Korean-American Forum #95-2, October 25, 1995

Early Winds in Science and Technology in Korea

Moo-Young Han
Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
myhan@phy.duke.edu

Gyeong-Soon Im
Division of General Education,
Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea 790-784
gsim@vision.postech.ac.kr

and

Seunghwan Kim
Department of Physics and Department of Mathematics,
Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea 790-784
swan@vision.postech.ac.kr

1. The Land of the Morning Calm and Ph.D.s

It is not uncommon nowadays to spot occasional claims that South Korea has the largest number of Ph.D.s per capita in the world. The number of people with a doctorate degree is an illusive statistics that is not easy to establish; there are the U.S. trained doctorates, Japanese and European doctorates, and the home-grown kinds. No one can be certain exactly how many are employed in Korea at one given time, but the ground swell for such a folklore is not hard to understand. Moving around the government, educational and research circles in Seoul, one comes away with an impression that the land of the morning calm has turned into a land of US-trained doctorates. The numbers are indeed quite impressive. According to the most recent survey on R & D in science and technology conducted by the Ministry of Science and Technology (1), the number of people with a doctoral degree in Korea as of 1993 came to 26,813, of which 17,910 were in science and engineering (6,577 in the natural sciences and 11,333 in engineering). During the six year period between 1988 (the year of Seoul Olympics) and 1993, the number of doctorates in Korea more than doubled, increasing by a phenomenal average rate of 18.5% per year (2).

These numbers are even more staggering when compared to the same of fifty years ago; in 1945, the year the Japanese occupation of Korea ended, there were, in all of Korea, scant 11 doctorates - three in physics, one in astronomy, six in chemistry and one in agriculture (3). In addition to these doctorate holders, there were some 200 to 300 science graduates in 1945, mostly trained at two four-year universities, Yonhee and Keijo, the forerunners of today's Yonsei and Seoul National Universities, respectively. Tracing further back in history, an interesting question is when and in what manner the pristine introduction of the modern science and technology into Korea took place. Based on a number of professional references, including two papers on the history of Korean science that were published in 1994, we would like to encapsulize the very beginning of the 'Western' science in Korea. As the younger generation of Korean scientists and engineers ponder the next quantum leap in the microchip nanotechnology, the possibility of a magical biotechnology medicine, the edge of quantum chaos, or the night of the living quarks beyond the big bang, it may be worthwhile to reflect back to the genesis of modern science and technology in Korea.

2. Predawn (1899-1920)

The start of the technical education in Korea dates back to 1899 when the government of Yi dynasty (1392-1910) first established the Commercial and Industrial School (CIS). In 1906, the school was replaced by the Government Technical Education School (GTES) that turned out technicians in weaving, paper manufacturing, and ceramics (4). The two, CIS and GTES, are the earliest known institutions of such kinds in Korea and, as such, represent the beginning of Korean science well before the start of the Japanese colonial rule in 1910. Combined with the National Industrial Research Institute, established in 1912, GTES would be transformed in 1916 into Kyungsung Technical College (KTC), perhaps the most pivotal development in the modern history of science and engineering in Korea. At about the same time period, another institution, Yonhee University, came into being, its department of mathematics and physics being founded in 1917.

According to a paper published in 1994 (5), the establishment of KTC was the first founding of an institution for advanced learning in the field of science and technology in Korea. The school was organized into five departments; dyeing and weaving, ceramics, applied chemistry, civil engineering, architectural engineering, and mining engineering. The introduction of the `Western' science through KTC had been at best rudimentary, but it marked the first time in the long history of Korea when people began to be trained in this new culture. Out of the graduates of KTC would come, in the early 1930s, the first substantive science movement of Korea and its leaders.

3. Dawn: The Society of Invention and the Science Day (1924-1938)

The next phase in the development of science and technology in Korea is chronicled in a paper first written in 1991 but published in 1994 (6), the abstract of which reads, in part, as follows: "The movement for science in colonial Korea originated from the endeavors of Yong Gwan Kim and his colleagues of the Society of Inventions (SI) which aimed at the promotion of invention. The major program of Kim's group was to provide a technological basis for the independent industrialization of the nation." "However, the aim of SI, the advancement of invention and industry was too narrowly focused to induce a large scale participation by nationalistic elites. They (the elites) were more impressed by the enlightening power of science, and emphasized the need for the popularization of science rather than the cultivation of professional researches. The leaders of SI embraced their doctrine of science as culture and this has led, in 1934, to the Movement of Science, the full-scale start of science education."

