Achieved globally renowned accomplishments in the study of the topological manifold
Based on his experience in the USA, contributed to the establishment and development of the Mathematics Dept. of the POSTECH
Kwon Kyung-whan
Professor of Pohang University of Science and Technology (1929~)
- Academic background
-
-
1952
B.S. at College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Seoul National Univ. (Mathematics)
-
1953 ~ 1954
M.S. at Graduate School of Michigan State Univ., USA (Mathematics)
-
1954 ~ 1958
Ph.D. at Graduate School of Michigan State Univ., USA (Mathematics)
- Professional career
-
-
1962 ~ 1965
Professor at Mathematics Dept. of Florida State Univ., USA
-
1964 ~ 1965
Research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA
-
1965 ~ 1993
Professor at Mathematics Dept. of Michigan State Univ., USA
-
1990 ~ 1999
Professor at Mathematics Dept. of Pohang University of Science and Technology
Professor Kyung Whan Kwun has made research achievements that attracted international attention via the study of manifold in the area of topology, and is a globally renowned mathematician that has contributed to the development of mathematics in both the USA and Korea based on research.
He graduated from the Mathematics Dept. of Seoul National Univ. and went abroad to study and received a Ph.D. from Michigan State Univ. in 1958. Later, while working at Florida State Univ. as a professor since 1962, he had the honor of becoming a research fellow at the prominent Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton. At that time, he made acquaintance with Dr. Benjamin W. Lee, who was a research fellow at the institute, too, and Dr. Geun Mo Jeong at the Plasma Institute at the same university. In 1965, he moved to Michigan State Univ. where he committed himself to research and fostering talented students until 1990 when he returned to Korea at the invitation of the POSTECH to establish the foundation of the Mathematics Dept. The Mathematics Dept. of Michigan State Univ. was able to leap toward the 1st group from the 2nd in the categories of American Mathematics Depts., helped by his leadership.
The research area of Dr. Kwun is geometric topology among topology. Topology is the study of the structure of mathematical spaces and is one of the most important areas in modern mathematics. One of the most importantly dealt with objects is manifold, which is defined as “a mathematical space that locally resembles Euclidean space” and is an important research object in many core areas of modern mathematics.
He had tremendous influence in the development of topology in the 1960s through the study of manifold. As a manifold is an object abstractly defined through mathematical language, it comes as an important task form the basis of research to define how to make a manifold from other existing mathematical objects, and on the contrary, to what mathematical objects can it be disassembled and divided into. Dr. Kwun advanced a lot on this study via the paper of “Product of Euclidian Spaces Modulo an Arc” (Annals of Mathematics 79-2) in 1964. To briefly summarize without precise terms in the language of mathematics, a manifold multiplied by a manifold becomes a manifold, but disassembling a manifold does not always result in a product of manifolds. In more detail, he proved that the Euclidean space, which is most familiar to us, could be disassembled into a product of two spaces, other than a manifold. In addition, in the paper of “Product and Sum Theorems for Whitehead Torsion” (Annals of Mathematics 82-2) published in 1965, he reviewed how the “whitehead torsion”, one of the fundamental invariants of a manifold, changes to arithmetic operations such as adding or multiplying. These continued research efforts opened new horizons toward future topology research.
Later, he became immersed in research on how to define and classify the manifold. As a result, he was able to make the category of “locally linear PL manifolds” and determine the characteristics. These research achievements were posted on the mathematical journal with the highest authority, Annals of Mathematics, etc. to greatly affect mathematicians then and those in later times. The forty or so papers written by him record an average of 4.4 times of quotation, though the topic is a very specific area of topology. Most of his students who participated in his research are also continuing the research in the area of topology, lecturing around the world, including in the USA.
In 1990, Dr. Kwun accepted the invitation of a newly established Korean Univ., the POSTECH, parting with the Michigan State Univ. Based on the experiences leading the growth of the Mathematics dept. of the Michigan State Univ., he contributed to the foundation of the Mathematics dept. of the POSTECH. In 1999, when he retired, he donated to the ‘Chair-professor Kyung Whan Kwun Foundation’ for the development of Korean mathematics and fostering upcoming researchers. He is still volunteering with the guidance and assistance in the development of POSTECH, living in the States.