Thomas Jefferson High
Kim
Daniel
Bergen County Academics
Kim
Hyowon
Thomas Jefferson High
Joslyn
1
2
Thomas Jefferson High
3
School
National
Ranking
Mission San Jose High
1
3
PHYSICS National Winners
Chapter
Last
Silicon Valley
Choi
Georgia
Silicon Valley
First
Pyo
Jae Woo
Lee
Scott
Tomas
North Gwinnett High
1
Monta Vista High
1
Note: Dr. Jun-Koo Park (Georgia Gwinnett College) provided the
main effort to create math exams for 3rd Grade. Dr. Jaewoo Jeong
and VP1 Steve Lee provided exam review and technical support.
National Mathematics Score Distribution by Grade
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
11th
0-19
12
45
32
86
24
19
30
13
20-29
23
61
32
60
31
12
22
17
30-39
42
54
41
53
40
23
34
26
40-49
53
63
53
27
39
24
32
21
50-59
50
54
41
29
45
22
18
12
60-69
31
38
43
8
33
16
18
9
70-79
24
18
44
4
26
23
12
10
80-89
21
15
22
3
22
16
17
6
90-99
9
8
16
0
10
26
11
9
100-116
6
3
11
0
20
45
10
10
271
359
335
270
290
226
204
133
Total
Participants
In developing the Math exams, KSEA is indebted to the members of
Math Committee. The committee, led by Chairman Jaewoo Jeong
(Miami University, Hamilton), did an excellent job to create different
exams and sample tests for each grade (grades 4-11). (Note: There
were 4 different exams for eight grades the two previous years.)
The committee underwent a series of reviews checking each exam
problem for solvability, grammar, and overall comprehension. Here
are the other members of the Math Committee:
Ji Young Choi (Shippensburg University)
Samjoo Doh (Nuance Communications)
Jimin Lee (University of North Carolina Asheville)
YoungHee Park Lee (Foothill College in CA)
Byung Guk Kim (University of Massachusetts)
Sung-Yell Song (Iowa State University)
Jintae Kim (Auburn University)
In addition, a special thank you goes to the External Review
Committee (Math) led by Chairman Eungchun Cho (Kentucky
State University). Dr. Cho is also the President of KAMSA (KoreanAmerican Mathematical Scientist Association). Here are the other
members of the External Review Committee:
Jun Young Choi (Nitto Denko Avecia Inc.)
HyoJoo Han (Georgia Southern University)
Hae-Soo Oh (University of North Carolina Charlotte)
Hye-Won Kang (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)
The math grading sheets were created by the math committee (tie
breakers were built in these sheets). This grading sheet was for the
chapters to fill in correct or wrong for every test problem for every
participant. We want to commend all chapters and branches for
filling them out (this was a huge task). This data gives us valuable
information (which problems were easy and which were difficult)
about the math problems and will be used in future years.
We also thank Dr. Junho Cha (Science Committee Co-Chair)
and the Seattle Chapter members who developed three sets of
52.4
43.9
52.9
29.9
53.5
66.3
49.0
49.6
rd
Note: 203 students took the 3 Grade math exam (a pilot for this year). new science projects used by the local chapters in the Science
Competition. They also refined science projects from previous years
so the chapters can have more choices to use for the science competition.
National
Average
We want to thank AKPA (Association of Korean Physicists in America) for providing the physics
exams and also providing T-shirts to the participants in various chapters. The certificates to the
winners were jointly signed by KSEA President Kookjoon Ahn and AKPA President Jaehoon Yu
(Physics Committee Co-chair).
For future NMSC events, we want to note the importance of other sciences. Chemistry, Biology,
Computers, Geography, and Earth Science are subjects that students learn even at early elementary
grades. Perhaps a test that includes several sciences would be more appropriate and more fun. This
would also expose students to other sciences and encourage them to be better-rounded and excel
in many scientific areas.
16 /// KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3
KSEA HQ News
Furthermore, we encourage the KSEA Council to create a standing committee for Math and a
standing committee for Science Projects. It is very important to keep the continuity and keep the
quality of exams and projects at a high level. The National Contest Committee alone usually is
not enough to execute all aspects of NMSC. Just the tasks involved to create new math exams and
new science projects every year is a tremendous effort.
We also can’t forget to appreciate the KSEA-HQ staff for providing administrative support
for NMSC 2015. We acknowledge Ms. Michelle Cho for tracking the NMSC registration,
providing updates, and communication with Chapters. We also acknowledge Mr. Jongsung You
for maintaining the NMSC website, and Ms. Kelly Han for managing and tracking the finances of
NMSC 2015.
Finally, to all the parents, students, and volunteers who dedicated their time and resources, we send
a BIG THANK YOU. The KSEA NMSC 2015 would not be possible without your hard work.
Why do we sacrifice our valuable personal time and prepare for months for this event? We do it
for our future and the future of our greatest treasure, our kids.
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 17
KSEA HQ News
the third akpa-ksea national high school physics
contest
jaehoon yu, PhD.
AKPA 30th President
Professor
University of Texas at Arlington
The 3rd NHSPC was held jointly with Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association
(KSEA) during the National Math and Science Contest (NMSC) on Saturday, April 18, 2015.
This contest was the third of the series conducted nationwide and forth on the entire program.
NHSPC2015 was held in 14 locations this year throughout the nation. NHSPC has accomplished a milestone, having a total of 108 participants showcasing their physics skills across the
nation. Many of them are non-ethnic Korean students. Of the 109 participants, 23 (or 21%) were
female students. The students were given 75 minutes to solve 12 problems – 8 mechanics and 4
electro-magnetism. Compared to NHSPC2013 which was held in 9 locations with 52 students
participating in it and NHSPC2014 was held in 11 locations with 82 participants.
As has been the tradition, all problems were multiple-choice problems to ensure the objectivity of
the grading with a total of 10 answer choices each to minimize accidental ties and to ensure testing the students’ physics skills. The average score of all participants were 5 out of 12 which was
an improvement of 25% compared to NHSPC2014 in which the average as 4. The average score
has been steadily increased. The problems were kept at rather difficult to provide prestige to the
participating students and to work with the American Physical Society (APS) to provide physics
skills certificate. AKPA plans on submitting a proposal to APS to start the process of obtaining certificates.
All participants were given a T-shirt for participation in the contest, designed by an art faculty
at the University of Texas at Arlington. For a student to be in the award range, the student must
score more than 5, at the average. Three students scored perfect through out the nation and shared
the 1st prize. They are Jae Woo Pyo of North Gwinnet High School, a 10th grader, from KSEA
Georgia Chapter and Scott Lee of Monta Vista High School, an 11th grader, and Thomas Choi of
Mission San Jose High School, a 10th grader, a winner of NHSPC 2014 from the KSEA Silicon
Valley chapter. These winners will be individually contacted for potential summer research program in the nearby university or a research institute.