Yong Gwan Kim (1897-1967), one of the first graduates of the department of ceramics at KTC, originally founded the SI in 1924, with the help of two of classmates, Deuk-Young Hyun and Kil-Yong Park. The original SI, however, lasted no more than six months, lacking a sufficient support. He reinstated the SI in 1932 and, this time, enlisted the help of In Lee, a well-known leader of the society. It was a good move. In Lee became the chairman of the board of SI in 1933 and greatly expanded the society by attracting many civic leaders that included not only six more graduates of KTC but also many writers, teachers, lawyers and so on. It was at this time also that the first professional scientific journal was established, Science Chosun, chronicling the activities of SI during this period.

The first Science Day was held on 19 April 1934, on an anniversary of the death of Charles Darwin. This was a big event with a nation-wide movement on popularization of science, with a broad participation by teachers, journalists, writers and legal professionals. Thus, however modest by the standards of the western science, it was the Movement of Science in 1934 that inaugurated the introduction of science and technology and their education into the general Korean public for the first time. One offshoot was the formation of the Society for Spread of Scientific Knowledge (SSSK) in July, 1934 with Yong Gwan Kim as its first executive director. Of the many national leaders who have participated in this society were Man Sik Cho, Woon Hyung Lyo, Jin Woo Song, Sung Soo Kim, Sang Hyup Lee, Dong Sik Cho, Yo Han Chu, Keuk Ro Lee, and In Lee. Beginning in 1938, however, the activities of SSSK were sharply suppressed by the Japanese authority; the Science Day event was halted that year and for all practical purposes the Movement of Science came to its end that year.

4. The Early Winds (up to 1945)

In the meantime, KTC added two new departments, those of mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, in 1938 and managed to produce, over the period between 1918 and 1945, a total of 452 graduates. At the Yonhee University, the department of science, first established as the department of mathematics and physics in 1917, would produce 266 graduates until 1945. The departments of chemistry and chemical engineering at Yonhee were to come later, in 1946 and 1950, respectively. Though much less influential, the Daedong Technical School in Pyongyang (of North Korea), founded in 1938, has produced about 100 graduates until 1945 while the Kyungsung Mining Technical School with the department of mining and the department of mining machines, about 103 graduates during the same period.

The School of Science and Engineering at the Kyungsung Imperial University was founded in 1941 with departments of physics, chemistry, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, applied chemistry, mining, and metallurgy. Between 1941 and 1945, there were a total of 363 admitted students and this included 77 Korean graduates. During the same period, the department of mathematics and physics at Yonhee turned out 83 graduates. This shows that during the period of 1941-1945, among a number of early universities in Korea, the Yonhee University and the Kyungsung Imperial University produced a significant number of graduates who later formed the core of the science and technology community and made major contributions to the modernization of science and technologyin Korea. After the liberation in 1945, the school of engineering at the Seoul National University was created based on the school of science and engineering at the Kyungsung Imperial University, the Kyungsung Techinical College, and the Kyungsung Mining Technical School.

5. The first known Korean scientists

The following is a list of Korean scientists and engineers who were active before and as of 1945. The list is surely far from being complete and we would welcome the reader's input (7).

Woo, Chang Chun (1898-1959): He specialized in agricultural breeding and was one of the greatest Korean scientists during this period. He entered the department of agriculture at the Tokyo Imperial University in 1916 and graduated in 1919. He worked at the Agricultural Experimental Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry where he crossbred Petunia and Morning Glory. He received his Ph. D in agriculture from Tokyo Imperial University in 1936. Upon his return to Korea in 1950, he became the Director of the Agricultural Science Research Institute, and continued his work at the Horticultural Technology Center and the Horticultural Experimental Center until his death in 1959.

Seok, Chu Myong (1908-1950): He was an entomologist. Though he did not receive a doctorate degree, he was often called the "butterfly doctor" for his expertise on and his contribution to the study of Korean butterflies.

Ahn, Tong Hyuk (1906-): He is an applied chemist who graduated from the Kyungsung Technical College and the department of Applied Chemistry at the Kyushu Imperial University in Japan. He was deeply involved in the science movement and became the director of the National Industrial Research Institute. Later he served as the minister of Commerce and Industry and a vice president of the National Academy of Scieces during 1956-1973. For his contribution to the development of chemistry and chemical industry in Korea, he received honorary doctoral degrees from Korea University in 1962 and from Hanyang University in 1963.

Cho, Eung Cheon: Received a Ph. D in physics from the Indiana University in 1928. He led a study group in natural science in Pyongyang after his return to Korea and participated in the science movement in the 1930s.

Lee, Won Chol (1896-1963): He graduated from the department of mathematics and physics at the Yonhee University in 1919. With the help of A.L. Becker and W.E. Rufus, two professors in astronomy at Yonhee at that time, he went abroad receiving his Ph. D. in Astronomy from the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Michigan in 1926. He is the first Korean to receive a Ph. D. Dr. Lee became the professor at Yonhee in 1926 and in 1945 became the first director of the National Observatory in Seoul.

