Laudatio: Professor Jung-Il Jin

Michael Hess

doi:10.1515/ci-2022-0214

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Laudatio

Professor Jung-Il Jin

Michael Hess

Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 14. April 2022

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It is a good and old Korean tradition to honour the 80^th birthday of a person by a ceremony called 팔순 (palsoon): All family members and friends come together to honour and pay homage to the person celebrating the anniversary. This year, Professor Jung-Il Jin— Emeritus Professor Korea University Seoul—celebrates his 80^th birthday, looking back to an outstanding career in Polymer Science, including 31 years of diligent and fruitful service to IUPAC. He started in 1991 as National Representative of the Republic of Korea in the Macromolecular Division (now Polymer Division, Division IV), rising to President of the Polymer Division in 2006, and he became IUPAC President during the years 2008 and 2009. This ‘palsoon’ is a perfect opportunity for the scientific community to pay tribute to Prof. Jin as a distinguished scientist with exceptional contributions to the scientific community, the society in general, and to honour Prof. Jin as a gifted teacher, a mentor and leader, and last but not least, to highly esteem him as a friend.

Prof. Jin was born April 19, 1942 in Seoul, South Korea. He studied chemistry at the Seoul National University, BS 1964, MS (1966) in Organic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Chang, Sae-He. He received his PhD in Polymer Chemistry (Polymerization and Copolymerization of Divinylbenzene Isomers) in 1969 at the City University of New York, USA, (Prof. Richard H. Wiley). After working as Senior Research Chemist (Stauffer Chem. Co. USA) from 1969 to 1974, he became professor of the Chemistry Department of the Korea University, Seoul, South Korea. From 1998 to 2007 he was also Director of the Centre for Electro- and Photoresponsive Material. There were interludes as visiting professor/visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts, USA (1987, 1997). It was also at the University of Massachusetts where Prof. Jin met Zhou Qifeng (also now one of the Past President of IUPAC), who was a PhD student of Prof. Bob Lenz. Jung-Il Jin worked together with him and Chris Ober on polymer liquid crystals and they became close friends. Prof. Jin then spent one term at Clare Hall/College at the University of Cambridge, UK (1997) as visiting scholar working on conductive and polyconjugated polymers with Prof. Andrew Holmes (Chemistry Department). From 2002 to 2004 he served as Dean of the Graduate School of Korea University and 2003/2004 as Vice-President of Korea University, Seoul. In 2008 and 2009 Prof. Jin received the Samsung Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Korea University. He became President of the Korean Council of Science Editors (KCSE) (2011–2014) and Dean of KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology, then Distinguished Professor (2013–2019). In October 2017, Prof. Jin became Professor Emeritus of the Korea University, Seoul.

Prof. Jin’s research activities concentrated on polymer liquid crystals, conducting and optically responsive polymers, and the electromagnetic properties of DNA. Until his retirement he has supervised more than 150 graduate students, among them at least 50 doctoral students. In addition, 25 postdoctoral students, research assistants and visiting professors were members of his team. His scientific work has resulted in about 420 refereed papers, which gained more than 10,000 citations, and more than 30 patents in South Korea and the USA. Consequently, he was frequently invited as plenary speaker to many international conferences and until now he has received 17 domestic and international awards, honouring his excellent scientific and educational work.

Professor Jung-Il Jin meets with Ban Ki-moon, then Secretary-General of the United Nations. Jin recently celebrated his 80^th birthday. He dedicated his career to Polymer Science, including 31 years of diligent and fruitful service to IUPAC.

IUPAC Activities

Beside his remarkable success as a scientist, Prof. Jin has left his mark on IUPAC with his decades of service in the Polymer Division, culminating in his election as IUPAC President in 2008/2009. In 1991 he was elected as National Representative of the Republic of Korea for the Commission on Macromolecular Nomenclature (Commission IV.1, now as the Subcommittee on Polymer Terminology). In 2002 his diligent work resulted in his election as Division Vice President 2002-2005 and as Division President 2006-2007. During his Presidency he played a leading role in the committee, which organized the International Year of Chemistry in 2011. In 2009 he visited the UN in New York, where he met the 8^th UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, giving rise to a cooperation between United Nations and IUPAC aimed at sustainable development. Consequently, IUPAC received the status of a United Nations NGO. His decades of service for IUPAC included involvement in the Bureau, the Executive Committee, the Committee on Chemical Research Funding, reviews of the IUPAC Strategy and Project Financing Report, and, the Editorial Advisory Board of Pure and Applied Chemistry. He was active in many projects of Division IV and beyond that he cooperated with the Committee on Chemistry and Industry, with CHEMRAWN (the Committee on Chemical Research Applied to World Needs), and the Committee on Chemistry Education.

Prof. Jin was also involved in IUPAC Conference activities. In 1996, he was one of the leading organizers of IUPAC MACRO SEOUL and involved in the IUPAC General Assembly/World Chemistry Congress 2015 Busan, Republic of Korea. He was also member of numerous organizing committees and advisory boards of IUPAC sponsored conferences and meetings.

Negotiations with SAMSUNG resulted in the first grant of a fund from industry to IUPAC, the SAMSUNG Fund (now HANWHA–TOTAL Fund). This USD 125,000 grant from 2004 endows the biennial HANWHA–TOTAL–Young Scientists Award for outstanding polymer scientists not older than 40 years and is awarded on the occasion of the IUPAC MACRO Conferences.

In the year 2020, his standing as a scientist and continuing service to IUPAC and the Polymer Division has been expressed by awarding him the status of Emeritus Fellow in Division IV [1].

Present Days

These days Prof. Jin is still keeping a personal office within reach of Korea University (Seoul), however, with reduced activities. Occasionally, he gives lectures for students and the general public and he is still an active member of the boards of a couple of foundations. He has recently published two volumes of essays about his past and thoughts in Korean. Otherwise, he enjoys life and the progress of his children and grandchildren with his beloved wife Sun-Ja.

It is my great pleasure and honour having been asked to write this laudatio for my dear friend, whom I have known for 26 years as an outstanding scientist and excellent teacher. As excellent teachers usually are, he also was a tough teacher. Loved and respected by his students, he shared with them his knowledge and pushed them to the highest levels. The best precondition is to become a good scientist and find appropriate employment in industry or academia, and in this way contribute to the reputation of his university by carrying on his spirit. His kind, friendly and empathic manner, expressed by great hospitality and generosity, is reflected by the number of friends he has and the honours he has received.

Reference

1. Tabular materials including domestic and international awards, Honorary Positions, Academic Societies and Foundations, Editorial Advisory Boards, and Books have been added in the following page: https://iupac.org/who-we-are/divisions/emeritus-fellows-2000/emeritus-fellow-jung-il-jin/Suche in Google Scholar

Online erschienen: 2022-04-14

Erschienen im Druck: 2022-04-01

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2022-0214