1. Rimhak Ree, alternatively Im-hak Ree, was a Korean Canadian mathematician.
19 Facts About Rimhak Ree
1. 2.
Rimhak Ree contributed in the field of group theory, most notably with the concept of the Ree group in.
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Rimhak Ree went onto Keijo Imperial University, where he studied physics, which was an unusual choice for Koreans at the time.
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Rimhak Ree graduated in 1944 with a physics degree; he then went to Fengtian, Manchukuo to work for an aircraft company.
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Later that year, in Namdaemun Market, Rimhak Ree found an issue of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, which proposedly was left by an American soldier.
6.
Rimhak Ree solved the problem and sent the solution to Max Zorn.
7.
Rimhak Ree completed his dissertation on Witt algebras in 1955.
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In mid-1955, Rimhak Ree received a grant from the National Research Council of Canada and he worked with Jennings on Lie algebras.
9.
Rimhak Ree was elected a member of Royal Society of Canada in 1964.
10.
Rimhak Ree had two daughters Erran and Hiran from his first marriage.
11.
Rimhak Ree later married Rhoda Mah, a doctor and the daughter of John Ming Mah, who owned Northwest Food Products, a manufacturers of noodles.
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Rimhak Ree would go on to work as staff physician for Canadian Pacific Airlines.
13.
Around the time Rimhak Ree received his doctorate, his passport was approaching its expiration date, so he approached the South Korean consulate in San Francisco to extend it, but instead the consular officer confiscated his passport and ordered him to return to South Korea.
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Rimhak Ree refused the order, which caused him considerable difficulty, but in the end the Canadian government treated him as a de facto stateless person and granted him permanent residency in Canada.
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Rimhak Ree's family was divided by the Korean War, with his father, older sister, and other relatives having stayed in their hometown of Hamhung.
16.
Rimhak Ree visited North Korea using his Canadian passport various times for academic exchanges, but he was not able to travel freely in North Korea and thus had no success in making contact with his relatives; furthermore, his visits to North Korea led South Korea's Park Chung Hee military government to place an entry ban on him.
17.
Rimhak Ree requested help from Erdos, who as an internationally-famous Hungarian citizen faced fewer restrictions on travel or communication in either capitalist or communist countries.
18.
Rimhak Ree was so excited by the news that he forwarded the envelope to his mother and younger sister in South Korea, which reportedly resulted in them being investigated by South Korea's intelligence services.
19.
Rimhak Ree remained banned from South Korea until 1996, when the ban was cancelled as he was invited to the 50th anniversary ceremony of the Korean Mathematical Society.