Sihyun Ham was my best friend in Korea. It had been a devastating news to me and my family to learn about our dear friend’s passing in January 2021. Her passing was a tremendous loss to us and the scientific community at large. We were deeply saddened by Sihyun’s sudden departure.
Sihyun and I met for the first time in 2012 in the 5th Japan-Korea Joint Symposium on Bio-microsensing Technology (5th-JKBT) in Kitakyushu Japan organized by Prof. Shigeori Takenaka from Kyutech, a very kind-hearted scholar and a good friend of Sihyun’s and mine in Japan. Both of us were among the invited speakers. Thanks to Shigeori sensei’s great hospitality, we had great time in both social gathering as well as research exchange. Through that meeting, I was deeply impressed by Sihyun’s passion about scientific research, her elegant demeanor, and her beautiful style for scientific presentation. She was the first-rate scholar, had very high standard for scientific research and had immense passion and love to her students. In a side note, I also remembered Sihyun’s karaoke singing skills and her “capacity” for alcoholic drinks. Since 2012, Sihyun and I had maintained very regular interactions. She visited HKUST many times during the period 2013-2015 and left many wonderful presentations, research ideas and good memories to our students and our faculty colleagues.
Sihyun enjoyed Hong Kong and HKUST very much. In spring 2014, she spent a sabbatical semester at HKUST, hosted by our colleague Prof. Xuhui Huang at the Chemistry Department. To our pleasant surprise, her gracious mother accompanied her for this semester-long visit. In addition to our scientific meetings, I had vivid recollections of many meal conversations my family and I had with Sihyun and her mother. My family even had the privilege of enjoying delicious home-made Korean food prepared by Sihyun’s mother.
Right close to the end of Sihyun’s sabbatical visit in 2014, we learned that Sihyun’s research achievement was duly recognized by Samsung and that she would be receiving a huge collaborative grant from Samsung. Throughout the years, she had invited me several times to visit her and her University. I felt tremendous regret for not taking the time to visit her in Seoul while she had been healthy and proactive.
The last communication I had with Sihyun was in early December 2019 when I visited Seoul to participate in the biomedical engineering conference organized by SNU Medical School. That was the first and last time I learned from Sihyun that she had been fighting for cancer. I wanted to pay her a visit, but regretfully we didn’t get a chance to meet then.
I believe all in all Sihyun wanted me to always remember her beauty, her smile, her generosity, and her passion to science.
Sihyun will forever be in our heart and I will pray for Sihyun's mother for good health and longevity.
I-Ming Hsing at HKUST, March 30, 2021