On October 16, the first Paiknam Prize Awards Ceremony was held at the Paiknam Concert Hall of Hanyang University (HYU) Seoul campus. The Paiknam Memorial Foundation created the Paiknam Prize to celebrate and promote the spirit of Paiknam Kim Lyun-joon, the founder of HYU.

Paiknam established HYU with the belief that technology and training was the best way to develop Korea. He was a promising musician who composed nationally famous songs like, ‘I Would Like to Live on a Green Mountain’. He was also an activist who led many civil-rights movements. Reflecting his achievements and spirit, the Paiknam Prize was awarded to outstanding individuals in 3 areas; Engineering, Music, and Human Rights. The award recipients were presented with a plaque and cash prize.

The first Paiknam prize in Engineering was awarded to Professor Park Hee-jae of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University, for developing the first “LCD pattern nanometer mass production measure equipment”. Park Young-hee, a composer who created numerous works that embodied the Korean spirit in Europe for 40 years, received the first Paiknam Music Prize. The Korean Committee of UNICEF received the first Paiknam Prize in Human Rights for rendering praising worthy services of helping children in developing countries.

The Paiknam Prize is meaningful for HYU and thus the Paiknam Memorial Foundation will continue to hold the awards ceremony in the years to come. “The date of award ceremony, October 16, is significant in that it was on October 16th of 1947 that our university was renamed as ‘Hanyang’. The Paiknam Prize will be presented every other year,” said Choi Il-yong, the Manager of the General Affairs Team at HYU.