外国人客員所員を経験してWoun KANG
Ewha Womans University
wkang@ewha.ac.kr
I have enjoyed the visiting professorship at ISSP for

The stay at the ISSP was my last physical exchange.

eight months from July 2019 till February 2020. WhatIn this new world with Covid-19, it becomes almost

I have benefited the most from were numerous

impossible to travel all over the world either for

seminars, symposiums, meetings in many different

conferences or for collaborative research. An open worldarea of research. Somehow, my research area has neversuddenly turned into a closed world. Some news outlets

been popular in my country and I have always had moreused to introduce the most powerful passport in terms

colleagues in Japan than in Korea. I haven’t had aof number of countries one can enter without a visa.

student for fifteen years, which deepened my isolation.

Now even the existing visa has become void for most of

In this sense, a long stay of eight months at ISSP was adestinations.

precious experience to recover my enthusiasm, inparticular the connection with the outside world.

Since the start of 2020, while I was still in Kashiwa,
there was a suspicion of a global Covid-19 pandemic,

ISSP is one of the nicest place to enjoy the flow ofwhich was not yet taken seriously at that time. The onlypeople and information, as was the laboratoire devisible sign was the general shortage of facial masks.

Physique des Solides in Orsay, France, where I did myAs it is not uncommon to see people with masks in

Ph.D. study. I think it is a really good atmosphere forJapan in spring, the environments were not necessarily

young people who have to find the area of research toexotic and we were able to move around freely to any

which they should devote their most active period of life.

location without too much worry. Based on previous

I especially enjoy the discussions with Prof. Osada

experiences with SARS and MERS, we were more or

who has endless enthusiasm and a broad and deep

less optimistic to wait until summer to see fullunderstanding of not only organic conductors but also

eradication of Covid-19. However, even six months after

many recent hot topics such as topological insulators,

I returned home, there is no sign of complete recovery,

Dirac electron systems, 2D systems, and so on.

but rather a grim prediction that the virus will stay on

I had planned to do some experiments combining mymuch longer or never go away completely. Most ofpressure apparatus with cryogenic instruments in thelectures have been posted online. Almost all national

ISSP equipped with readily available liquid helium.

and international conferences have been canceled orSome technical glitches hampered the experimentpostponed. Some of them have survived some form ofwhich could not fully resolved until my departure. But,webinar.

we will certainly continue to work on it. Throughout theAny plan to return to ISSP to complete unfinishedexperiments, Dr. Uchida’s technical assistance waswork has to be postponed indefinitely. I again lostessential at every step to overcome endless problems,

almost all personal exchange that I longed so much. Wefor which I sincerely appreciate.

have to struggle to face a completely new world that weUpon arrival, it was a pleasant surprise to meet Dr.

never dreamed of.

Andhika Kiswandhi who started his postdoc at theHowever, a good memory stays forever. I sincerely

ISSP on the same day as mine. He made my life inappreciate everyone at the ISSP for their hospitality,Kashiwa much easier. Dr. Uchida’s fine taste also madeespecially the ILO staffs whose warm support made mylife in Kashiwa easier. We often explored fine but

stay pleasant.

hidden eating places around campus for lunch.
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