KSEA YGTLC 2012

ORGANIZER INTERVIEWS

Welcome to our media gallery. Here you can find interviews with our organizers!

Interview with John Cho!

HS - Can you give me a little bit of background on yourself?
JC - I’m one of the few non-traditional members of KSEA because I’m an accountant and not a scientist or engineer, although I do work with engineers on a daily basis at work. I’m a second generation Chicago native, born to a wonderful family of 4 including: my father who owns a small construction company, my mother who is a self proclaimed rice cooker machine operator, and an older sister who just married a wonderful man this past March. I’m very high energy and believe a positive attitude can get you through even the most difficult of situations. I love everything outdoors and especially traveling. In the past year, I’ve been to 5 out of 7 continents excluding Australia and Antarctica. I hope to check those off the bucket list soon!

HS - What are you currently studying/researching/working on?
JC - I’m an accountant for Catepillar Inc as a cost accountant and New Product Introduction financial analyst, but I recently got a promotion and will be working as an operations accountant starting January 1^st.

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Interview with Grace Park PhD!

WL - Can you give me a little bit of background on yourself?
GP - I was born in Korea, and I grew up partially in Korea, and then in Florida. After studying Materials Science and Engineering at U of Florida (Go Gators!), I received PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. Since then I have been working for about 6 years in Research & Development at Becton Dickinson (BD), a medical device company.

WL - What are you currently studying/researching/working on?
GP - Developing and launching new reuse prevention syringe products in emerging markets have been my main focus for the last 2 years. Now that the products are in the launch phase, wrapping up the project is where I spend most of my time. I have also started managing people for about a year now.

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Interview with Mat Park!

HS - Can you give me a little bit of background on yourself?
MP - I started doing competitive golf at 6 years old and competed in elite competitive junior golf league, and my parents were training me to play as a professional golfer. I got a full scholarship to play golf in college, but after I got to college, I realized how much I loved performing arts (music and acting), and so I quit playing golf, quit the golf team and lost my scholarship to pursue music as my major. I recorded an album and was invited overseas to perform in Korea. I thought I was living a dream, performing a lot and spending time with famous people and recording for big companies. But I felt empty, it didn't feel like the right career for me. So I came back to the states, and I really felt that God was telling me to invest in people. So I pursued graduate school in Sports Psychology, and then went onto pursue Clinical Psychology.

HS - What are you currently studying/researching/working on?
MP - I specialize in Sports psychology, so I work as a mental coach for athletes or performers. I guide them through techniques and various theories to understand human behavior. I'm also doing an internship at Children's Hospital Oakland and working in Pediatric Psychiatry right now, and doing research in music therapy to learn about how music influences the brain.

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Interview with Mike Lee!

WL - Can you give me a little bit of background on yourself?
ML - I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. I went to UC San Diego for my B.S., worked for a little while as a computer programmer, went to UC Berkeley for my masters, and now attend the University of Washington for my PhD. I've lived my entire life all along the west coast, up-and-down the 5 & 405 highways. Other random tidbits: I visited Korea for the first time in when I was 21, and saw my first snowfall while visiting Manhattan when I was 26.

WL - What are you currently studying/researching/working on?
ML - I work in the area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). I like to think of it as the intersection of computer science and social science. More specifically, I work on determining what factors influence motivation, engagement, and learning in people beginning to learn computer programming.

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Interview with Steve Chong!

HS - Can you give me a little bit of background on yourself?
SC - I was born in New York City, grew up in Chicago, went to school in Indiana, (GO IU!) and now I’m back in Chicago. I’ve been playing the violin since I was 5 years old and one of the coolest places I got to perform at was The White House. I also used to be a Police Officer for 2.5 years and now I’m a Global Logistics Manager for the family business.

HS - What are you currently studying/researching/working on?
SC - I’m currently working in the International Logistics field which consists of import/export of commercial goods throughout the world. We take care of the international shipping aspects for items like food, auto parts, tech parts, medical equipment, medical, science, metals, and weapon materials for companies like : GE, LG, Samsung, Hyundai, Kia, Komatsu, (and for you science folks.. Thermo Fisher, Roche Diagnostics, VWR, etc..)

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Interview with Janet Lee!

