＜ Korean Genius Investor 03 ＞
＜94＞
Hyeon-joon arrived at the Spring Conference.
The conference, which is held in spring (Spring) or fall (Autumn), had already started in the morning, so many people in suits could be seen everywhere in the hallway.
It is the appearance of people gathering in groups of three or five and having a chat.
Oral presentations were already in progress in the main hall and several seminar rooms.
In general, the appearance of the president of the academic society is like this.
In the aisle outside each seminar room where academic presentations are held, as always, there are people holding paper cups with coffee mix in their hands and chatting.
On one side of the booth, company officials are offering various promotional brochures and free ballpoint pens.
You can also see publishers who display books related to their majors in their booths and then promote and introduce them.
Meanwhile, Hyeon-jun passed them, opened the door to the main hall, and went inside.
At this time, Hyeon-jun felt a completely different atmosphere.
hot heat.
The difference between indoors and outdoors, that’s how it feels.
On the other hand, people who are sitting in a row from the front seat side to the back seat side.
University professors, researchers at national research institutes, researchers at company research institutes, students, etc. All kinds of people were gathering.
After taking a quick look around the hall, Hyeon-joon was able to spot very familiar faces sitting on the right-hand side of the seat slightly back.
They are seniors and juniors at the Korea University of Science and Technology, where he received his degree.
So Hyun-joon went right there.
After a light greeting, I was seated at the outermost seat next to him.
and after a while
A professor’s seminar presentation was over.
Now, when the next professor came out and started presenting, Hyeon-jun quietly came out of the hall with several people.
#
“Wow, Choi Hyeonjun! you are really old What’s up?”
Senior Seonwoo Jang.
After living a postdoctoral course at various universities in the United States, he had started teaching at a local national university early this year.
My complexion looked very good now.
Suddenly, he looked like a professor.
“yes. How you doing?”
“What am I, I’m crazy busy right now. Why is preparing for the lecture so hard? really! Hyunjun, you say you’re doing really well?”
“yes?”
“You know Professor Bae Sang-gi from your school. You said you did the same thing together?”
“ah. It’s just…”
Hyeonjun grinned like that and soon started talking to other seniors.
“How are you? Are you very busy?”
“Haha, I’m really out of my mind too.”
“It looks like everyone is very busy.”
“by the way! I’m crazier than that.”
“yes?”
“Why is it so hard to pick up assignments these days? I heard that the last new research fund would just die from drinking water. I had no choice but to apply for research funding even for basic research, where the amount of research funding was small. OMG! Even that has to be real. I’m dying. i’m dying well, how are you? I hear you’re doing very well? I heard that your school has a lot of professors who support new professors and take care of them secretly?”
“Ah, that’s kind of it. I’ve had a lot of help since then. I was lucky.”
“Hey, I really like you. ‘Cause I’m just dying None of my department professors care about me.”
Han Seong-guk, a senior in his second year as an assistant professor at a local national university, was also crying.
It seems easy, but it is absolutely not easy to receive research funds.
Science and engineering university professors, including medicine and pharmacy, must bring research funding from outside to conduct various research activities.
However, it is government research funds such as the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology that have the highest project selection rate and the largest R&D cost.
The problem is, it won’t matter if the order for research funding is made coolly from this place.
If not, the professor is bound to be under a lot of stress.
You can’t get graduate students into the lab without receiving research funds.
There is no money to buy experimental reagents, so you can’t do any experiments properly.
This is a different story from humanities professors.
And if you can’t do such an experiment, you won’t be able to write an academic thesis.
At this time, something very fatal happens.
In other words, if you do not publish academic papers, you will not be able to maintain your position as a professor.
University professors cannot neglect research activities unconditionally until they become a so-called full professor, or until they become a tenure.
Until then, professors are reviewed every time, because the position is maintained in a form of contract renewal.
“Yes, Professor Choi. Shall we do joint research?”
