Hello everyone
I’m happy to meet all of you and I must say, I was absorbed in all the talks so now
I’m confused whether I’m here to give a talk or to listen to the speakers
that I forgot what I’m supposed to say
I’m Lee Su-min, the chemist
What comes to your mind when you first think about chemistry?
Was it fun? No one answers.
I am a chemist but chemistry is not so fun
Here’s a video. What do you see in the photo? Yes, it’s a smartphone
Smartphone is a powerful mechanism that
even brought down Mubarak’s despotic government
Smartphone has a chemical concept, and a chemical principle
What kind of a principle would it be? It’s convergence
Have you heard about convergence? Convergence
For example, DNA chips or bio chips are one
Long time ago, well not really long ago, the trend was convergence
with silicone with DNA, what we call DNA a carbon nano tube. CNT
If the research goes well,
this technology can diagnose and cure and prevent diseases
And we can use this in replacement of credit cards and we will no longer need to use ID cards
These projects are being processing nowadays.
But if we want to converge this carbon nano structure and DNA together, we need a linker
A linker, a point of contact, interface
We need these linkers to connect carbon nano tube and DNA and graphene that contains
semi-conductors. To explain this in simple words, can oil and water mix together or not?
Can we mix it together? No? Yes! If we put soapy water in oil and water, it will mix
The soapy water here, is the linker
The linker that pulls two things that
cannot mix together is the soapy water
We need a linker, and isn’t it what TEDx is doing right now?
I saw falconry here at TEDx today
And I’ve heard the story of a delicate woman climbing the Himalayas,
cleaning herself with two tissues for the first time. Really, for the first time
I think this is where TEDx works as a linker
So as I look back at my life as a chemist, I would like to talk about the stories in the past
hoping that it will be able to converge with your thoughts and minds
Can you see the photo? This is a photo of me from 30 years ago before I went blind
How did I become a blind and how did I get over it?
I’d like to talk about the giants who held my hands
Can you please turn off the lights? Is it turned off?
I really can’t see if it’s turned off or not
Like this, I went blind in 1982, when I was 37
It was May in 1982. My eyes were foggy in the evening
But it became okay in the morning when I woke up So I thought,
“Oh, maybe it’s because I’ve been over working.I suppose it will get better after I rest
And even after a few days, it became foggy in the morning too
Then I got teary and my eyes became dry
After a few days, it became foggier in the morning
and the evening and my sight became narrow and I couldn’t see well
So I visited the ophthalmic clinic and the doctor says, it’s terminal glaucoma
Glaucoma is getting more pressure on your eyes, and then when it gets too high,
the nerves on the back of the eyes die and then you lose your sight
And you can’t repair the dying nerves
when I heard that terrible news, I couldn’t help but feel hopeless
What can you do when it’s dark like this? Can you see the person next to you?
What can you do like in this situation when you can’t see anything?
And especially, can a chemist work as a scientist if he can’t see? No
Then, Please turn on the lights. Are the lights back on?
Something began to shine a light in my heart just like when the light came back on now
How? It’s my wife, who was sent from God
Can you see the recorder here right now? I can’t see, I have no eyes, I have no sight.
I can’t do anything, like in the dark few moments ago
This recorder worked as a linker that connected me, who can’t see
and my wife you can see
When I ask my wife to read some information for me, my wife would record it on the recorder
So I listen to the recorded information repeatedly and think about what it means
I think thoroughly with the recorded segment that my wife read for me
Then I give a lecture on it
Today, three of my students came and I gave lectures to them either.
I just memorize everything and then give a lecture
After the lecture, when the 2nd semester came, the grad students came to me and
said they want to get the Master’s degree working with me
Can you imagine learning chemistry from a blind professor. No
Anyways, grad students came
Grad students became the school angels who started researching with me at school
I couldn’t be here with the school angels, the school giants, home angel, home giants
I made a rule for grad students who come to my room in my grad school
Do you know constitution? We made a lab constitution
We have to be in the lab by 8. We’re grad students, not undergrad studnets
When do you young people go to sleep?
12? I AM? Isn’t it hard to come to school at 8 AM? No, right?
