At 92, Hyung Kyu Shin still leaves home at 6:45 a.m. and arrives at his University of Nevada, Reno office at 7 a.m. every morning, a routine unchanged for decades. "My wife complains," he says with a smile, acknowledging the unconventional nature of his post-retirement dedication. But for Shin, chemistry has never been simply a career — it's a lifelong passion that continues to fuel his days.
Born in South Korea, Shin's path to becoming a pioneering theoretical chemist began almost by chance. When his sister applied to American universities in the 1950s, the University of Utah accepted her application. "To me at that time, I did not know much about which particular school would be the best one for me, but [only that] to come into America would be a wonderful, wonderful opportunity," he recalls. That decision would prove transformative.
At the U, Shin found himself under the mentorship of the legendary Henry Eyring, taking eight courses from the renowned physical chemist. Eyring's teaching style left an indelible impression. "He taught us how to do research," Shin remembers. "In fact, that more than course material itself. And he thought, 'course material you read, you will find out.'" Rather than rigidly following textbooks, Eyring would ask students about their weekend lab work and build lessons from there, demonstrating how research was truly conducted.
Shin's exceptional trajectory through graduate school — earning his bachelor's degree (1959) and, in just over four years, his Ph.D. (1961) from Utah — reflected both his brilliance and the supportive academic environment. His research focus on vibrational energy transfer in molecular collisions would define his career and contribute significantly to understanding chemical reactions at the molecular level.
"Energy transfer is essential for the chemical reaction," Shin explains, describing how his theoretical work applies to everything from pharmaceutical production to the oil industry. "If you have just a molecule sitting there, it's not going to react. You have to make one of the molecules... have some excess energy." This fundamental understanding of how molecules interact and exchange energy has profound implications for producing the chemicals that shape modern life including in the area of large molecules.
After postdoctoral work at the National Bureau of Standards and Cornell University — where he married Young Ai, a nurse from Seoul — Dr. Shin joined UNR in 1965. There he built a distinguished career, serving twice as Chemistry Department Chair and earning recognition as the university's inaugural Outstanding Researcher of the Year in 1973. He has published over 210 papers in chemistry and physics journals, establishing himself as a leading voice in theoretical chemistry.
Yet Shin's greatest legacy may be his approach to retirement. In 2000, when he decided to step down from his tenured position, he insisted the department hire someone better to replace him. "Department has to grow," he told the university president. "If we stay it is stagnation... You have to bring in good young people and new blood." His condition: the position be retained for a younger colleague, while he continued his research at his own pace.
This remarkable humility extends to his view of his own story. "There is a guy in some place in Reno, Nevada, doing something like that, that's enough," he suggests modestly for this profile. But his wife Young Ai who worked for many years for the World Health Organization offers a different perspective: "In our circle, there are many other department professors retired. After retirement, they all disappear." Unlike them, her husband comes home each day with a smile, energized by his work.
As the AI era transforms scientific research, Dr. Shin acknowledges the changing landscape. "We had to dig out all the answers ourselves... But these days you don't have to do that. Just ChatGPT," he observes. Yet he remains undaunted, continuing his theoretical work with pencil, paper, and the occasional computer calculation — proof that the fundamental joy of scientific discovery transcends any particular technological moment.
"You have to have the purpose in life," Hyung Kyu Shin reflects. For this humble pioneer from South Korea, that purpose remains unchanged: advancing our understanding of the molecular dance that underlies all of chemistry.
