SungWon Kwak

SungWon Kwak’s Homepage

(Last updated in Sept. 2026)

Hi, I’m an astrophysicist at Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam in Germany. I mainly use numerical simulations to understand the formation and evolution of galaxies and their substructures. Currently, I’m leading the SMUGGLE-Ring project (press release), which aims to investigate the formation and evolution of nuclear disk, nuclear ring and nuclear star cluster in barred galaxies.

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ORCID: 0000-0003-0957-6201

Short Bio

Before coming to Potsdam in Germany, I had lived in many cities around the world. I was born in Daejeon, South Korea, and my family moved to Seoul when I was 10. After finishing middle school in Seoul, I went to the USA alone to study abroad. I went to a high school in Las Vegas for one semester and then transferred to The Storm King School in New York, where I graduated. I started my undergraduate studies as an engineering major, but later became more interested in the universe, so I ended up completing a double major in astronomy and physics at the University of Washington, Seattle. After spending one semester in Geneva, Switzerland (St.Genis, France) as an intern at CERN, I received an M.S. in Astronomy from Seoul National University and spent three years completing mandatory military service in Daejeon, Korea. I did my Ph.D. studies in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Rome, Italy during the pandemic, and the dissertation was completed in March 2023.

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