HS - Can you give me a little bit of background on yourself?
JL - I was born in Boston and I lived there for one year and then moved to Korea. I went to Japan for a year when I was three, came back to Korea, and moved back and forth several times. When I was 14, I moved to Seattle and attended high school and University of Washington for my undergrad. I recently graduated from UW and I am currently getting ready for medical school.

HS - What are you currently studying/researching/working on?
JL - I am taking a class to get a certificate for phlebotomy (it's where you learn how to draw blood and do blood testing), and I'm planning to complete the class in the next year. Then hopefully I will work in a hospital while applying to medical school next year.

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Interview with Christine No!

WJ - Can you give me a little bit of background on yourself?
CN - I am a 2nd generation Korean-American who grew up in Fullerton, CA. I went to Dartmouth College for undergrad, Georgetown University for a masters program, and now I attend The Commonwealth Medical College. I have a younger sister named, Joanne Park, who you'll probably meet at the conference this year - and I'm not fond of the cold weather so I'm excited that this year's YGTLC is in San Francisco.

WJ - What are you currently studying/researching/working on?
CN - Since I'm currently a 3rd year medical student, I am on clinical rotations. It's nice being able to finally be in the hospital and interact with patients/physicians after 2 years of just book-studying. Life's busy, but fun :)

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Interview with Jaimin Shin!

WL - Can you give me a little bit of background on yourself?
JS - I was born in Michigan, grew up in Arizona and Missouri, and now my family lives in Colorado but I consider Philadelphia my home away from home. Moving around a bit has made me learn to adapt to new environments pretty quickly. I have a younger sister who is in 8th grade. My mom is a homemaker, and my dad currently works for LG electronics in Korea.

WL - What are you currently studying/researching/working on?
JS - I'm currently studying at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. My major is in Biology, minor in Asian American studies, and I am pursuing a master's in environmental studies with a focus on health. I work at the center for research on reproduction and women's health. My work focuses on environmental toxicology and reproductive health disparities.

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Interview with Eddie Cho!

HS - Can you give me a little bit of background on yourself?
EC - I was born and raised in the Bay Area. I was also born with one hand so I grew up having to adapt to a lot of activities. Both my parents own a dry cleaning business and my brother is in his senior year of high school. I went to UC San Diego and studied Mechanical Engineering while briefly working for the City of Carlsbad as a Design Engineer intern. After moving back to the Bay, I helped organize TEDx Embarcadero and am now working.

HS - What are you currently studying/researching/working on?
EC - I work as an Assistant Producer at CNET, which is a tech news and consumer electronics review website. I write editorials, manage software catalogs, and generally act as a jack of all trades. In my spare time I'm also an amateur music producer and am currently working on releasing an EP hopefully by the end of the year.

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Interview with Stella Chun!

WJ - Can you give me a little bit of background on yourself?
SC - I was born in Korea and I immigrated to Canada (which I would like to emphasize, not the States) in grade six, and I grew up in Ottawa. I went to University of Ottawa for Bachelor of Science in Biopharmaceutical Science major. Right now, I am in Vancouver (still in Canada) doing medical genetics for graduate studies.

WJ - What are you currently studying/researching/working on?
SC - I am studying at University of British Columbia, doing Master’s program in biochemistry in the department of medical genetics, . My PI’s lab is Genome Science center, and the research I am taking part of is on alternative splicing.

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Interview with Claire Hur!

HS - Can you give me a little bit of background on yourself?
CH - I am a 1.3 (?) generation Korean-American, who were born and raised in Seoul until the age of 20. I went to college in Korea for 2 years and move to America with parents to continue studying in Mechanical Engineering. I finished BS, MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering, all in UCLA. I decided to become an engineer since I wanted to make helicopters for rescuing people from disasters. But I figured during my study that if I make the best helicopter, it will be used in battle field... How ironic... So..my goal as an engineer has been changed as I pursued studying, but I still dream to be an engineer, who invent new technologies that would benefit people.

HS - What are you currently studying/researching/working on?
CH - I am currently working on developing microfluidic devices, which can be used to study cellular biophysics. I am trying to find out the relationship between cellular biophysical properties and disease states. The one of the major applications of these devices can be a early stage cancer diagnostics. Hopefully, in near future, cancer diagnostic process can be as easy as glucose level measurements.

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Press Releases

Washington D.C. Korea Daily newspaper