Professor Won-Ki Cho from the Department of Biological Sciences has received the 2020 Suh Kyung-Bae Science Foundation (SUHF) Young Investigator Award. Professor Cho, along with Professor Soung-hun Roh from Seoul National University and Professor Joo-Hyeon Lee from the University of Cambridge, was chosen for his dedication and significant contributions to life science research.

The award was established by SUHF, a non-profit organization founded by Chairman and CEO Kyung-Bae Suh of the Amorepacific Group, the Korean beauty and cosmetics conglomerate. Chairman Suh personally donated 300 billion KRW in shares to build the organization in 2016. The foundation aims to provide a comprehensive long-term support system for young Korean scientists who are talented, passionate, and deeply invested in life sciences research. Three to five recipients are selected through an open recruiting process annually. The SUHF grants each recipient up to 2.5 billion KRW over a period of maximum five years.

The foundation assessed more than 60 research proposals from scientists, many of whom had less than five years of professorship experience, to choose the final three awardees.

Professor Cho’s proposed research outlined a method for observing the interactions between nuclear structures and constantly-changing chromatin monomers in four dimensions using ultra-high-resolution imaging of single living cells. The study hopes to give a better understanding into the transcription regulation process, which has been a long-studied topic in the field of biology without clear answers.

Since 2016, SUHF has awarded 17 scientists the Young Investigator Award and has provided over 42.5 billion KRW in funding to their proposed research projects. Previous KAIST recipients include Professor Inkyung Jung and Professor Ki-Jun Yoon from the Department of Biological Sciences, and Professor Young Seok Ju and Professor Jeong Ho Lee from the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering from 2017 to 2019.