Choi, Kyu Nam (1898-1992): Also graduating from the department of mathematics and physics at Yonhee, he went to the U.S. in 1927 and received his Ph.D. in physics from the Michigan State University in 1933. He became a professor at the Yonhee University in 1934, the President of SNU in 1951, the first president of the Korean Physical Society in 1951. He served as the minister of the Culture and Education in 1956.

Park, Chol Jae (1905-1970): He received a Ph. D. in physics from the Kyoto Imperial University in 1940. He became the director of the Bureau of Technical Education in the Ministry of the Culture and Education, and played a significant role in establishing the Office of Atomic Energy in Korea.

Ree, Tai Kyue (1902-1992): After receiving his Ph.D. in chemistry from Kyoto Imperial University in 1931, he became an assistant professor and a professor of chemistry at Kyoto in 1935 and 1943, respectively. He became the first dean of the School of Art and Science at the Seoul National University. He led the creation of the Chosun Chemistry Society in 1946, the name changing to the Korean Chemical Society in 1949. He became a professor at the University of Utah in 1948. He returned permanently to Korea in 1973 to become a chair professor at KAIST.

Choi, Kwang: He had a Ph. D in chemistry from the University of Rochester in 1933. Soon after his return to Korea, he went back to the U.S.

Kim, Yang Ha: He graduated from the department of agricultural chemistry at the Tokyo Imperial University. He was at the Japanese Physics and Chemistry Research Institute. He returned to Korea after 1945 and went North soon thereafter.

Lee, Seung Ki (1905-?): He graduated from the department of applied chemistry at Kyoto University in 1938. He has been a dean of the school of engineering at the Seoul National University and went North during the Korean war. He developed a synthetic fiber from a coal and led the production of vinalon in North Korea in 1961. He became the director of the Atomic Energy Research Institute in Yongbyun. He is regarded as one of the authorities in science in North Korea.

Cho, Kwang Ha (1903-1967): He graduated from the Osaka Imperial University in 1943 and became the seventh chairman of the Korean Chemical Society.

Shin, Yoon Kyung: He graduated from the department of applied chemistry at the Berlin Technical University in 1945. He became a professor of chemical engineering at the SNU.

6. Epilog

The first generation of Korean Ph.D. scientists played an important role in shaping the post-war landscape of science and technology both in South and North Korea. They molded the establishment of the disciplines of science and engineering in major universities like the SNU and the Yonhee University. They also worked as governmental administrators in the fields of technical education and science policy. In the late 50s and early 60s, moreover, they participated in founding the first Korean professional research institute, the Office of Atomic Energy. The Office of Atomic Energy (OAE) dispatched many research students to overseas, mainly to the U.S. and Europe. Between 1955 and 1964 the OAE supported 237 students for their studies abroad (8). These scientists, together with many others who went abroad for their studies, with private and/or other public funds, became the main source of faculty members at such new institutions as KIST, KAIS, KAIST and later POSTECH. Thus, from the 1970s, this new generation of scientists, mostly US-trained Ph.Ds, began to gradually replace the older generation pioneers.

References:

  1. The Survey of Research and Development in Science and Technology, The Ministry of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea (1994), p. 95.
  2. Ibid., p. 61.
  3. The 30 year History of Korean Science and Technology, The Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies (1980).
  4. The History of the School of Engineering at the Seoul National University (1987), pp. 3-5.
  5. In-Kyung Jeong, "The Foundation and Management of Kyungsong Technical College under the Japanese Imperialism," Korean Journal of the History of Science, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1994), pp. 31-65.
  6. Jong-Tae Lim, "Kim Yong-Gwan, the Society of Invention and the Movement of Sciences in 1930s," Master's Thesis, Program in History and Philosophy of Science, Seoul National University (1994).
  7. For a chronicle of the Korean chemists in this period, there is an independent source: Sang-Yon Song and Kyong-Shin Koh, "Chemistry in Korea, 1945-1979," Korean Journal of the History of Science, Vol.2, No. 1 (1980), pp. 85-106.
  8. Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), "The 30 Year History of KAERI", (1990), p. 111.

Feedback from Readers(Nov 15, 1995)

Chu, Yohan (1900-1979): He graduated from the department of chemistry of Hogang University in Shanghai (the present Shanghai Technical University) in 1923. He served as the Minister of Commerce and Industry in Chang Myun's government, during which he started the first Five Year Plan in the Korean history, and was later awarded an honorary doctoral degree from Hanyang University for this accomplishment. He played prominent roles in the founding of many scientific and technical societies in Korea.

Oh, Chungsoo (1899-1988): He graduated from the department of industrial management of MIT is 1927. In 1960 he served as the Minister of Commerce and Industry as well as of Postal and Telecommunication. He was active in many scientific organiztions and established a foundation to encourage young generation of engineers. He was the honorary President of the MIT alumni of Korea.