What’s more important is what we do when we get to the lab at 8 AM
I studied the bible in English. It’s the bestseller for kids. It’s the eternal bestseller bible,
but in English. It’s the most beautiful English among all the people read in English
We’re going to study comprehension with the English bible
so come to school early in the morning
I didn’t focus on studying English. I focused on helping students
build a better personality based on characters that appear in the bible
It was a hidden purpose. This is a secret
What converged me and my wife was the linker “recorder”
What converged me and the grad students was the linker “English bible”
That’s how I educated the students
But can you survive with good personality? What about you Dr.Chae?
They don’t pick you for your personality. You need skills
But as you can see, I can’t see, so I can’t read the latest thesis
Especially in the field of chemistry, there is Chemical Asterix.
A book comes out before it’s published as a thesis,
and it contains researches that are currently being worked on. I asked the students
to bring it to me and I would tell them about the things that they don’t know,
and talk about how the students think about it
The students liked the way they were always contacting the professor, asking what they
don’t know right way as they read more deeper, rather than a professor who only taught.
That’s how I could continue my research
I taught the grad students and wrote thesis and earned research funds
I resigned from my position last year, and I feel sorry for the giants, the grad students
who helped me out. I helped 10 students get a doctoral degree and
about 50 students get a master’s degree. Exactly 56 students
Those students all became giants
Like that, I was a person who woke up giants. The theme here is “growing within”
With convergence. Not convergence technology, convergence English bible,
convergence recorder. I woke up the giants with the linkers
I would like to introduce two giants. II didn’t know, but I knew after I retired
Last fall, I got a phone call. “Professor, I became the vice principal at Sin-il middle
school.But I owe you something. I’ll go to Daejeon to pay back.”
“You shouldn’t, you’re busy.” So we couldn’t meet because we were both so busy
when I got a phone call.I was in Seoul in January for some broadcasting interviews,
so we made an appointment to meet then.We were talking at a restaurant in Yongsan Station
“What do you owe me?” and he said
"You taught me thermodynamics, and I took the finals test on thermodynamics.”
I told them once that if you don’t get good results,
I will give chances until you get the scores that you want
There were people who only took the test once, or twice.
The vice principal Kwon Tae-il who I’m talking about used to live in Seoul, took the test 6 times
He was a student back then so he took the train, the slowest train, the earliest morning
train, took the test and then went back to school. On the 6th try, he got an A on it
So he learned patience and worked very hard to become a vice principal
and thanked me for it and said that was what he owed me
So I thought taking the tests several times was what woke up the inner giant
That was the story of this year about how I woke up a giant
And the other giant that I woke up was CEO of Han-nam Hitech Choi Man-mook
I titled it as “13 years in single path life”
CEO Choi didn’t live a prosper life
He was just an average student so back then I didn’t even realize if he was a giant or not
He came to me saying that he wanted to do research with me and study with me
So he came to study as a grad student and he wanted to do a start-up business and then
started to work in a container box while researching at school
The type of research we did was on double sided tape
It wasn’t just a plain double sided tape, but a tape that had special features
Double sided tape that are heat conductive
It’s a type of adhesive and we started developing it together
I gave an idea then he would start doing experiments on it day and night
When he brought the results.. I applied
everyone, what’s plastic’s nature? It blocks heat, right?
So we put Styrofoam when we build houses for insulation
Plastic has a heat blocking nature.
We wanted to make a double sided special tape that could deliver heats well
He had loaned 500 million won during IMF and built a company
and now he has 80 acres of land in Gong-ju and the sales are over ten billion won
And last year there was giant company that made double-sided tape
I can’t say, you know.. that tape! Hahaha
That company is conquering the world market
And there is another famous company in Germany.
The cars in that company are so popular
Now that company is going to be using the tapes from Han-nam Hitec
It passed the picky tests. Those things happened
This is the story of the giant that I woke up
I am so happy that I woke up the giants like this
Please wake up the giants. Waking up the giants are the shortcuts to happiness
And lastly, I would like to use a quote from Churchill’s graduation speech at Oxford.
It is very short and simple
Never, give up.
Never, once
Never, twice
Never, three times
Never, five times
Never, six times
give up
There are 7 nevers, and despite all those,
I would like to tell everyone not to lose their hopes and finish my speech here
Thank you