Ho-am prize rewards 6 for service

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, third from left in the front row, poses for a photo with Ho-am Prize winners at a ceremony at the Ho-am Art Hall in central Seoul on Wednesday. [CHOI JEONG-DONG]

The Ho-am Foundation, part of Samsung Group, awarded on Tuesday prizes to six people in recognition of their contribution in a variety of fields including science, medicine, art and community service.

The currently bedridden Samsung chairman, Lee Kun-hee, established the Ho-am Awards in 1990 to honor the emphasis on corporate social responsibility promoted by his father, Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull, whose nickname was Hoam.

This year’s awardees are: Kim Myung-shik, professor at Imperial College London, in science; Oh Jun-ho, professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, in engineering; Larry W. Kwak, Friedman endowed professor at the City of Hope National Medical Center, in medicine; Hwang Tong-gyu, poet and professor emeritus at Seoul National University, in the arts; and Kim Hyun-soo and Cho Soon-sil, co-directors of Wahaha Community and a married couple, in community service.

The award, now in its 26th year, has been given to 133 people. Each awardee is given 300 million won ($250,000) in cash and a medal made of pure gold.

Samsung’s heir-apparent, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, hosted the ceremony at the Ho-am Art Hall in central Seoul for the second year. At the end of the event, the awardees, their families and hundreds of Samsung employees watched a concert by world-renowned Korean classical musicians, including Cho Sung-jin, winner of the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun@joongang.co.kr]