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 do my graduate work at Seoul National University and simultaneously fulfill the mandatory military service requirement as a South Korean citizen. I defended my PhD on May 7, 2021 and graduated from SNU in August 2021.

I call many places home. Clearly, Las Vegas is now one, but so are Seoul and North Carolina. I have also experienced living in colder climates for a few years in Syracuse, NY and Hamilton, ON, Canada.

Among the places I have traveled to, I found the following cities most memorable. I stayed in Park City, UT for a few weeks as an undergraduate participant of PCMI 2013. I got to meet so many cool math people there, some of whom I am still in touch with. In 2019, I visited Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for a conference and to see a good friend of mine from graduate school. Zaragoza, Spain was a relatively brief stop during a family trip in 2023. I took this opportunity to meet and discuss work with my research collaborators at the University.

Besides math, 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.

Growing up, I had two pet chickens at one point. They were bought 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 into adulthood. 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!