Kim Yong-un (; September 6, 1927 – May 30, 2020) was a

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n mathematician, philosopher, and critic of civilisations. He was active in various fields of mathematics, philosophy, anthropology, and linguistics, and is considered to have established the

history of mathematics The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments ...

in Korea. He was a professor of mathematics at

Hanyang University Hanyang University (Korean: 한양대학교) is a private research university in South Korea. The main campus is located in Seoul and its satellite campus, the Education Research Industry Cluster (ERICA campus), is in Ansan. ''Hanyang'' (한양, ...

Life

Kim Yong-un was born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 1927. He was liberated in the year he entered

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

and returned to his father's hometown of

Naju Naju () is a city in South Jeolla Province, South Korea. The capital of South Jeolla was located at Naju until it was moved to Gwangju in 1895. The name Jeolla actually originates from the first character of Jeonju () and the first character of Na ...

Jeollanam-do South Jeolla Province (; ''Jeollanam-do''; ), also known as Jeonnam, is a province of South Korea. South Jeolla has a population of 1,902,324 (2014) and has a geographic area of located in the Honam region at the southwestern tip of the Korean ...

in 1946. While working as a math teacher at Mokpo High School and

Gwangju Jeil High School Gwangju Jeil High School ( ko, 광주제일고등학교) is a boys' high school in Gwangju, South Korea. It has 840 students in grades 10, 11, and 12.Keh, Andrew"School Spirit May Be Metaphysical for South Korean Baseball Players,"''New York T ...

since 1947, he felt the need to popularize math and later wrote several popular math books. After teaching for more than 10 years, he earned a doctorate in science while studying in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. In the late 1970s, he studied the history of mathematics, and since the 1980s, he has analyzed Korea and Japan in a comparative cultural way by combining mathematics and history. The original form, which means

collective unconscious Collective unconscious (german: kollektives Unbewusstes) refers to the unconscious mind and shared mental concepts. It is generally associated with idealism and was coined by Carl Jung. According to Jung, the human collective unconscious is populat ...

ness of the community, and the locality in which the community is located, were involved in the development of language and history. In 1983, he founded the Korean Mathematical History Association and became the first chairman, and in 1994, he participated in the development process of Ungjin Publishing (now Ungjin Thinkbig), a mathematics learning magazine brand of Ungjin Publishing (now Ungjin Thinkbig), along with his younger brother, Professor Kim Yong-guk of Hanyang University. This is also the predecessor of Thinkbig, a learning center brand of Ungjin. He wrote more than 150 books throughout his life.

Academic background

* Bachelor's degree in mining at Waseda University in Japan (dropout) * Bachelor's degree in mathematics at

Chosun University Chosun University () is one of the oldest private universities in South Korea. Its campus is situated in Gwangju metropolitan city, in southwestern South Korea. Around 33,000 students are enrolled. Academics Undergraduate courses are offered ...

* Graduate School of Orburn University in the U.S. (Bachelor of Science) * Graduate School of

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

, Canada (Doctor of Science)

Career

* Assistant Professor of

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

(1962-1965) * Visiting professor at

Kobe University , also known in the Kansai region as , is a leading Japanese national university located in the city of Kobe, in Hyōgo Prefecture, Hyōgo. It was established in 1949, but the academic origins of Kobe University trace back to the establishment of ...

in Japan * A visiting professor at

Tokyo University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

in Japan * Guest Professor of the Center for International Cultural Research in Japan * Professor of Mathematics at Hanyang University (1969-1993) * President of the Korean Mathematical History Society * Professor emeritus of mathematics at Hanyang University (1994-current) * Chairman of the Korea Broadcasting Culture Promotion Agency (2000-2003) * Director of the Korean Mathematical and Cultural Institute

Books

References

{{Authority control 20th-century South Korean mathematicians Academic staff of Hanyang University Waseda University alumni University of Alberta alumni 1927 births 2020 deaths People from Tokyo Historians of mathematics South Korean philosophers South Korean historians