By the mid-2000s, South Korea had become a dominant power in semiconductors, and by the mid-2010s, its worldwide market share of memory had climbed to over 60%. Many scholars have endeavored to discover the secret of the South Korean success but have usually emphasized the roles and contributions of the South Korean government and individual companies in the development of semiconductors, almost totally neglecting those of the South Korean academy. This article analyzes how the South Korean academy contributed to the development and success of the semiconductor industry by examining the life and work of Kim Choong-Ki of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Beginning in 1975, Kim trained the first two generations of semiconductor engineers at KAIST, most of whom became the field’s leading figures in academia, at research institutes, and especially in industry. This study is not a biography of Kim but a critical analysis of how a university professor, not an entrepreneur, became the ‘godfather’ of the semiconductor industry in South Korea. I argue that this was only possible within South Korea’s unique triangular relationship among government, industry, and academia during the last quarter of the twentieth century.

到2000年代中期，韩国已成为半导体领域的主导力量，到2010年代中期，其全球存储器市场份额已攀升至60％以上。许多学者努力发现韩国成功的秘诀，但通常强调韩国政府和各个公司在半导体发展中的作用和贡献，几乎完全忽略了韩国学术界的那些。本文通过考察韩国科学技术研究院（KAIST）的Kim Choong-Ki的生活和工作，分析了韩国学院如何为半导体行业的发展和成功做出了贡献。从1975年开始，Kim在KAIST培训了前两代半导体工程师，其中大多数人成为该领域学术界的领军人物，在研究机构，尤其是工业界。这项研究不是Kim的传记，而是对大学教授而不是企业家如何成为韩国半导体行业的“教父”的批判性分析。我认为，只有在20世纪后半叶，韩国在政府，企业和学术界之间形成独特的三角关系，才有可能实现这一目标。