Early childhood and the Stanford-Binet
Kim was born in Seoul on March 7, 1962, to two parents with PhDs. His development was documented from very early: by three he was reportedly reading and writing Korean, English, German and Japanese, and by four he was solving integration problems on Japanese television.
In 1966 he sat a Stanford-Binet test that produced a reported 210. The number came from the ratio formula of the time: mental age divided by actual age, times 100. A measured mental age of about 8.4 years at age four gives the headline figure.
Guinness listed him under “Highest IQ” in its 1980s editions, until the category was retired in 1990 — the same decision that ended Marilyn vos Savant's listing.
Nine years with NASA, from age eight
At seven he was invited to begin coursework at Colorado State University. At eight NASA took him on for research work, which biographical summaries tie to propulsion and mission analysis — he has only ever described it in measured terms.
He completed a PhD in nuclear physics at Colorado State at 15 and stayed with NASA until 1978. Then, at 17, he decided to go home.
Two versions of the same decision
The press and Kim tell the return to Korea very differently. Switch between them.
Back in Korea his American credentials didn't transfer. He passed a high-school equivalency exam, studied civil engineering at Chungbuk National University and later earned a second PhD there.
He has said civil engineering appealed because its results are concrete and useful to the people around you — something theoretical physics rarely offers — and he does not see the move as a decline.
What he actually built a career on
The “failed genius” headline skips four decades of ordinary, productive work in civil engineering and regional planning.
A provincial public development company, where he worked for decades on planning and infrastructure projects.
On civil engineering and infrastructure topics, mostly in Korean journals.
Registered alongside his research and consulting work.
Part-time university teaching while working full time, plus adjunct posts at Chungbuk National University.
A full-time professorship — a goal he said he had held for years.
Vice president of Shinhan's regional development research institute.
The biggest misconception about me is that I gave up at NASA and came home to live a small life. I made an active choice for a different kind of work.
Timeline
Scroll sideways →What the 210 does and doesn't mean
It is a real result from a real test, best read as a measurement of its era. Ratio scores for very young, very precocious children produce extreme values that don't translate to today's adult deviation scale, where the WAIS-IV tops out around 160.
Sources
- Guinness Book of World Records (1980–1989 editions, “Highest IQ”)
- Colorado State University academic records (PhD, 1977)
- Chungbuk National University records (PhD, 1989)
- Shinhan University faculty profile
- Korea Herald interviews (2010, 2015)
- KBS documentary on Kim Ung-yong
- NASA personnel records, as cited in biographical summaries