[Opinion] The Lim Ji-soon Model

Lim Ji-soon, a 56-year-old physics professor at Seoul National University, is a happy man these days. After being selected as a “Star Faculty” member by the government late last year and receiving the first “POSCO JT Park Prize” last month, he was awarded the “Korea’s Best Scientist and Engineer Prize” from the Ministry of Science and Technology on the commemoration of Science Day this year. As his name frequently appears in media coverage, he gets many interview requests. One might think that would be burdensome for a scholar, but he feels rather comfortable with that. He said, “If I look successful, younger scientists will have vision for their future, thinking, ‘I can be like him too, if I work hard.’”

He recently exchanged his car for a more expensive one. He wanted to show that a scientist can drive an expensive car. He also flies in business class on purpose. He believes that it is not good for scientists to look poor in an era when the younger generation tends to shun studying science and engineering. That is because lower social perception is a reason for that tendency. He thinks that teenagers would want to be scientists or engineers when the life of such professions looks good.

He is a well-known genius in the science community. But he is also well known for his passion. Almost everyday except Sundays, his office is brightly lit well into the night. He works on holidays. His papers have been cited more than 4,300 times by other scientists. Given that papers written by Nobel laureates are cited 5,000 times on average, he is considered to be the most likely Korean candidate for a Nobel Prize.

He emphasizes: “Science is art.” That means that intelligence and hard work are not enough for science, and that science also needs creativity, like art that comes from free thinking. “Reaching the deepest point of science, it is meaningless to follow what already exists. You should introduce your own things.” He admitted that Korea’s science community lags behind that of other countries in creativity. He shifted his focus from theoretic research to one helpful for the nation’s economy. He did so because he believes science and industry should go in tandem. Therefore, he is now studying storage technologies for hydrogen fuel. Every step he takes attracts attention.

Hong Chan-sik, Editorial Writer, chansik@donga.com