It is my great honor and privilege to serve as the 33rd President of the Association of Korean Physicists in America (AKPA).  Since its establishment in 1979, AKPA has been fully committed to serve the community to promote continued advancement in physics and related areas, and to promote close networking of Korean physicists in North America and Korea.

The impact of physics lies in many aspects. Physics is one of the most fundamental branches of science and is the intersection of math, chemistry, biology-medicine, information science, and engineering. Physics provides the most probable solution to mankind’s global and grand challenges such as energy, environment, information science, etc.  With the rapid economic growth, Korea has been fast advancing in physics with a national focus and support: The research budget has been fast increasing. Powerful facilities have been sprouting. There has never been a better time to integrate Korean physicists into the world stage and provide new opportunities for young Korean physicists.

Supporting young physicists has been always a high priority for AKPA. Their concerns and needs evolve in this global and rapidly changing society. We will make best effort to understand better their current issues and needs.

In order to serve all of you better, we need to have your input. So, please let us know what we can do for you! I can assure you that we'll be with you every step of the way.

I look forward to working with all of you,

Kyungseon Joo

The 33rd President of AKPA

Professor of Physics

University of Connecticut

Storrs, CT

U.S.A.

  
   

 

 

 

Dear AKPA colleagues,

 

I am pleased to announce that the 2019 OYRA will be given to two outstanding Korean physicists.

 

l  Professor Hyowon Park at University of Illinois at Chicago who has made major breakthroughs in theoretical understanding of strongly correlated system using dynamic mean field theory. This is a problem that has been considered too difficult to solve numerically and his impressive publication record reflects his productivity in this area.

l  Dr. Young Jin Kim at Los Alamos National Lab, who has built highly sensitive, state-of-the-art detectors such as SQUID, nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR), and atomic magnetometers for fundamental and applied sciences. 

 

 

 

The award ceremony will take place at the following two events.

 

l  Sunday, March 3: the 2019 Joint KPS-AKPA Symposium at Harvard University (see the symposium program at https://physics.uchicago.edu/2019-KPS-AKPA-timetable)

l  Tuesday, March 5: the APS FIP (Forum of International Physics) Reception at 6pm at the Boston Convention Center. AKPA is co-sponsoring this reception.

 

Please join me in congratulating Professor Hyowon Park and Dr. Young Jin Kim for their outstanding achievements. 

 

Best regards,

Young-Kee

 

 Sponsored by AKPA and Korean Physical Society

 

 

 

 

 

Solicitation for Nominees

 

In order to recognize and promote excellence in research by outstanding young ethnic Korean Physicist in North America, the Outstanding Young Researcher Award (OYRA) has been awarded annually since 1994 by the Association of Korean Physicists in America (AKPA). The list of previous recipients is available on the AKPA website http://www.akpa.org/

 

Eligibility Requirements

 

o   Candidates are limited to ethnic Korean Physicists who are working at research universities/institutions or industrial/government laboratories in North America.

o   Candidates' most recent PhD must have been awarded on or after January 1, 2010. The award committee may make exceptions for candidates who were awarded their PhD prior to January 1, 2010 if their careers were disrupted due to military service, extended medical leave, maternity leave, child-rearing, etc.

 

Nomination

 

A Nomination Letter that details the importance and impact of the candidate's work and discuss their qualifications, initiative, and research. (Deadline: December 1, 2018)

 

Supporting Documents (Deadline: December 15, 2018)

 

o    Candidate's curriculum vitae including a list of the candidate's scientific publications

o    Representative publications by the candidate 

o    Two letters of recommendation from other researchers in support of the candidate's nomination 

 

Submission Instruction

 

o    All documents must be sent electronically in PDF format to the AKPA OYRA Committee at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject line “OYRA 2019 for <Candidate’s Last name, First name>” by the dates given below:

ü   Nomination Letter: December 1, 2018, 11:59 pm EST

ü   Supporting Document: December 15, 2018, 11:59 pm EST

 

Selection

 

Nominations are reviewed and candidates selected by the Award committee. Award winner(s) are selected on the basis of their scientific excellence and potential to become leaders in the scientific community through their contributions to the field. The winner(s) will be announced in January 2019 at https://www.akpa.org/.

 

Award Presentation

 

The award of $1,500 with a plaque will be presented at the AKPA annual meeting, which will be held in conjunction with an American Physical Society Meeting in the spring. The exact location of the annual meeting and time will be announced later.

 

The Award Committee

 

o    Prof. Jiwoong Park (University of Chicago), Chair

o    Prof. Kwang-Je Kim (Argonne National Lab and University of Chicago)

o    Prof. Harold Kim (Georgia Tech)

o    Prof. Chueng-Ryong Ji (NC State)

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Dear AKPA colleagues,

 

I am pleased to inform you that KPS (Korean Physical Society) and AKPA will host a Joint Symposium from 1pm to 8pm on Sunday, March 4, 2018 in LA (https://indico.cern.ch/event/690003/), prior to the APS March Meeting. This is to support young ethnic Korean physicists in Korea and North America. It will provide an opportunity for postdocs and students who will attend the APS March Meeting to present their work to the KPS-AKPA community and for the community to understand current concerns and needs of young Korean scientists in this global and rapidly changing society. We will also have an opportunity to congratulate and celebrate the 50th anniversary of Journal of the KPS.

 

If you plan to attend the APS March Meeting, I really hope that you will be able to participate in this Symposium. You can register at https://indico.cern.ch/event/690003/. There is no fee for registration. Symposium dinner will be provided.  

If you would like to give a talk (this could be the talk that you will be giving at the APS March Meeting), please send one of the organizing team members email. 

 

The organizing team consists of

  • Takhee Lee, Seoul National University
  • SangMin Lee, Seoul National University
  • Young-Kee Kim, the University of Chicago
  • Kyungseon Joo from the University of Connecticut

 

I look forward to seeing many of you at this Symposium.

I wish you and your family a healthy, fulfilling and joyful New Year.

 

Young-Kee Kim

 

 

 

 

 

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