more about me...

I was born and raised on the outskirts of Seoul until I eventually moved to the United States, where I met my wife whom I married after dating for about eight years since college. Together we moved back (well, back for me) to South Korea so that I could attend SNU for PhD and at the same time fulfill the mandatory military service requirement as a South Korean citizen. I defended my PhD on May 7, 2021 and graduated from Seoul National University in August 2021.

I call many places home. Clearly Seoul is now one, but also is Bucheon, where I grew up (but not birthplace!). North Carolina comes close to being my hometown numero dos. For a few years, I lived in a really cold place called Syracuse, NY where I attempted at pure math for a while I could.

The two most interesting places I have visited are Park City, UT and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. I was in Park City for a few weeks as an undergraduate participant of PCMI 2013. I visited Ulaanbaatar in 2019 for a conference and to see a good friend of mine who graduated a year earlier.

Besides math and weather, there are a few other things that I also enjoy. I am very proud of my paper airplane folding skills. I sometimes make digital music.

I raised two pet chickens when I was growing up. I bought them from a man sitting outside my elementary school. These chicks sold to curious (and often cruel) kids tended to die within a few weeks, but somehow my chicks survived. I eventually donated them to my old kindergarten which had a farm but only after having the kindergarten administrators sign the paper promising never to eat them. I think I checked up on them once or twice afterwards. Allegedly, I cried for days when I heard of their deaths. After the chickens, I had a pair of parrots for many years until one of them died.

I grew up obssessing over Bernard Werber books. By chance in 2019, I got to meet him at a bookstore in Seoul!