Song Yoo-geun

Song Yoo-geun (born November 27, 1997) is a South Korean person who gained recognition as a child prodigy in South Korea since 2004. After graduating college in 2009, he was involved in a number of controversies during his ultimately unsuccessful doctorate program at Korean University of Science and Technology (UST), including one involving his paper in October 2015 written with his advisor, Park Seok-jae. The paper, entitled "Axisymmetric, Nonstationary Black Hole Magnetospheres: Revisited" appeared in the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ). However, the paper was soon retracted due to concerns that it plagiarized a 2002 book chapter. Song Yoo-geun left a prodigy school he attended in 2003. Six months of his independent study enabled him to solve pre-calculus problems. In August 2004, at age 6, he passed "Craftsman Information Processing" (정보처리기능사) certification examination. In November of the same year, his parents tried to enroll him at a local elementary school (Shim Seok Elementary School; 심석초등학교) as a sixth grader. While Song did not perform well, obtaining a score of 12% on his math exam, his parents maintained that Song was neither used to, or interested in, calculating equations that lacked meaning. Although the school allowed this at first, it later reversed its decision, citing administrative difficulties. Song's parents took the elementary school to court, where the court ruled that the school's decision was unlawful in April 2005, allowing Song to study there as a sixth grader. As Korean students must enroll in middle school within 30 days of the beginning of the school year, Song could not enroll in middle school even after winning the lawsuit. Song's parents decided to opt for a Korean equivalent of the GED. Song passed the test, which gave him the right to enroll in high school in May 2005. He then went on to pass the test that certified him as a high school graduate in August 2005. Thus, Song finished the twelve-year curriculum spanning elementary school – middle school – high school in nine months, setting a new record.