Jeong Kim Biography President of Bell Labs

Jeong Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea. His parents divorced when he was very young and he was raised by his father and stepmother. At age 14, he emigrated with his family to the United States. He entered school in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, speaking almost no English. Although a good student, he quarreled with his father and left home at age 16. He worked the night shift at a convenience store to support himself while he finished school and won a scholarship to study electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Kim earned his bachelor’s degree in only three years. While still a student, he became excited by the possibilities of the computer revolution and began to work for a start-up company called Digitus. Kim quickly became a partner in the company and believed he was well on his way to making his first million in the computer business when, upon graduation, he left the company to join the U.S. Navy. He believed it was time to repay his adopted country for the opportunities it had already given him.

Jeong Kim spent seven years as an officer on a nuclear submarine and watched from the sidelines while the company he helped build fell victim to the accelerating consolidation of the computer industry. While still in the Navy, Kim took the opportunity to earn an additional graduate degree in management. Kim resolved that on leaving the Navy he would start his own business and avoid the mistakes he believed had been made by Digitus.

Unable to obtain financing for his own start-up, Kim applied his naval background and worked as a contract engineer for AlliedSignal Inc. at the Naval Research Laboratory. At the same time, he earned a doctorate in engineering from the University of Maryland in only two years. At the Naval Research Laboratory, he became aware of the asynchronous transfer technology used to link different modes of electronic communication. He saw the need to bridge the gap between the integrated technology of the future and the many differing systems in use today. The military, for one, had a need to link its divergent systems of voice, video and electronic data transmission, especially from remote areas without existing communications infrastructure.

Kim believed he had missed an opportunity to benefit from the computer revolution while he was in the Navy; he now saw a second opportunity to capitalize on the evolution of telecommunications. In 1992, he borrowed against his house and his credit cards to start Yurie Systems, Inc. His company soon became a world leader in advanced data transmission, one of the fastest-growing companies in America.

In 1998, Jeong Kim reached an agreement to sell Yurie Systems to Lucent Technologies for over $1 billion. At age 37, Kim personally earned more than half a billion dollars from the deal. Kim, who had been accustomed to working 120-hour weeks when he was building his company, could not imagine retiring at this stage of his career, and went to work for Lucent running several divisions at once. He is now President of Bell Labs at Alcatel-Lucent. Jeong Kim makes his home with his wife and children in Potomac, Maryland.

OCCUPATION: Founder and CEO of The Natori Company, maker of high-end lingerie.
AGE: 60
HOMETOWN: New York City; born in Manila.

LATEST PROJECT: Josie Natori Couture, luxurious kimonos, dresses and caftans for hosting or attending parties. Launched a Home Collection in 2006.

GOLF FOUNDATIONS: I took up the game when I married Kenneth 35 years ago. He’s a former investment banker, now the chairman of Natori, and a golf addict. He founded GlenArbor Golf Club in Bedford Hills, N.Y.

FAVORITE CLUBS: My Callaway driver and 5-iron.

BEST SCORE: I think I shot a 97 once, but I try not to compete when I play. I do that enough in my business.

ON THE ROAD: When we’re on vacation, golf allows me quality time with my husband and my son, Kenneth, who is also a very good player. We bring our golf clubs wherever we go. We’ve played in the Philippines, Nevis, the Dominican Republic, and at Pebble Beach and Valderrama, in Spain.

DREAM COURSE: When I get better, I’d love to play Augusta National.

COMPETING INTEREST: I play the piano seriously; I’ve played at Carnegie Hall. That was stress. I don’t get stressed on the golf course. I don’t think I’ve ever missed a shot on the first tee, I’m determined not to make a fool of myself.

WHAT SHE LOVES MOST: The challenge of golf. It’s the most elusive sport; like music, you can never perfect it.

FAVORITE PLAYERS: Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie. Both are talented and feminine.