Professor Han Seong-guk asked such a sneaky question.
However, Hyun-jun immediately shook his hand.
I’m crazy busy, because I don’t have time for that right now.
So, after evading it, Hyeon-jun soon took care of the juniors in the lab.
Bae Jin-seong and Lee Eun-hee are currently in the doctoral course.
“How is everyone? Is it worth it?”
Then Bae Jin-seong was screaming in agony.
“Ah. These days, my head hurts a bit and I’m going crazy.”
Come to think of it, I can only hear the sounds of pain here and there.
“why? What is it?”
“Well, the doctoral defense (doctoral examination) date has been set for next month. But, I still can’t find a postdoc position.”
“hey! Won’t the professor help you with that?”
“It is, but. Where I want to go, TO doesn’t come out at all.”
“uh. okay? So where do you want to go?”
“Hey… Ah, to be honest, I want to go under Professor Grossman at Stanford University, but could I possibly go there?”
So, he wants to go to the laboratory of Professor William Grossman, who is Hyun-joon’s postdoctoral fellow (aka postdoc) advisor.
However, recently, according to various rumors, Prof. William Grossman’s laboratory is not currently recruiting foreign degrees.
Because, as soon as the TO came out, various talented people from Harvard and MIT, the most famous universities in the United States, flocked to it, so there was no reason to look for foreign degrees.
“Well. It must be a bit difficult there. Haven’t you heard the rumors?”
“yes? What kind of rumor?”
“There is a Nobel Prize.”
“Ah, I heard that. Are you really a strong candidate for the Nobel Prize?”
“Well, rumors say so. That’s why Professor Grossman’s popularity is so explosive these days. It must be very difficult there.”
In the end, junior Bae Jin-seong was smiling bitterly as if he couldn’t do it.
Meanwhile, Hyeon-jun also looked at his junior Lee Eun-hee, but she didn’t say anything, so Hyeon-jun quietly stepped back.
Then, Hyun-joon looked around, found a middle-aged professor standing still on one side of the hallway, looking at his smartphone, and quietly approached him.
“hello? professor!”
“uh?”
At that moment, the man turned his head in surprise.
However, soon the expression brightens.
He recognized Hyun-joon right away.
“Ah, Professor Choi! I’m here? By the way, do you have an announcement this afternoon?”
“yes.”
“I will pay close attention to Professor Choi’s talk.”
“yes. thank you.”
“Oh, Professor Choi! Come to our school once and do a seminar. Could it be time?”
“yes? A seminar?”
“okay. Professor Choi’s research is pretty good. It would be better if we could tell our students something like that. how is it? time is?”
After thinking about it for a moment, Hyeon-jun readily agreed.
“Then I will. professor. Then when?”
“Ah, around mid-May. Will you be okay then?”
“yes. Then, please email the detailed time. I will try to match it as best I can.”
“okay. thanks Professor Choi.”
“no. professor.”
Then Hyun-joon withdrew from there.
He was Professor Seo Jun-ho of Yeonguk University.
It was simply a request for a seminar.
In fact, when you come to a conference, it is very common to have short, brief exchanges like this.
It’s because if you stay in one place for a long time, you won’t be able to interact with each other.
I try to meet as many people as possible, so sometimes I end up talking to someone else right away without even saying goodbye to the person I was talking to.
As a result, young professors who come to the conference for the first time are a bit embarrassed because they cannot adapt to this culture.
Nevertheless, after coming to the conference a few times, you naturally get used to this culture.
So Hyeon-joon also walked around the hallway, meeting various people and having short conversations.
At the same time, he continued to focus on making his face known.
Like this, if you talk face-to-face even once, the other person will have some favorable thoughts.
It was true that even a network created without spending a single penny in this way could be put to good use for various purposes later on.
Then, Hyeon-jun finally met Professor Park Yu-jin of Sunghan University.
#
“uh? I’m here?”
“When did you come?”
“In the morning. You?”
