This lecture series honors the professional and personal legacy of Mr. Myung Sup Lim, founder of Optrontec, Korea’s foremost producer of optical components. Much as Optrontec endeavors to bring the world into focus with its pioneering optical technologies, this lecture series aims to bring the history and culture of Korea into focus. It has been generously funded by Mr. Myung Sup Lim’s son, Mr. Jee-Youn Lim, who has succeeded his father as CEO of Optrontec. This generous gift will enable CAPS to sponsor lectures by some of the world’s foremost authorities on Korea and will also bring attention to UO’s burgeoning concentration in Korean Studies.
Mr. Myung Sup Lim was a self-made man who believed in the power of education to transform lives. The drive and intelligence that propelled him through his own educational career, and into a position with Samsung Heavy Industries, brought him immediate success. Posted to London early in his career, where he studied international finance, he was named a company director within ten years of joining Samsung. But Mr. Lim had a professional vision of his own that led to the creation of one of the world’s leading optical component companies, Optrontec, in 1989.
Mr. Lim was a family man who, not surprisingly, married a teacher. Together, they raised two children, whose own success attests to the values they instilled. Mr. Myung Sup Lim died (too) young—before he could fulfill his retirement dream of traveling the world with his wife—but he left behind a professional and personal legacy that lives on in this international lecture series.
We owe gratitude to Mr. Jee-Youn Lim for his generosity and to Mr. Myung Sup Lim for the exemplary life that inspired it.
임명섭의 한국학자 강의 시리즈는 대한민국 광전자부품산업의 선두적인 역할을 담당하고 있는 옵트론텍의 창설자 고(故) 임명섭 대표이사의 업적과 개인적인 족적을 기린다. 옵트론텍이 세계 광전자 기술을 선도하는 데 주력하는 것처럼, 임명섭의 한국학자 강의 시리즈도 한국의 역사와 문화를 드높이는 데에 그 목적을 두고 있다. 이 강의 시리즈는 고 임명섭 대표이사의 아들인 임지윤 현(現) 옵트론텍 대표이사의 후원으로 이 년 동안 (2012년-2014년) 운영된다. 이번 임지윤 대표이사의 관대한 지원으로 CAPS는 한국학계 최고 권위자들의 초청 강의를 주관할 수 있게 되었으며 이는 동시에 오리건 대학교내 급증하는 한국학 연구에 대한 관심을 고취시키는 데 큰 기여를 할 수 있게 될 것이다.
임명섭 대표이사는 자수성가한 기업인으로 교육의 힘이 삶의 질을 바꿀 수 있다고 믿는 사람이었다. 그는 뛰어난 총명함과 학구열을 원동력으로 하여 학업을 성공적으로 마친 후 곧 삼성중공업에 입사하게 되며 빠른 성공을 거두게 된다. 입사한 지 얼마 되지 않아 런던 주재원으로 파견 되었고 그 곳에서 그는 국제금융을 전공하게 된다. 삼성에 입사한 지 10년이 채 되지 않아 그는 회사 디렉터로 임명을 받았으나, 임 대표이사 자신의 세계 광전자 기술을 이끄는 회사 중 하나를 설립하겠다는 강한 의지로 1989년에 자회사인 옵트론텍을 창립하게 된다.
임명섭 대표이사는 교사의 아내를 둔 가정적인 남편이었다. 슬하에 두 명의 자녀가 있는데, 이 두 자녀들의 성공적인 삶은 임명섭 대표이사 내외의 철저한 가치관 교육을 방증하고 있다. 임 대표이사는 그의 은퇴의 꿈이었던 아내와의 세계여행을 이루지 못한 채 세상을 떠났지만 그가 이루어 놓은 업적과 개인적인 발자취는 이 국제강의 시리즈 안에 살아 숨쉬게 될 것이다.
CAPS는 임지윤 대표의 아낌없는 후원과 현시대를 살고 있는 우리를 고무시키는 모범적인 삶을 살다가 가신 고 임명섭 대표에게 다시 한번 진심어린 감사를 드린다.
To apply for a Myung Sup Lim Lecture Series, please click here to access the online form.