While the NHSPC seems to have taken its place solidly, it still is in a toddler stage, and there is lots
of room to improve. A notable improvement this year is that two of the 14 sites had non-ethnic
Korean physicists helping with the organization, proctoring and grading, along with an increased
number (total of 22) of non-ethnic Korean participants. The physicists were very excited about
this contest and are willing to help next year. I truly believe this is an excellent indication for
NHSPC to become not just ethnic Korean event but become a nationwide event what would allow us to be a leader in this avenue, working closely with the APS.
The success of this program would not have been possible without the strong support of KSEA
and a tremendous participation of AKPA members and non-ethnic Korean physicists who took
part in organization, proctoring and grading. AKPA should going to continue working closely
with KSEA and APS to ensure the success of this program in the foreseeable future.
18 /// KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3
KSEA HQ News
A group photo of the award winners at the KSEA Chicagoland chapter. From
left, Dr. Chongshik Park, the Chicagoland Physics Contest chair, Grant Kim (2nd
place), Andrew Hwang (3rd place), Alex Choi (1st place) and Dr. Byeong Song, the
Chicagoland NMSC chair.
A group photo of the award winners at at the KSEA Georgia chapter. From left Dr.
Bokwon Yoon, the Georgia Physics Contest chair, Jae Woo Pyo (1st place). Na Rae
Lee (2nd place), Berru Choi (3rd place) and Dr. Chongwoo Park, the Georgia chapter
president.
A group photo taken after the award ceremony at the University of Texas,
Arlington campus in KSEA North Texas chapter. From left, 3rd place Daniel Koh,
an 11th grader from Coppell High School, 1st place Juhwan Jeong, an 11th grader
from Frisco High School, Dr. Jaehoon Yu, and another 2nd place winner Kevin Choi,
a 10th grader of St. Mark’s School of Texas.
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 19
KSEA HQ News
2015 KSEA scholarships
2015 KSEA-KUSCO Graduate Scholarship Recipients
Name
Major
school
Jihyeon Yeom
Macromolecular Science and Engineering
University of Michigan
Kibum Kim
Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research
Graduate College, University of Illinois at Chicago
Yena Son
Public Policy
Frank Batten School, University of Virginia
Hyunggu Jung
Biomedical and Health Informatics
University of Washington
Jieun Son
Cellular and Molecular Biology
University of Houston
SeCheol Oh
Biophysics
Weill-Cornell Medical College
Farrah Yhee
Mathematics
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Rachel Lee
Advanced Education in Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics/Master of Business Administration
Roseman University of Health Sciences
Seonghoon Woo
Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JungJin Kim
Bio & Agricultural Engineering
University of Idaho
Jaesung Choi
Transportation and Logistics
North Dakota State University
Jinhan Kwon
Structural Engineering (Civil Engineering)
The University of Texas at Austin
Woongsik Nam
Mechanical Engineering
Purdue University
Gloria Bora Kim
Bioengineering
Pennsylvania State University
Yoon Woo Byun
Biomedical Engineering
Duke University
Sangkyun Cho
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
University of Pennsylvania
mina choi
Bioengineering
University of Maryland
Hayeun Ji
Biomedical Engineering
Columbia University
Nu Na
Medicine
Dartmouth Medical School
Sung-Hye Kim
Undecided
University of Louisville School of Medicine
2015 Undergraduate Scholarship Recipients
20 /// KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3
Name
Major
school
Jino Park
Biomedical Engineering
Cornell University
Ji Won Park
Physics B.S.
Duke University
Jiehwan Yang
Computer Science & Economics
St. Olaf College
Peter Yun
Biochemistry
Rice University
Mun Yong Jang
Computer Science
Princeton University
Minjung Kim
Psychology
Wellesley College
Susie Min
Biochemistry
Swarthmore College
Juliet Kim
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Harvard College
Elaine Kang
Molecular, Cellular and Development Biology
Yale University
Hojin Lee
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Byunguk Kang
Bioengineering
Rice University
Joseph Lee
Nuclear and Mechanical Engineering
University of California
Yongtaek Oh
Neuroscience
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Minsu cho
Electrical Engineering
John Brown University
eugene yoon
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Johns Hopkins University
Hong Gyoon Jung
Information Systems and Technologies
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
So Yeon Koo
Neuroscience
New York University
Dawit Lee
Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Kate Lee
Biochemistry, Environmental Health
University of Washington
Janghun Yu
Computer Information Technology
BYU-I
Chapter News
the 25th annual KSEA south-western regional conference
The 25th Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA) Southern-Western Regional Conference (SWRC) was held on February 28th, 2015, at Carlsbad, California. The theme
of this year’s conference was “Knowledge Convergence of Science/Engineering and Industry”
with the objective of gathering scientists and engineers from the US and Korea to share knowledge and experiences, while enhancing networks amongst members. A total of 183 participants
joined us at SWRC, including 35 speakers.
Taeseok oh
president
KGSA at
University of California San Diego
hyungsuk eric kim
vice president
KGSA at
University of California San Diego
The conference started off with members greeting each other through the reception and networking breakfast offered to participants. Opening plenary session followed after networking breakfast
and there was an opening remark from Dr. Jung Joo Hwang, KSEA-San Diego Chapter President,
and a welcome speech from Dr. Kookjoon Ahn, President of KSEA-Headquarter. Congratulatory
address was given by Hyun-Myung Kim from Korean Consul General. Opening plenary session
was concluded with a keynote speech titled “Paving an Integrated Research Platform for Novel
Drug Discovery” from Dr. Sung Hoon Kim, a professor from Seoul National University, and invited talk from sponsor, CheilJedang (CJ) Corporation.
Young Generation (YG) session followed soon after the opening plenary session, which was
designed to provide helpful career advice to many of the younger generation participants. Dr.
Heekoo Moon, Head of Heat Transfer Department at Solar Turbine, gave a speech on “Career
Options with an Engineering Degree”. Also, “Career Path Group Mentoring” session was held for
YG panel for a career discussion among invited panels. Dr. Jae H. Kim, Executive/Senior Technical Fellow at Boeing Research and Technology, gave an invited talk on “KSEA Restructuring Task
Force Recommendation” during lunch.
After lunch, four focused area of parallel sessions were carried out by speakers from Korea and the
US. The first and the second parallel sessions consisted of two parallel tracks, all with different areas
of studies, and this allowed participants to attend the sessions they found interesting.
At one of the first parallel sessions on biotechnology, speakers shared their knowledge of their area
of expertise: “From Bugs to Drugs” by Dr. Leslie Hickle, “How Does a Cell Know How Much
to Grow and Why Does it Matter?” by Lomon So, “New Membrane Separation Application for
Biochemistry Industry” by James Kim, and “Multiscale Microscopy of the Visual Pathway” by Dr.