“I was before.”
“Then what about the students?”
“uh. just alone… I will bring the students next time.”
“I am alone too.”
Then, Professor Park Yoo-jin smiled.
she said again
“But later, you know lunchtime starts, right?”
“uh. why?”
“What are you going to do for lunch? There was a notice earlier, but the society executives said they went out to eat separately. Are you going to go there too?”
Anyway, Hyun-joon is wearing the editorial staff coat of arms at this society, so he can join the society executives at the dinner table.
However, Professor Park Yoo-jin was not.
“Then what are you going to do?”
“Well, I’m fine. You can just eat with another professor.”
“Hey, then don’t do that, let’s go out together.”
At that moment, Hyeonjun made that suggestion.
“yes? where?”
“Hey, I said I was buying rice. In the evening, there is also a banquet by the society, so there will be no time at that time. Let’s just go eat lunch now. What do you think?”
“But will you be okay?”
“it’s okay.”
Hyunjoon smiled.
Then Professor Park Yoo-jin opened his mouth after looking at his watch.
“Then let’s go out in about 30 minutes. The morning presentation session isn’t over yet.”
“Okay, in 30 minutes. OK!”
After Hyeon-jun made his promise, he went back into the main hall and checked the presentation status one more time.
After that, I came out again and looked around the poster presentation room, which is the main stage for students’ presentations.
On the other hand, there is a mixture of students in neat suits and students in casual wear.
Usually, this type of poster session presentation is a method in which each student uses a large individual panel, but each student stands in front of the poster panel and answers someone’s question directly.
Therefore, each poster presentation student draws out a large printed copy of the experiment data on an individual panel and pastes it there to proceed with the presentation.
At this time, Hyun-jun looked carefully at each poster and left after a while.
Then, as I was about to return to the main hall, I suddenly took my smartphone out of my pocket.
Ugh! vibration to do.
Because of that, Hyeon-jun, who immediately grabbed the smartphone, immediately turned on the screen and looked at it, and then looked at the call number again in puzzlement.
This is the first phone number you see.
In fact, when a strange phone number like this is taken, I usually don’t answer the phone.
As he had just arrived at the conference, Hyeon-jun received the phone call just in case.
#
“Oh, hello?”
However, even though the call started, the other party was quiet.
Hyunjoon was puzzled and tried to hang up the phone right away.
At this time, a slow, unfamiliar voice came to Hyeon-jun’s ears.
“Well! Choi Hyun-jun, are you Choi Hyun-jun?”
“yes?”
Hyeonjun immediately asked back and frowned again.
Because a phone call like this is bound to be rather unpleasant.
After suddenly saying your name, isn’t it a one-sided question asking if you’re right?
It was absolutely not normal, so Hyeonjun tried to hang up the phone again.
But soon, the strange voice came again.
“If you have time, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“But, what the hell is going on?”
Momentarily, Hyunjoon’s voice rose a little.
Then, the other person was in a hurry to talk about circumstances.
“Ah, sorry about that. I am currently interpreting at the request of another person.”
what? Are you interpreting?
Hyunjoon didn’t understand at all.
“Who are you interpreting for?”
As Hyeon-jun’s voice became sharper, the answer came right away.
“They are Americans.”
“American?”
For a moment, Hyun-joon was dumbfounded.
Suddenly, I had a strange thought.
If he hadn’t interacted with Americans at all, he would have hung up right away.
However, there were times when I studied abroad in the United States.
Didn’t you have a meeting with several billionaires besides chairman Edward Wroclawski?
Especially, those idiosyncratic billionaires.
Suddenly, Hyeon-jun couldn’t hang up the phone just in case they came to mind.
So Hyun-joon became more active.
“You don’t have to translate. I’m fine with English conversation.”
Then, the opponent’s voice brightened immediately.
“Oh, is that so? Then wait.”
and after a while
As if the phone had been handed over to someone else, an English conversation started right away.