STYLE ISSUES: I have very classic tastes and prefer a look that’s more feminine. But I don’t wear anything provocative; I am proper in that sense. You won’t be seeing my tummy on the golf course, ever.

RELATED LINKS:

• Josie’s official Web Site
• Interview with Arianne Zucker

Among Ashok Gadgil’s many inventions is a water disinfection system, which can provide healthy drinking water to at-risk populations for about seven cents per person per year.

Gadgil was born in Bombay, India, in 1950. He loved science as a youth, and was already an award-winning student before earning degrees in Physics at the University of Bombay (B.Sc. 1971) and the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur (M.Sc. 1973), then moving to the US, to complete his formal education at the University of California at Berkeley (M.A. 1975, Ph.D. 1979) . There, Gadgil became an expert on solar energy and heat transfer, especially as applied to temperature control in buildings.

In 1980, Gadgil began working at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) as a Staff Scientist in the Energy and Environment Technology Division. There, he created computer programs, later used world-wide, to run simulations of solar heat transfer systems. In 1983, Gadgil returned to India, where, at a Research Institute in New Delhi, he improved the efficiency and conservation of electrical power. By 1988, Gadgil had earned four Indian patents for solar heaters; but he was frustrated by the politics and bureaucracy that made it difficult for him to put his ideas into practice.

That year, Gadgil returned to LBL, which has remained his base of operations. Now a Senior Staff Scientist, he has continued his work in energy efficiency, especially as a means of improving quality of life in developing countries. He has also become expert in the detection and elimination of toxins and pollutants. Gadgil first worked on airborne pollutants, such as aerosol particles and radon.

In 1993, a deadly outbreak of cholera in India inspired Gadgil to focus on waterborne pollutants. About two thirds of the world’s people still get their water for drinking and cooking from outside their homes. As a rule, this water is untreated, and carries bacteria and disease, especially dysentery. In the developing world, over 400 children die from waterborne diseases every hour. To help, Gadgil invented a water purification system that is cheap, safe, capacious, sturdy, and simple to operate. The system uses ultraviolet light, rather than chemicals (like chlorine) or boiling (which can require tons of firewood per day) to purify the water.

Ultraviolet (UV) light has been used in European water treatment plants since the end of the 19th century. Gadgil’s “UV Waterworks” includes some technical improvements over these; but more importantly, it helps those who need it the most. Water is pumped or poured into a large basin. Gravity draws the water through a shallow pan, over which shines a low-pressure mercury arc lamp that lacks the UV-light-blocking phosphor glazing that a fluorescent household lamp would have. As the water flows past at a rate of 15 liters per minute, the lamp’s radiation deadens the DNA of any bacteria, viruses or molds. Water infested with as much as 1,000,000 E. Coli bacteria per liter leaves the system completely clean.

Since 1993, Gadgil and his team have field tested UV Waterworks in northern India and other rural areas of developing countries. The system has been a consistent success, and one unit can serve 1,000 persons for about $70 per year. The major challenge is to guarantee a power supply —- although its 40-watt bulb could be run on a car battery. Gadgil conceived an innovative, accelerated commercialization strategy, which has succeeded in Mexico and Brazil. Hopefully, UV Waterworks will soon be up and running in all of the many countries where it would be, literally, a lifesaver.

Gadgil has invented many other safety devices, from an “Airvest” that channels toxic paint fumes away from the painter, to an inexpensive way to build radon resistance homes.

Ashok Gadgil is admired by scientists and scholars all over the world for both his technical expertise and his determined devotion to improving the human condition. He advises and serves many national and international organizations, such as UNICEF , and has won many awards, including the 1996 Discover Award in the Environment category. Gadgil is one of seven scientists being featured in a full length documentary by the noted director Michael Apted about motivation and inspiration. The documentary, titled “Me and Isaac Newton,” will be commercially released November 2000.

For more information, visit Clear Blue Sky Films.

For a more thorough account of Ashok Gadgil’s UV Waterworks, see: www.si.edu.