Middle School Teacher Solves Global Challenges

Proves The Kahn-Kalai Conjecture

@quantamagazine

Amazing achievement, she even came from a middle school teacher!

Park Jin-young, research professor at Stanford University, proves the Kahn-Kalai conjecture

A Korean mathematician proved the speculation that was considered a challenge in discrete mathematics, a field of mathematics. It is speculated that even if only a relatively easy-to-calculate approximation is obtained, it will be meaningfully similar to the 'threshold' you actually want to obtain. Park Jin-young, a professor of mathematics at Stanford University. What's even more surprising is that she was a teacher who taught math to students at a middle school in Seoul more than a decade ago.

She published a paper 'Proof of Khan-Kalai conjecture' with Dr. Huituanfarm of Stanford University. Professor Gil Carly, who suggested the speculation, said after reading the paper, "It's a wonderful proof. Congratulations." The paper is currently in the open before publication state.

The speculation she proved is a question raised by Jeff Khan and Carly in 2006. In discrete mathematics, it is a problem in the field of stochastic combinatorics, and if this conjecture is true, it is possible to obtain a number very similar to the actual threshold by simply obtaining the expected threshold. The Kahn-Kalai conjecture was a very sensational conjecture in the field of combinatorics. It is proven to be true and many problems can be solved.

When a network between specific points is formed entirely at random, a 'threshold' occurs in which the nature of the network changes rapidly depending on the state in which the points are connected. For example, water exists in a liquid state, but at 0 degrees and 100 degrees, its properties change into solids and liquids. This temperature can be viewed as a threshold. In the COVID-19 incident, the infection reproduction index 1 served as a threshold to change the nature of future trends.

Was she a math teacher in middle school?

Her unusual history is known, and this proof is becoming more of a hot topic.

She was a 'mathematics teacher' who graduated from Seoul National University's Department of Mathematics Education in 2004 and worked at Yonggang Middle School in Seoul from 2005 to 2010. She taught math at Sejong Science High School from 2010 to 2011. I worked as a teacher for about six years. She was also awarded the Outstanding Teacher Award by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in 2009.

Korea's Best University

She began her career as a mathematician in 2014 when she began her doctorate at Rutgers University in the United States.

She said, "I got the chance to come to the U.S. unexpectedly while I was a teacher. I applied for a Ph.D. program at a nearby university because I wanted to spend more time in the U.S. and I got accepted," she explained.

Since then, she has worked as a post-doctoral course at Princeton High Research Institute in 2020 and became a research professor at Stanford University in the fall of 2021. She said, "Communication with colleagues is important for research. The experience of teaching students helped me a lot in presenting at the conference and explaining my ideas to my colleagues," she said.

She also said, "I don't have a specific goal. I just enjoy studying math and solving problems," she explained.