Sogang University
He received his B.A. at Seoul National University in chemistry in 1951 and went on to complete his Ph.D. at Purdue University, under Herbert Charles Brown. He was a postdoc at Purdue, then a researcher for the Ministry of National Defence. He then became an associate professor at the Catholic University of Korea. He later took up full professorship at Sogang University, a position he would hold until his retirement. He served as the president of the Korean Chemical Society in 1989, and was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Korea in 2005. He was Professor Emeritus at Sogang University until his death in 2009.