Keun-young Kim. At the other parallel session, presentations on “Understanding Customer Behaviors: Toward Reducing Attrition” by Dr. Samuel Kim, “Media Q: Geo-Crowd Sourced Mobile
MeeWa and Its Applications” by Dr. Seon Ho Kim, “Digital Tool Design for Disney Animated
Films” by Dr. Brian Whited, “Computer Graphics in Film Pre-Production” by Eugene Jeong, and
“Revisiting Narrow Phase Continuous Collision Detection in Computer Graphics” by Dr. Sujeong Huh, were given to the audiences interested in IT/Computer Science technologies.
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 21
Chapter News
The second parallel session ran after a coffee recess held after the end of the first session. Entrepreneurship session consisted of five speeches: “Journey of a First Time Entrepreneur” by Daniel Lee,
“Introduction of TeK One: Supporting High Tech Based Startup Companies” by Dr. Bo Ryu, “Introduction of Patent System, and How to Protect Your Inventions” by Raymond Chan, “Sorting
through the Changing Maze of Digital Health with a Structured Education” by Dr. Enrique Saldivar, and “How to Spin Out Your Company from University with Help of SBIR Program” by Dr.
Sung Hwan Cho. Six speeches were given at the CAE session simultaneously with the Entrepreneurship session: “Nonlinear Structural Behavior of Unbonded Post-Tensioned Concrete Members and Repair Schemes with CFRP” by Dr. Uksun Kim, “Water Main Break Consequences in
the State of California” by Dr. Jinsung Cho, “Flash Flood Predictions during Dry Season using
HEC-HMS” by Dr. Helen Jung, “A Study on the Passive Approaches within Building to Mitigate
the Urban Heat Island” by Dr. Geun Soo Park, “Creep at Early-Age of Self-Consolidating Concrete” by Dr. Jong-Wha Bai, and “New Method for Turbidity Control with Nutrient Removal as a
Tertiary Treatment, Replacing Existing Sand Filter” by Dr.Young Jin Eum.
For the closing session, Dr. JJ Hwang held “Introduction of Sponsors” session prior to invited talk
by Sung Jeon from another sponsor, Delta Airlines. Raffle time followed after sponsor invited talk
with prize of a business class round-trip flight pass to Korea and the SWRC ended with closing
remarks from Dr. Sung Hwan Cho, KSEA-San Diego Chapter President-elect, and Yeom-Moo
Jason Choi, KSEA-Southern California Chapter President.
22 /// KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3
Chapter News
the first florida regional conference “Florida US-Korea Conference on Bio-
medical, Nanosciences, Engineering and Systems Technology (Florida BNEST 2015)”
The Orlando chapter hosted the first Florida Regional Conference that was organized by collaborative efforts of three Florida regional chapters on Saturday, Feb 21, 2015 in the Harris Corporation Engineering Center at University of Central Florida, Orlando.
Currently there are three KSEA chapters in Florida: Central Florida/Orlando, Tampa Bay and
Gainesville chapter. Geographically these three chapters cover 2/3 of Florida region except
Northwestern and Southern area. Especially Central Florida area including Orlando is one of the
fastest growing regions in the nation in Sciences and Technology such as Biomedical Sciences,
Nanosciences, Engineering and related enterprises. Accordingly professional communities in related fields have been dramatically expanding, demanding proper networking opportunities among
Korean-American Scientists and Engineers. The Florida BNEST 2015 has successfully satisfied this
demand and laid the foundation stone for establishing the annual conference of entire Florida area
covering Miami, Daytona, Jacksonville and Tallahassee.
The meeting was opened with registration at 9 am. The conference was started with opening
remark by Dr.Yoon-Seong Kim, a KSEA Orlando chapter president and conference organizing
chair followed by four plenary lectures for the morning session: the first plenary speech was given
by Prof.Youngsoo Kim (North Calorina State University, KSEA 43rd PE) on “How to Build a
Successful Career” followed by three additional plenary lectures by Prof. Debra Reinhart (College
of Engineering and Computer Science, UCF, “Unveiling the Mysteries of the National Science
Foundation”), Prof. Sampath Parthasarathy (College of Medicine, UCF, “Dietary prevention of
heart disease”) and Prof. Kevin Coffey (Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center, UCF,
“Moore’s Law in the Magnetic Recording Industry”).
During lunch networking, upcoming UKC 2015 in Atlanta was introduced by Dr.Youngsoo
Kim, KSEA 43rd PE. Prof. Jaehoon Yu (University of Texas at Arlington), KSEA2016 PE candidate,
gave a talk on “From the Discovery of the God Particle to the Beams of Dark Matter” and had a
chance to share his vision for KSEA 2016.
In the afternoon, two separate sessions of oral presentations, Biomedical and Nanoscience Technology (BNT), and Civil Engineering and Material Sciences (CEMS), were held with each session
having about 12 presenters. Both postdoctoral fellows and faculties from universities as well as
researchers from industries had great opportunity to present and communicate each other with
constructive feedbacks.
A poster session was led by Prof. Hae-Bum Yun (College of Engineering and Computer Science,
UCF). Total 17 posters were presented during the technical session break. Each presentation was
carefully reviewed by three judges and three presentations were selected for awards.
The conference was closed by award ceremony followed by closing remark by Dr.Yoon-Seong
Kim. During the post-meeting dinner, participants from each regional chapter had opportunity
to and evaluate the event and discuss future plan, and all agreed with the importance of having an
annual Florida RC.
This inaugural Florida Regional Conference provided great opportunity to share achievements,
exchange research topics and recent technology trends as well as expanding their research network.
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 23
Chapter News
Organizing Committee
Conference chair: Dr.Yoon-Seong Kim, University of Central Florida
Organizing Committee: Dr.Yongho Sohn, University of Central Florida
Dr. Hae-Bum Yun, University of Central Florida
Dr. Hyoungjin Cho, University of Central Florida
Technical Program Co-Chairs: Dr. Jun Sung Kim, Tampa Bay Chapter President
Dr.Yoon-Suk Lee, Gainesville Chapter President
Registration: Dr. Boohyun Nam
24 /// KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3
APS News
korean physicists symposium at the 2015 aps march meeting
The forth Korean Physicists Symposium at the American Physical Society (APS) March meeting was held
in San Antonio Convention Center on the evening of Wednesday, March 4, 2015. This annual
symposium serves as a forum for Korean physicists in the US and Korea exchange information
on their research activities and to promote potential collaboration between them during the APS
March meeting. This year, professor Harold Kim of the Georgia Institute of Technology organized
the symposium.
harold kim, PhD.
