SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — The Late Young Sup Chung, C.M., C.Q.—The Late Inhi Chung
October 21, 2026
Honourable senators, I rise today to pay tribute to a distinguished Canadian, scientist, educator, community pioneer and a man of deep faith, Dr. Young Sup Chung, who passed away on August 28, 2026, at the age of 89.
Born in Incheon in 1937, Dr. Chung lived through the hardships of the Korean War as a teenager, studying in tent classrooms in Busan. In 1955, carrying just $100 in his pocket and his father’s solemn charge to never forget his homeland, he embarked on a remarkable journey. Overcoming language barriers through sheer perseverance, he joined his brother Do Sup at Purdue University in Indiana, earning his biology degree in 1960.
Drawn eastward to Germany to join two close high school friends, he earned his doctorate in microbiology at Justus Liebig University Giessen, becoming its first Korean doctoral graduate.
It was there that he met Inhi Kim, the university’s first Korean female student. They married in 1965, embarking on 60 extraordinary years together, until her passing on September 5, 2025. She was his best friend and his true better half.
In 1969, en route to Yale, Dr. Chung was invited to speak at the Université de Montréal. Recognizing his brilliance, the university offered him the opportunity to build a new microbial genetics section, along with the position for his wife, in a city they instantly loved. He accepted, becoming the university’s first full-time professor of Korean heritage, while Dr. Inhi Chung went on to lead the nutrition department at the Lindsay convalescent hospital and to train McGill University interns.
Together, in 1978, they founded the Korean Language School of Greater Montreal, serving as co-principals, in rain or snow, for 45 years.
Dr. Chung’s scientific contributions achieved international recognition, particularly his pioneering discovery of how ozone alters the genes of E. coli bacteria and its link to DNA repair.
In 2001, he became the first Korean Canadian appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada and later became the first Asian Canadian named a Knight of the Ordre national du Québec.
Though a descendant of one of Korea’s early Catholic martyrs, Dr. Chung acknowledged that it was his wife’s unwavering faith that ultimately led him to Catholicism. Baptized in 1985, he attended daily mass and helped secure a permanent home for the Korean Catholic Mission. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI made them the first Korean couple invested into the Order of St. Gregory the Great.
Honourable senators, please join me in honouring the late Dr. Young Sup Chung and the late Inhi Chung and in extending our deepest condolences to their family. Thank you.
