Making a Semiconductor Superpower: the Seven Engineers from KAIST Who Shaped Chip Industry

“They were called ‘Kim’s Mafia.’ Kim Choong-Ki himself wouldn’t have put it that way. But it was true what'semiconductor engineers in South Korea whispered about his former students: They were everywhere. … Kim was the first professor in South Korea to systematically teach semiconductor engineering. From 1975, when the nation had barely begun producing its first transistors, to 2008, when he retired from teaching, Kim trained more than 100 students, effectively creating the first two generations of South Korean semiconductor experts.” (Source: , October, 2022.)