Assistant Professor
Georgia Institute of Technology
jaehoon yu, PhD.
AKPA 30th President
Professor
University of Texas at Arlington
The session started with short opening remarks by professor Yung Kee Yeo of the Air Force Institute of Technology and the 30th AKPA president Jaehoon Yu, University of Texas for an introduction of AKPA and KSEA. The Symposium featured four interesting talks representing diverse
branches and scales of physics: hard condensed matter, soft condensed matter, nano-bio physics,
and astrophysics. The first two speakers were the two recipients of 2015 OYRA (Outstanding
Young Researcher Award), Drs. Donghui Jeong from the Pennsylvania State University and Dr.
Donghun Lee from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the other two speakers were
leading researchers in their respective fields.
The first speaker, Dr. Donghun Lee, a 2015 OYRA winner, presented a talk titled “Hybrid quantum systems: mechanical oscillators coupled to photons and defects in diamond”. He discussed
the advances in quantum information technology over the last decades, which have led to remarkable control of individual quantum systems. However, transferring information between different
kinds of quantum systems, and between distant systems still remains very challenging and requires
new types of quantum interfaces. Exploiting mechanical degree of freedom is a promising solution
to this challenge because mechanical oscillators can couple to a wide range of quantum systems,
for example via optical, electrical and magnetic interactions and this coupling is conservative, thus
allowing coherent transfer of quantum information. However, this requires preparing mechanical
objects in the quantum regime. In this talk, Dr. Lee presented two different methods to cool down
mechanical oscillators to its motional ground state. One is based on interaction with photons (cavity optomechanics) while the other is based on coupling to solid-state two level systems (Nitrogen-vacancy defect centers in diamond).
The talk was then followed by Dr. Donghui Jeong’s, the other 2015 OYRA winner, presentation
titled “Unveiling dark energy with the HETDEX galaxy survey”. HETDEX (Hobby-Eberly
Telescope Dark Energy eXperiment) is a galaxy survey targeting Lyman-alpha emitters (LAEs) at
high redshifts (1.9<z<3.5). Starting from the end of 2015, HETDEX will observe about a million
LAEs over ~400 sq. degrees, which corresponds to ~10Gpc3 in volume. Dr. Jeong summarized the
survey strategy as well as the principle behind unveiling the nature of dark energy with the galaxy
survey.
The third presentation was on the “Toroidal Nematic Droplets” by a special invited speaker, Prof.
Alberto Fernandez-Nieves of School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology. He described the
experiments on the generation, hydrodynamic stability and stabilization of droplets with handles.
He then focused on nematic droplets and discussed how the toroidal confinement affects the
director organization inside these spaces.
The final speaker of the session was professor Wonmuk Hwang of Department of Biomedical
Engineering, Texas A&M University. He gave a talk on “Orientational linear epitaxy of collagen fibrils.” The extracellular matrix is a ‘biological alloy’ of various proteins and molecules,
among which collagen is the major constituent. Self-assembly of collagen molecules into ordered
structures is thus of interest to biology and physics. Dr. Hwang’s group studies the assembly of
collagen fibrils on mica lattices into ordered networks. The assembly follows the pathway of initial
random adsorption of monomers, followed by surface diffusion, fibril nucleation, and formation
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 25
APS News
of the network. Similar types of fibril network formation on solid lattices have been observed in
many other biological and non-biological systems, which is called the ‘orientational linear epitaxy’
(OLE). Using mean field and stochastic simulation approach, they show that the filament length
distribution in the network crosses over from exponential to a power law. Dr. Hwang’s group also
developed a Computer-Aided Feature Extraction (CAFE) program to extract information about
individual filaments from images of the OLE network. Since the network architecture contains
its growth history, kinetic parameters of the growth process can be extracted by combining the
stochastic model and CAFE. He concluded that these results are applicable to a wide range of
self-assembling systems driven by OLE.
Once again, the AKPA APS Korean Physicists Symposium was a great success with many participants from US and Korea attending the symposium. After the symposium, the participants joined
for the traditional Korean Physicists’ Wednesday Banquet organized by professor Yung Kee Yeo at
a nearby Mexican restaurant, in which further discussions of collaborations and networking took
place in a courteous atmosphere. The night, however, ended with a haste adjournment due to the
rare but imminent threat of an ice storm.
This annual Korean Physics Symposium was organized by AKPA (Association of Korean Physicists
in America) and KPS (Korean Physical Society), and sponsored KSEA (Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association), and KUSCO (Korea-US Science Cooperation Center). AKPA
expresses these strong and steadfast support that allow it to continue excel for US-Korea science
and technology in physics.
A group photo taken after the Korean Physicists Symposium at the 2015 March APS meeting. From left in the front row are professor Alex Weiss, the chair of the U. of Texas at Arlington physics department, professor Wonmuk Hwang, Dr. Hyun Tae Kim of ETRI
Korea, professor Alberto Fernandex-Nieves. From left in rear are prof. Harold Kim, Dr. Donghun Lee and professor Donghui Jeong
on the right.
26 /// KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3
APS News
the association of korean physicists in america: a partner is
fostering U.S.-Korean physics collaboration
jaehoon yu, PhD.
AKPA 30th President
Professor
University of Texas at Arlington
I am pleased to take this opportunity to introduce APS members to an organization that has been
working for almost 4 decades to foster U.S.-Korean physics collaboration, and to excite young
Koreans and Korean-Americans in the United States about studying physics. The Association of
Korean Physicists in America (AKPA, www.akpa.org) was founded in 1979 in Washington DC
with Dongyoung Lee as the first president of the organization. It was established to promote collaboration and academic exchange as well as networking among members. In 2014, AKPA celebrated its 35th anniversary in a symposium at the University of Chicago campus, at which close to
100 physicists from Korea and from the U.S. participated. This event was jointly supported by the
Korean Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Korean Consulate General of Chicago, Korean-American
Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA), KUSCO (Korea-US Science Cooperation Center),
KPS (Korean Physical Society), and the APS (American Physical Society).
Building on its previous successes, AKPA has accomplished a tremendous amount during the past
two years. First of all, the membership of AKPA has grown substantially. The number of registered
members on the overall e-mail list is now close to 500. The total number of active members, including the associate members who are not physics majors but are either in related areas or family
members of an AKPA member, grew from 135 to 240 (a 78% increase). Among these, the number
of lifetime members has grown from 27 to 40, and 151 AKPA members are also jointly registered
in the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association. This resulted in the growth of the
number of voting members by over 85% as of the last election in November 2014. Many of these
members took part in our activities.
A specially designed souvenir T-shirt for NHSPC participants.
The Einstein quote printed on a fractal pattern is in English
written with a reconfigured Korean Hangul alphabet.
