by REERA YOO
Thomson Reuters, a multinational media and information firm, announced its 2014 Nobel Prize predictions earlier today and named two Koreans as top contenders to win Nobel Prizes next month.
Among its list of 27 researchers, the intellectual property and science unit of Thomson Reuters included Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) professor Ryoo Ryong and Korean Canadian Charles Lee as potential laureates in the fields of medicine and chemistry.
Ryoo Ryong, 59, the director of the Center for Nanomaterials and Chemical Reactions at the Institute for Basic Science based in Daejoen, was listed as a potential laureate in the field of chemistry. He was named alongside Charles T. Kresge and Galen D. Stucky for “the design of functional mesoporous materials, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.”
Ryoo Ryong (Photo courtesy of Yonhap and KBS World Radio)
Charles Lee, 45, professor and director at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, was nominated as a Nobel laureate contender for physiology or medicine. He was named alongside Michael H. Wigler and Stephen W. Scherer for “the discovery of large-scale copy number variation and its association with specific diseases.”
Charles Lee (Photo Courtesy of Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard University News Office)
According to Korea Joonang Daily, this is the first time a Korean researcher has ever made the cut on the annual Thomson Reuters’ list of predictions. South Korea’s only Nobel laureate is former President Kim Dae-Jung, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000.
“This is like receiving official recognition from the international community that Korean scientists, too, have reached the Nobel Prize level,” Ryoo told Joongang Daily. “Whether I actually receive the prize or not, I think this will help our society escape from its ‘Nobel Prize inferiority complex.'”
Since 2002, Thomas Reuters has accurately predicted 35 Nobel laureates, including nine who won in the year of the forecast and 16 who won within two years.
The 2014 Nobel Prize in medicine will be announced on Oct. 6 in Stockholm, and chemistry on Oct. 8.
