A Korean studies research center has been established at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania thanks to a donation from a Korean-American entrepreneur.
The Daily Pennsylvanian, a newspaper of the University of Pennsylvania, reported on the James Joo-Jin Kim Center for Korean Studies opening ceremony, which opened its doors on September 12.
The Kim Center was established through a donation from Amkor Technology Chairman James Joo-Jin Kim, 88, and his wife, Agnes Kim.
The Kim Center for Korean Studies was made possible by a $25 million gift from the James and Agnes Kim Family Foundation to the university in 2022.
The new center will serve as a hub for Korean studies in the U.S. by training researchers and hosting scholars’ programs.
Kim had previously donated $6 million to the university in 2011. At the time, the university named its Korean studies program the James Joo-Jin Kim Program in Korean Studies.
“The Kim Center will serve as a link between a number of related researchers at the University of Pennsylvania,” said Christopher Atwood, Professor of East Asian Studies, one of the Kim Center’s executive committee members. ”It will focus on academic issues related to Korea and the Korean diaspora around the world and also be a center that engages the community.”
Kim came to the U.S. in 1955 while attending law school at Seoul National University. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1959. He served as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, a member of the alumni board, president of the Korean American Association of Greater Philadelphia, and president of the Korean Student Association.
He was the first Korean-American to receive the Wharton School Dean’s Award. Kim is the eldest son of the late Amkor Chairman Emeritus Hyang Soo Kim, founder of the Anam Group. Amkor is a world-renowned semiconductor company, and he was once named to Forbes’ list of the world’s 400 richest people. In 2003, he donated funds to establish the Korean pavilion at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and in 2017, he made a significant donation to the Philip Jaisohn Memorial Foundation.
BY YEOL JANG, HOONSIK WOO [jang.yeol@koreadaily.com]