To bring physics closer to the community, the AKPA initiated a National
High School Physics Contest (NHSPC) jointly with KSEA in 2012 as a pilot program in the North Texas and North Carolina chapters. This was subsequently expanded nationwide in 2013 and conducted in 8 KSEA chapters,
in 2014 in 10 locations, and in 2015 in 14 locations. NHSPC has reached
a milestone, having a total of 108 participants showcasing their physics
skills across the nation. Many of them are of non-Korean ethnic origin, Of
the 109 participants, 23 (or 21%) were female students. This is a marked
increase compared to NHSPC2013 with 52 participating students and
NHSPC2014 with 82 participants. The students (8th through 12th grades) are
given 75 minutes to solve 12 multiple-choice problems (8 mechanics and 4
electro-magnetism) with 10 answer choices to prevent accidental ties and to
preserve objectivity. To promote participation, a specially designed T-shirt
(see the photo of the T-shirt) was given as a souvenir to each participant.
While the NHSPC seems to have taken hold, it still is in a toddler stage, and there is lots of room
for improvement. A notable change this year is that two of the 14 sites had physicists of non
Korean ethnic origin helping with the organization by proctoring and grading the contest, along
with an increased number (total of 22) of non-ethnic Korean participants. The physicists were
very excited about this contest and are willing to help next year. I truly believe this is an excellent
sign that NHSPC can become not just an ethnic Korean event but evolve into a nationwide event
what would allow us to be a leader in this avenue, working closely with the APS.
In 2014, AKPA became an officially registered 501.c3 non-profit organization. This allowed us to
raise funds in a much more substantive manner. To leverage this status, a Fundraising and Special
event Committee (FSC) was established. FSC took action immediately and established the Kiuck
Lee High School Physics Scholarship endowment in 2015, thanks to the generosity of the late
professor Lee and his family. This scholarship will be awarded to the top three winners of NHSPC
starting 2016. FSC also established the AKPA Named Scholarship Policy, which the Executive
Committee has subsequently ratified, for future donations.
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 27
APS News
AKPA and the Korean Physical Society (KPS) have been working closely together as in the past.
This tight cooperation has been exemplified in granting two Outstanding Young Researcher Awards
(OYRA) jointly for five years in a row. This cooperation has been the envy of other international physics organizations at the APS Forum of International Physics (FIP) receptions. We were able to invite both
OYRA winners this year - Donghui Jeong of Pennsylvania State University and Donghun Lee from the
University of California, Santa Barbara - and we presented the award at the FIP reception at the 2015 APS
April Meeting. AKPA works closely with FIP and is one of the major contributors to the forum. The two
OYRA winners showcased their research at the Korean Physicists Symposium during the APS March meeting in San Antonio, TX.
A group photo taken after the 2015 OYRA award ceremony during the FIP reception at the
2015 APS March meeting. This year’s OYRA award ceremony was made even more meaningful by the attendance of the two 2014 OYRA award winners – Young Jeen Jeen (on the
immediate left of the AKPA banner in the back row) and Dohun Kim (second from right) next
to Yung Kee Yeo (right). To the right of the AKPA banner are the
new FIP chairman, Edward Berger, AKPA president Jaehoon Yu, the two 2015 OYRA 2015
winners Donghun Lee of USCB and Donghui Jeong of U. Penn. Dr. Dong Wu (front left of the
banner) from Naval Research Laboratory also joined the group.
A group photo taken at the symposium. Sitting at the front row
are current and former presidents of AKPA and Prof. Myungjong
Lee, the 42nd president of KSEA (front row 2nd from left).
AKPA continues to work very closely with KSEA. Not only did many AKPA members play
significant roles in US-Korea Conferences and lead them splendidly but they also played various
roles in many KSEA events. A good example is the KSEA’s ProDeW professional development
workshop event in 2014 in Chicago. Since many AKPA members play leading roles in the field
of physics in the US, they can naturally become role models to younger generations.
While there is still a long way to go, AKPA’s finances are healthy and becoming more stable. We,
the members, have all worked together to bring us this far. Last but not least I am in tremendous
debt to the executive committee and the members of all the committees. They have devoted their
time and efforts to raise AKPA to this level together with all members. This shows the underlying
strengths of AKPA on which future prosperity will be built on. AKPA has a new administration as
of May 1, 2015, under the leadership of Seunghun Lee of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville,VA, the 31st president of AKPA, who will take the organization to the next level with the
enthusiastic participation of all AKPA members.
Jaehoon Yu is the 30th president of AKPA and is professor of physics at the University of Texas
at Arlington. Yu is a particle physics experimentalist involved in Higgs searches and precision
measurements of its properties at the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. He is also working on low
mass dark matter search and neutrino experiments at the high intensity proton beams at Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory.
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KSEA SPONSORS
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KSEA Sponsors
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Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association
1952 Gallows Road, Suite 300, Vienna, VA 22182
Tel: 703-748-1221. Fax: 703-748-1331
Email: sejong@ksea.org. Web: http://www.ksea.org
Directors Committee (43rd Administration)
President: Kook Joon Ahn, California Dept. of Transportation
(O) 916-227-9257, p43ahnkj@ksea.org
President-Elect: Youngsoo Kim , North Carolina State University
(O) 919-571-9393, pe43kimyr@ksea.org
Vice President (VP1): Steve Lee, Caltrans
(O) 916-227-8254, vp43leesj@ksea.org
Vice President (VP2): Yongho Sohn, University of Central Florida
(O) 407-882-1181, vp43sohnyh@ksea.org
Executive Director: Sung Yi, Portland State University
(O) 503-725-5470, ed43yis@ksea.org
Finance Director: Youngshin Lee, San Diego State University
(O) 619-594-5385, fd43leeys@ksea.org
Presidential Adviser: Jae Hoon Kim, Boeing
(O) 425-643-4372, pa43kimjh@ksea.org
General Director/Headquarter Operations Director: Junho Cha, Intel
(O) 206-550-6611, gdhod43chajh@ksea.org
Information Technology Director: Changmo Kim, UC, Davis
(O) 530-752-4886, itd43kimcm@ksea.org
Technical Group Director: Hanjoong Jo, GIT & Emory
(O) 404-324-9654, tg43johj@ksea.org
Affiliated Professional Society Director: Sohyun Ahn, NIH
(O) 301-402-2426, aps43ahnsh@ksea.org
Publication Director 1: Byeong-Uk Kim, GA Department of Natural Resources
(O) 404-362-2526, pd43kimbu@ksea.org
Publication Director 2: Sooyeun Kim, University of Washington
(O) 206-353-9336, pd43kimsy@ksea.org
Publication Director 3: Sanghyuck Park, Georgia Gwinnett College
(O) 678-571-6172 pd43parksh@ksea.org
Pulication Director 4: Yuna Shim, Samsung Research America
(O) , pd43shimyn@ksea.org
Membership Director 1: Haejung An, USDA
(O) 626-447-1743, md42anhj@ksea.org
Membership Director 2: Seungwook Lim, Caltrans
(O) 916-654-8626, md43limsw@ksea.org
Membership Director 3: Donghoon Yoon, University of Arkansas
(O) 501-526-6990, md43yoondh@ksea.org
Membership Director 4: Youn Sim, County of LA Public Works
(O) 626-755-4989, md43simy@ksea.org
Project Director 1: Gye Won Han, The Scripps Research Inst.
