Woongjin Foundation holds summer mentoring for math scholars

The Woongjin Foundation held its annual summer mentoring session for math scholars at the Korea Press Center in Seoul on Thursday, marking the foundation's 18th anniversary.

Established in 2008 by the Woongjin Group, the organization provides academic support to high school and university students across Korea.

Former U.N.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Woongjin Group Chairman Yoon Seok-keum and former Seoul National University President Oh Se-jung gave congratulatory remarks, with Oh speaking on the role of mathematicians and scientists in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).

Mathematician Kim Min-hyong, a chair professor at the University of Edinburgh who has mentored Woongjin scholars for 11 years and recently proved a long-standing conjecture related to Fermat's equation, lectured on Diophantine equations, a category of polynomial equations central to number theory.

Sociologist Song Ho-keun of Hallym University's Institute of Advanced Studies, meanwhile, spoke on reading and writing.

Mathematician Baek Jin-eon, a Woongjin scholarship alumnus and fellow at the Korea Institute for ...