Korea makes big push for Nobel

In Lee Yong-hee’s career as a researcher, he’s come to be known as “the light trainer” because of his ability to control light particles.
This week, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources and the Korea Research Foundation selected Lee, 52, as one of the country’s 15 top scholars.
The government considers the work of this elite group of scientists as being worthy of full funding.
The government will write these researchers checks for several years in hopes of producing the first Korean Nobel prize in the arts or sciences.
Lee, a physicist and professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, developed the world’s first electrically driven single-cell photonic crystal laser.
Science magazine published his study.
“Once we can use light at our whim, it will be a much better source than electrons because it can store more information much faster,” Lee said.
In 2005 the Ministry of Education and Human Resources and the foundation began to compile a list of academics from Korean institutions to be considered for funding.
The government’s top criteria in selecting researchers in the hard sciences is the number of times their published studies have been cited by peers.
Researchers in the hard sciences will receive up to 2 billion won ($2.13 million) per year for up to 10 years.
Those in the arts and social sciences will receive 30 million won every year for up to five years.

By Park Bang-ju, Yang Young-yu JoongAng Ilbo [enational@joongang.co.kr]