(O) 310-738-3518, pjd43hangw@ksea.org
Project Director 2: Junghwan Kim, University of Arkansas
(O) 501-960-3877, pjd43kimjh@ksea.org
Project Director 3: Chang Hwan Park, Parsons Brinckerhoff
(O) 916-567-2570, pjd43parkch@ksea.org
YG Director 1: Sunmin Jung, Boeing
(O) 425-263-2233, ygd43jungsm@ksea.org
YG Director 2: Dennis Hong, UCLA
(O) 310-825-9471, ygd43hongd@ksea.org
Headquarters Staff
IT Staff: Jongsung You, 703-748-1221, it@ksea.org
Finance Manager: Kelly Han, 703-748-1221,finance@ksea.org
Admin Manager: Euna Yoon, 703-748-1221, hq@ksea.org
Associate Project Manager: Hye Won Cho, 703-748-1221, database@ksea.org
Auditors
Jun-Seok Oh, 269-276-3216, junoh3@gmail.com
Byungkyu “Brian” Park, 434-924-6347, brian.uva@gmail.com
Elected Councilors
Group A: Physics
Seung-Hun Lee, 434-924-7959, shlee@virginia.edu
Group B: Chemistry
Dong Hee Son, 979-458-2990, dhson@chem.tamu.edu
Group C: Mathematics, Geology, Meteorology, Statistics, Others
Sookkyung Lim, 513-556-4127, sookkyung.lim@uc.edu
Group D: Biology, Botany, Zoology, Biomedical Engineering, Genetic Engineering
Jongdae Lee, 858-822-5762, j142lee@ucsd.edu
Group E: Agriculture, Ecology, Food, Nutrition
Sung Woo Kim, 919-513-1494, swk.ncsu@gmail.com
Group F: Medical Science, Pharmaceutical Science, Veterinary Medicine,
Physical Education
Haejung An, 626-616-6524, haejung.an@fda.hhs.gov
Group G: Chemical Engineering, Textile Engineering, Nuclear
Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Applied Chemistry
Su Ha , 509-335-3786, suha@wsu.edu
Group H: Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Naval Architecture
Byoung-Do Kim, 540-220-5459, bdkim.ksea@gmail.com
Seungbae Park, 607-777-3415, sbpark@binghamton, edu
Group I: Materials Science, Metallurgy, Mining Engineering
Min Jun Kim, 215-581-4946, mkim@coe.drexel.edu
Group J: Civil Engineering, Architecture, Environmental Engineering
Alex Hak-Chul Shin, 225-578-0277, shin@lsu.edu
Jae Hyeong Ryu, 208-473-5120, churima@gmail.com
Group K: Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Communication Engineering Bong-Kyun (Bo) Ryu, 858-805-5608, boryu@episyscience.com
Tae (Tom) Oh, 585-752-6936, tomhoh@gmail.com
Group L: Computer Science, Systems Engineering
Jihie Kim, 310-377-3867, jihie.kim@gmail.com
Jeonghee Shin, 914-907-6014, jeonghee.shin@gmail.com
Group M: Industrial Engineering and Mgmt Science
Young B. Choi, 757-352-4949, ybchoice@gmail.com
Former President Councilors
Hyungmin Michael Chung, Calif. State Univ., Long Beach,
562-985-7691, hm.chung@csulb.edu
Yong Nak Lee, HTRD Ltd,, 847-577-5967, ynlee@@htrdltd.com
Chan-Mo Park, PUST, 82-10-3521-8909, parkcm@postech.ac.kr
Chapter Presidents
Chair
Jung Joo Hwang, 858-534-5715, jjhsky@gmail.com
Vice ChairSoolyeon Cho, 919-513-8061, soolyeon_cho@ncsu.edu
Central Penn (1) Jungwoo Ryoo, 814-949-5243, jryoo@psu.edu
Georgia (3) ChongWoo Park, 678-597-8807, chongwoopark@gmail.com
Indiana (4) Nakyen Choy, 317-506-8910, nakyen@gmail.com
Michigan (6)
Jullia Lee, 734-934-6290, jullial@umich.edu
Chicagoland (7)
Ken Choi, 312-567-3461, kchoi@ece.iit.edu
Minnesota (8) Sung-Hoon Gee, 208-596-8472, gee.sunghoon@gmail.com
New England (9)
Jinhaeng Cho, 781-266-6990, jinhaeng70@gmail.com
New Jersey (10) Jae Young Kwak, 201-214-4773, jaeyoung.kwak@alcatel-lucent.com
NY Metro (11)
K. Stephen Suh, 551-996-8214, ksuh@hackensackumc.org
N. Carolina (12) Soolyeon Cho, 919-513-8061, soolyeon_cho@ncsu.edu
Ohio (14)
Jung-Kyu Park, 614-592-8808, park.495@osu.edu
Seattle WA (15) Junho Cha, 206-550-6611, junho.cha@gmail.com
Philadelphia (16) Moses Noh, 215-895-2273, mosesnoh@coe.drexel.edu
St. Louis (17)
Doyoon Kim, 314-761-7049, pikehpf@gmail.com
Southern CA (18) Yeom-Moo Jason Choi, 714-593=7897, jchoi@ocsd.com
South Texas (19)
Sangjoon Sohn, 713-503-1454, sangjoonsohn@yahoo.com
Wash. Metro (21) Eun-Suk Seo, 301-405-4855, seo@umd.edu
Alabama (23)
Byungjin Min, 334-727-8393, minbj@mytu.tuskegee.edu
Austin TX (24)
Dongwoon Kim, 512-796-9022, dluck00@gmail.com
Silicon Valley (30) Steve Sung Won Moon, 408-202-6302, swmoon33@gmail.com
Baltimore (31)
Sung-Ung Kang, 443-540-7829, sungung.kang@gmail.com
Tennessee (32) Dongwon Shin, 865-574-5446, shind@ornl.gov
N. Texas (40)
Hyejin Moon, 817-272-2017, hyejin.moon@uta.edu
Central VA (41)
Jaesup Lee, 804-371-4871, jaesup.lee@gmail.com
Central IL (42) Seung-Yul Yun, 217-255-8540, Yes.Andrew@gmail.com
Wisconsin (44)
Kevin Kyoungseok Kim, 608-698-3519, kseawi@gmail.com
Southern VA (49) Wooram Lee, 540-231-6710, wooram@vt.edu
Central Iowa (53) Sang Wu Kim, 515-294-2726, swkim@iastate.edu
Utah (56) Hee-Kyung Lee, 801-915-1542, hee.lee@utah.edu
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 51
Sacramento (58) Chang Hwan Park, 916-567-2570, park@pbworld.com
San Diego (60)
Jung Joo Hwang, 858-534-5715, jjhsky@gmail.com
Oregon (62)
Brian Shin, 360-909-1102, bcgshin@hotmail.com
North Dakota (65) Chiwon W. Lee, 701-239-4935, chiwon.lee@ndsu.edu
Orlando (67)
Yoon-Seong Kim, 407-266-7070, yoon-seong.kim@ucf.edu
Tampa Bay (68)
Junsung Kim, 813-731-5589, jskimwater@gmail.com
