Pohang, a coastal city in the southeastern Korean peninsula, is known as Korea’s “Steel Capital.” In 1970, the state-owned Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO) established what was then the world’s largest steel mill. As the steel industry expanded, POSCO strengthened its research and development sector and in 1986 founded Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech), thought to have been modeled upon the California Institute of Technology. Expected to become a Korean Caltech that would produce future Nobel laureates, Postech quickly grew into one of South Korea’s most prestigious institutions of higher education. After completing my doctorate in the history of science at Harvard in 2022, I accepted a position teaching the history of science and Science and Technology Studies (STS) at Postech.
Preparing one of my first undergraduate courses, “History of Science and Technology in Twentieth-Century Korea,” proved challenging. The specific pairing of science with modern Korea struck...
University of California Press