Speakers in winter/spring: October 30th
Speakers in summer/fall: April 15th
Myung Sup Lim Committee:
Dong Hoon Kim, Cinema Studies
Gyoung-Ah Lee, Anthropology
Susanna Lim, Russian and East European Studies
Jina Kim, East Asian Languages and Literatures
Past Events
Thursday, October 19, 2023
UX (User Experience) Innovation in South Korea’s ICT Industry:
Theories and Applications
Knight Library Browsing Room, 4:00 pm
Friday, November 11 & Saturday, November 12, 2022
Korean Language Association Annual Meeting
“Resonances”
Global Scholars Hall 123, 9:00 am – 5:30pm
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Toward an understanding of 1980s-90’s literary and cultural history:
Calamity, Martyrdom, and the Candlelight Revolution in Yi In-hui’s novel
“In the Name of Laborers”
Crater Lake North, EMU, 4:00 pm
Thursday, May 16, 2019
Freedom of Speech and the Press in Asia:
Human Rights Balanced with Cultural Values
Jaqua Center Auditorium, 4:30 pm
Thursday, April 25, 2019
KakaoTalk Rumor Effect: The influence of social media rumores on participation
and knowledge in the 2017 South Korean presidential campaign
Gerlinger Lounge, 4:30 pm
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Majoritarian Oscillations and Judicial Serendipities:
Free Speech in Korea
Knight Library Browsing Room, 3:30 pm
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Law, Politics, and Impeachment in South Korea:
President Park Geun-Hye’s Case in Comparative Perspective
Knight Library Browsing Room, 4:00 pm
Thursday, May 4, 2017
South Korean Democracy and What It Needs Next Week:
A Digital Rights Activist’s Point of View
Crater Lake North, EMU, 4:00 pm
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Glossolalia and Cacophony in South Korea
Browsing Room, Knight Library, 4:00 pm
Monday, May 23, 2016
Communication Technologies and Urban Neighborhoods in Seoul
191 Ansett Hall, 4:00 pm
Friday, February 12, 2016
Spartan Creativity:
The Rise of Korea’s Samsung Empire
185 Lillis Hall, 2:00 pm
Friday, October 16, 2015
Myung Sup Lim Lecture Series
“Traditional Korean Religion and Art in East Asian Perspectives”
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Monday, October 13, 2014
Lecture: Moral Society and Amoral State: Political/Social Controversies in South Korea
Michael Robinson, Indiana University
McKenzie Hall, Room 375
12:00 pm
Thursday, May 15th, 2014
“The Function of the Constitutional Court of Korea in the Development of Democracy and the Rule of Law”
Ford Alumni Center, Room 403
3:00pm
Friday, May 2, 2014
Korea and Regional Relations
White Lotus Gallery, 767 Willamette St.
4:00 pm
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Korean Cinema Today
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
3:00 pm
Monday, February 10, 2014
The Shifting Images of Korea Through the Lens of National Geographic Since 1890
PLC, Room 159
4:00 pm
Monday, April 8, 2013
Shared Youth Predicaments: Education Notes Among South Korea, Finland, and the US
Gerlinger Lounge
4:00 pm
Monday, February 4, 2013
They Think They’re Normal: Explaining North Korea
Knight Library Browsing Room
3:30 pm
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Dragon King, War, and Esoteric Ritual: Rethinking the Twin Pagodas of Unified Silla (676-935)
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Ford Lecture Hall
4:00 pm
Other Korean Studies Resources at the UO
Korean Language Courses (Levels 1-4, offered through East Asian Languages and Literatures)
Korean Studies Affiliate Faculty
- Noelle Byun, Knight Library, Korean Cataloger and Metadata Technician
- Dong Hoon Kim, EALL and Cinema Studies, Korean Literature and Film
- Jina Kim, EALL, Korean Literature
- Anne Rose Kitagawa, JSMA, East Asian Art
- Nayoung Kwon, EALL, Korean Linguistics
- Gyoung-ah Lee, Anthropology, East Asian Archaeology
- Susanna Lim, Honors College, Russian and East Asian Literature
- Seungahn Nah, Journalism and Communication, Political, International and Global Communication
- HyeRyoung Ok, Cinema Studies
- Kyu Ho Youm, Journalism and Communication, Communication Law, International Media
- Sunhee Woo, EALL, Korean Language
Korean Art Collection at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
Knight Library Korean Collection