Boise Idaho (69)
Gang-Ryung Uh, 208-426-5691, uh@cs.boisestate.edu
Berkeley (70)
Won Young Park, 510-847-3214, wypark@lbl.gov
Gainesville (71)
Yoonseok Lee, 352-333-8666, yoonslee@phys.ufl.edu
Kentucky (903)
Duk-Hyung Lee, 859-858-3511, duk.lee@asbury.edu
Arkansas (72)Sun-Ok Lee, 479-575-6921, sunok@uark.edu
Southwest Ohio (73) Jongguen Lee, 513-556-2127, jongguen.lee@uc.edu
Nashville (74)
Hak-Joon Sung, 615-322-6986, hak-joon.sung@vanderbilt.edu
KSEA Korea (905) Tammy Cho, 82-18-282-7995, btheb_02@naver.com
Committee Chairs
Contest Committee:
Steve J. Lee, 916-227-8254, vp43leesj@ksea.org
Election Committee:
Hosin Lee, 313-335-6818, skytrust@gmail.com
Fund Management Committee:
Yonil Park, 301-402-1438, park@ncbi.nim.nih.gov
History Committee:
Ki-Hyon Kim, 919-423-4297, khk@nccu.edu
Honors and Awards Committee:
H. Thomas Hahn, 310-760-1891, hahn@seas.ucla.edu
Long-range Planning Committee:
Hosin Lee, 319-335-6818, skytrust@gmail.com
Nomination Committee:
Myung Jong Lee, 201-693-5413, mjlee999@yahoo.com
Rules Committee:
Ki Dong Lee, 217-344-2902, kdlee@uiuc.edu
Scholarship Committee:
Kangwon Wayne Lee, 401-369-1565, kwaynel@gmail.com
Young Generation Committee:
Benjamin Lee, 734-678-1285, benclee@gmail.com
APS Committee:
Sam Jae Cho, 734-678-1285, chosj@blackmidas.com Affiliated Professional Society (APS) Presidents
Association of Korean Neuroscientists (AKN)
Kwang-Soo Kim, 781-862-4195, kskim@mclean.harvard.edu
Association of Korean Physicists in America (AKPA)
Jaehoon Yu, 817-808-9605, jaehoonyu@uta.edu
Baltimore Life Scientists Association (BLSA)
Sung-Ung Kang, 443-540-7829, sungung.kang@gmail.com
Korean American Construction, Engineering, & Project Management Association (KACEPMA) Yong Cho, 404-385-2038, yong.cho@ce.gatech.edu
Korean-American Food Technologists Association (KAFTA)
Sung Phil Kim, 703-668-8099, skim@hdp.com
Korea-American Association for Geospatial and Environmental Sciences
(KAGES) Woonsup Choi, 414-229-2671, wchoi@alumni.illinois.edu
Korean-American Intellectual Property Bar Association (KAIPBA)
Sunhee (Sunny) Lee, 202-775-7588, sxlee@sughrue.com
Korean Association of Medical Physicists in North America (KAMPiNA)
Don-Soo Kim, 617-355-3261, don-soo.kim@childrens.harvard.edu
Korean-American Materials Society (KAMS)
Jiyoung Kim, 972-883-6412, jiyoung.kim@utdallas.edu
Korean-American Mathematical Scientists Association (KAMSA)
Eunchun Cho, 703-203-1662, ecpcho@gmail.com
Korean-American Society for Biomedical Informatics (KASBI)
James S. Song, 301-435-5928, james.Song@nih.gov
Korean American Society for Biotech & Phamaceuticals (KASBP)
Youngsun Kim, 609-860-2649, yskrutgers@gmail.com
Korean Biological Sciences Research Group at Michigan (KBM)
Sang-Uk Seo, 734-834-1584, ssanguk@umich.edu
Korean-American Biomedical Engineering Society (KBMES)
Hanjoong Jo, 404-712-9654, hjo@bme.gatech.edu
Korean-American Energy Exploration & Production Society (KEPS)
Sam Jae Cho, 713-301-2020, chosj@blackmidas.com
Korean International Statistical Society (KISS)
Dongseok Choi, 503-494-5336, choid@ohsu.edu
52 /// KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3
Korean Computer Scientists & Engineers Association in America (KOCSEA)
Jeongkyu Lee, 203-268-7248, jelee@bridgeport.edu
Korean-American Offshore Engineers Association (KOEA)
Gonghyun Jung, 713-557-0671, Gonghyun.Jung@shell.com
Korean Life Scientists at UCSF (KOLIS)
Hyunsun Jo, 415-734-4972, hyunsun.jo@gladstone.ucsf.edu
Korean Pathologists Association of North America (KOPANA)
Eun Young Lee, 859-257-5469, eylee@uky.edu
Korean Transportation Association in America (KOTAA)
Sang-Soo Kim, 740-592-9889, kim@ohio.edu
Korean-American Society of Civil and Environmental Engineers(KSCEE)
K. Wayne Lee, 401-369-1565, kwaynel@gmail.com
Korean-American Women in Science and Engineering (KWiSE)
Eun-Suk Seo, 301-405-4855, seo@umd.edu
NIH-Korean Scientists Association (NIH-KSA)
Sohyun Ahn, 301-402-2426, ahnsohyun@mail.nih.gov
New York Korean Biologists (NYKB)
Seungyeul Yoo, 212-659-1643, seungyeul.yoo@mssm.edu
Research Triangle Park Bioscience and Biotechnology Meeting (RTP B&B)
Hangsik Moon, 919-281-7340, hangsik.moon@syngenta.com
San Diego Korean Biomedical Association (SDKoBA)
Jongdae Lee, 858-822-5762, j142lee@ucsd.edu
The Society of Korean Statisticians in America (SKSA)
Sin-Ho Jung, 919-668-8658, jung0005@mc.duke.edu
TeK One (TeK One)
Bong-Kyun Ryu, 858-805-5608, boryu@episyscience.com
Ex-Presidents
Young Bae Kim, USC, 213-740-2311
Sang Il Choi, POSTECH, 919-357-7018, sangil@postech.ac.kr
Kwang Bang Woo, Yonsei Univ., 82-2-2123-3555, kbwoo@yonsei.ac.kr
Yong Nak Lee, HTRD, 847-577-5967,ynlee@htrdltd.com
Jae Young Park, NC State Univ., 919-848-6110, JAEYPARK30@aol.com
Chan-Mo Park, POSTECH, 82-11-521-8909, parkcm@postech.ac.kr
Dong Han Kim, POSTECH, 82-54-279-2101, dhkim@postech.edu
Ki-Hyon Kim, NC Central Univ., 919-530-6451, khk@nccu.edu
Kwang Kuk Koh, Chrysan Ind., 734-667-4081, kwang@chrysanindustries.com
Chin Ok Lee, Rockefeller Univ., 212-327-8617, leech@rockefeller.edu
