Moo-Young Han
Professor of Physics, Duke University
Editor-in-Chief, Society of Korean-American Scholars

Paper presented at
The Centennial Celebration of Korean Immigration to the United States Conference
THE KOREAN AMERICANS: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
August  16-18,  2002,  Fairview  Park  Marriott Hotel, Falls Church, Virginia 22042

Benjamin Whiso Lee (1935-1977) was a brilliant  theoretical physicist of our time,
unquestionably the highest-achieving Korean-American physicist in the history of the
Korean-Americans.    His  life  was  tragically  cut short by a traffic accident in the
summer of 1977; at the time he was only 42 years old, but already a rising star in
the international community of elementary particle physics.

Often, Ben Lee is compared to J. Robert Oppenheimer, the legendary theoretical
physicist who served  for a long time as the Director of the Institute of Advanced
Study in Princeton, but  remembered  widely by  the  public as the Director of the
Manhattan Project of World War II that developed the first atomic bomb.

After  his  untimely  death,  some  imaginative  authors in Korea published  fictions
in which attempts have been  made to connect Ben Lee, his accidental death,
and Park Chung-Hee to an alleged  plot  by  the South Korean government to
develop nuclear weapons.  This has  helped to cast some dark clouds of intrigue,
rumors and wild speculation upon the legacy of Ben Lee.

Ben  Lee  and I entered the Seoul National University at the same year, in 1952
when the SNU  campus  was  temporarily relocated in Pusan; Ben entered the
chemical engineering and  I the electrical engineering departments of the then
College of Engineering.  By 1953 Ben came to the US to pursue his study; I came
in 1954.   Our careers ran pretty much on parallel tracks, pursuing theoretical
elementary particle physics.  The last time I  met  up  with  Ben was in 1976, at
an international conference at Stanford; he just returned from  a  visit  to Korea 
to  advise  Korea of the importance of established strong basic sciences.    
A  year  later,  he died in a traffic accident on an interstate highway.

A Brief Timeline of Benjamin Whiso Lee
       Born in Seoul, Korea on January 1, 1935
       Died on June 16, 1977 at the age of 42.
       Entered  Seoul National University, Chemical Engineering in 1952
       M.S. in 1958, University of Pittsburgh
       Ph.D. in 1960, University of Pennsylvania (at the age of 25)
       1961-62: Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton
       1961-63: Assistant Professor, U of Penn.
       1963-65: Associate Professor, U of Penn.
       1965-66: Professor, U of Penn
       1966-76: Professor, Inst of Theoretical Physics, SUNY at Stony Brook.
       1973-  till  death:  Head,  Theoretical Physics Department,
                Fermi National Accelerator Lab
       Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

   Excerpts from the obituary published in Physics Today on September 1977:

   Benjamin W. Lee, head of the theoretical physics department at the
   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and professor of physics at the
   University of Chicago, was tragically  killed  in  an  automobile  accident 
   near  Keewanee, Illinois on 16 June. He was  traveling  to  the  summer 
   meeting  of the Fermilab Program Advisory Committee in  Aspen, 
   Colorado.  The  other members of  his family who were accompanying
   him were not seriously injured.

   Lee was widely regarded as one of the world's leading physicists working
   on the theory of elementary particles.//.. Lee  had  one of the broadest
   ranges of interests and research of any physicist of his generation,  but  he 
   returned  again  and  again to the study of symmetry principles and the weak
   interactions..//..

   Lee felt a strong sense of gratitude to older physicists who had helped to
   advance his career, he in turn took every possible opportunity to help the
   young physicists of the next generation to make their way into research..//.

   Question: Ben Lee: Korea's Oppenheimer?
   Answer: It depends on which Oppenheimer

   J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-67)
   U.S. theoretical  physicist  and  science  administrator,  noted as director of
   the Los Alamos laboratory during  the Manhattan Project that developed the
   atomic bomb (1943- 45)  and as director of the Institute for Advanced Study,
   Princeton.

   Oppenheimer,  the brilliant  theoretical  physicist  and teacher/mentor,
   can  be characterized as

   1. Brilliant
   2. Person  from  whom everyone sought answers to their questions
   3. Profound teacher/mentor
   4. However,  Oppenheimer  lacks  any  truly  important milestone contribution
       of historical proportion; whereas Oppenheimer was already a living
       legend during the period in which quantum physics was founded, his
       contributions do not compare with the likes of Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg,
       Schroedinger, Dirac, and Pauli.

   Benjamin  Lee's  career  had  an  uncanny  parallel  to  that  of Oppenheimer. 
   Brilliant and a person  from  whom  many  theoretical and experimental physicists
   sought counsel.  As the Head  of the Theoretical Physics Department at the
   Fermi National Accelerator Lab, he was at the epicenter of theoretical and
   experimental elementary particle physics in the 60s and 70s,  the  golden 
   years  of  particle physics. He contributed much, but again as  with 
   Oppenheimer,  he  lacked  a  lasting monumental work of  historical
   proportion. Perhaps,  that was yet to come had he lived.  In this sense,
   one can answer in the affirmative: Yes, Benjamin Lee could have been Korea's
   Oppenheimer the brilliant theoretical physicist and teacher/mentor.

   Oppenheimer,  the  director  of  the  Manhattan  Project, the development
   of  the atomic bomb.

   There  are  widely  held  speculations  in  Korea that Ben Lee was somehow
   associated with the attempt by South Korea, under the strongman rule of
   Park Chung-Hee, to develop  Korea's own atomic weapon program.  This
   insinuation was spread by works of  fiction  in Korea that portrayed him as
   such, based on wild imaginations of some authors.

    I  am a theoretical elementary particle physicist whose timeline closely
    parallels that of  Ben Lee. In fact, I met up with him on many occasions.  
    Last time we met was in the campus of  Stanford  University at an
    international physics conference in 1976, a  year  before  his  death.    
    He just came back from Korea  in connection with establishing an
    AID program to improve basic sciences in Korea.

    If one looks at the career line, during the 16 years after getting Ph.D.
    and until his death, Ben Lee spent 1 year at the Institute of Advanced
    Study, 5 years at the University  of  Pennsylvania  (during  which  time
    he was on many occasions at the IAS  on leave from Penn), 7 years at
    the Institute of Theoretical Physics at SUNY at Stony Brook (with
    C N Yang), and 3 years as the Director of the Theoretical Physics 
    Department  at  FNAL.   The 60s and 70s were the busiest golden years
    of particle  physics during which the so-called Standard Model would
    come to be established.    Ben was up to his ears in theoretical elementary
    particle physics.

    At no time during his career, Ben was ever associated with any of
    the national weapons  lab such as Los Alamos, Livermore or Sandia. Now,
    we all know the physics  principle of nuclear fission, but that does not
    make any of us, nuclear and  particle  physicists, experts in nuclear
    weaponry.   We all know how an internal  combustion  works:  a mixture
    of gasoline and air, when ignited by sparks, can  be  source  of  energy,
    but that  is a far cry from us being expert automobile engine designers!

    No,  Ben  Lee  had  not  been  associated with any of the nuclear
    weaponry project.   In  this  sense,  the answer to the question, "Korea's
   Oppenheimer?"  is most certainly no.

    ***************