Chai Chin Suh, 610-678-0534, chaisuh@gmail.com
Moo Young Han, Duke Univ., 919-660-2575, myhan@phy.duke.edu
Kun Sup Hyun, PPI, 973-596-3267, kshyun@polymers-ppi.org
Hyo-Gun Kim, K-JIST, 703-663-8803, hkim@gist.ac.kr
Moon Won Suh, NC State Univ., 919-515-6580, moon_suh@ncsu.edu
Dewey Doo-Young Ryu, UC Davis, 530-752-8954, ddyryu@ucdavis.edu
Saeyoung Ahn, Fuzbien Tech. Institute, 301-279-5453, saeyounga@yahoo.com
Kyong Chul Chun, 301-598-3396, kcchun1@comcast.net
Ki Dong Lee, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 217-244-0421, kdlee@uiuc.edu
Hong Taik (Thomas) Hahn, 310-825-2383, hahn@seas.ucla.edu
Howard Ho Chung, Argonne National Lab., 630-818-6715, chung.ksea@gmail.com
Nak Ho Sung, Tufts University, 617-627-3447, nsung@tufts.edu
Chan I. Chung, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 518-727-3655, chungc@rpi.edu
Quiesup Kim, JPL/NASA, 818-354-8612, quiesup.kim@sbcglobal.net
Sung Won Lee, Univ. of Maryland, 301-405-1128, swlee@umd.edu
Sung K. Kang, IBM T.J. Watson Research Ctr., 914-945-3932, sungkang.ksea@gmail.com
Kang-Won Wayne Lee, Univ. of Rhode Island, 401-874-2695, kwaynel@gmail.com
Kang-Wook Lee, IBM T.J. Watson Research Ctr., 914-945-3070, kangwook.lee.ibm@gmail.com
Chueng-Ryong Ji, North Carolina State Univ., 919-515-3478, chueng.ji@gmail.com
Jae Hoon Kim, The Boeing Company, 425-786-7723, jkim1@ieee.org
Hosin Lee, University of Iowa, 319-335-6818, skytrust@gmail.com
Hyungmin Michael Chung, Calif. State Univ., Long Beach, 562-985-7691, hm.chung@csulb.edu
Myung Jong Lee, City University of NY, 212-650-7260, lee@ccny.cuny.edu
Ex-Presidents (Deceased)
Shoon Kyung Kim
Kiuck Lee
Inyong Ham
Chong Wha Pyun
Hogil Kim
Je Hyun Kim
Kyungsik Kang
Soon Kyu Kim
Kwang-Hae (Kane) Kim
43rd KSEA publication team
Journal of the Korean-American Scientists & Engineers Association
KSEA LETTERS
Vol. 43 No. 3
June 2015
byeong-uk KIM, PhD
Publication Director
sooyeun kim, PhD
Publication Director
sang-hyuck park, PhD
Publication Director
yuna shim
Publication Director
Environmental Modeler
GA Dept. of Natural Resources
Research Assistant Professor
University of Washington
Assistant Professor
Georgia Gwinnett College
Interaction Designer
Samsung Research America
Published by the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, in any form or any means, without the prior written permission of KSEA.
KSEA assumes no responsibility for statements and opinions expressed in this publication.
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 53
Nomination for the Award of The 2015 Ho-Am Prize
The Ho-Am Prize Committee awards the 2015 Ho-Am Prizes to those who have made distinguished contributions to the
development of our society through prominent accomplishments in Science, Engineering, Medicine, The Arts and Community
Service.
1. Awarding Categories
Science………...Those who have made outstanding achievements in research in the area of basic science.
Engineering…..Those who have made outstanding achievements in the areas of engineering and technology.
Medicine …..….Those who have made outstanding achievements in the areas of medicine and pharmacy.
The Arts…………Those who have made outstanding contributions to culture and the arts through creative
activities, exhibition and research in relevant areas.
Community Service...…Those who have made outstanding achievements in the area of social service and thereby
contributed to the enhancement of public welfare.
- The Prizes in all categories are awarded to people of Korean ethnic origin. The Prize in Community Service,
however, can also be awarded to foreigners who have made outstanding contributions to Korea and Koreans
at home and abroad.
- The Prize in each category consists of a diploma, a gold medal (187.5g) and 300 mil. Korean won.
- Each nominator may only recommend one person or one group in each category.
2. Papers and Materials for Nomination
- Official nomination form and supporting documentary evidence of achievements including news articles.
- One representative thesis and five related theses in the categories of Science, Engineering and Medicine.
* Nomination form download: http://www.hoamprize.org
3. Submission of Nominations
- Deadline : October 31, 2014
- On-line nomination : The Ho-Am Foundation has opened an on-line nomination systems on its website.
- Off-line nomination : Materials for nomination should be sent to the following address or e-mail.
* 6th Fl., Seocho Tower, 4, Seocho-daero 74-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137-955, Korea
Tel) 82-2-2255-0453~7 Fax) 82-2-2255-0461 E-mail) hoam.foundation@samsung.com
- The winners of the 2015 Ho-Am Prizes will be announced in major Korean dailies in April 2015.
4. Recipients of The 2014 Ho-Am Prize
Science
Hong Gil Nam
Professor
DGIST
Engineering
Medicine
Sang Yup Lee
Seung K. Kim
Distinguished Professor
Professor
KAIST
Stanford University
The Arts
Community Service
Hei-Kyung Hong Ha Jong Kim(Bordo Vincenzo)
Soprano
Father, Director
Anna House Social
Welfare Foundation
THE HO-AM FOUNDATION
KSEA LETTERS vol. 43 / no. 3 /// 55