Cheon Jin-woo, Underwood Distinguished Professor at Yonsei University, speaks throughout a press convention at Government Complex Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
Cheon Jin-woo, a professor at Yonsei University broadly thought to be Korea’s pioneer in nanomedicine, has been named the winner of the 2026 Top Scientist and Technologist Award of Korea, the nation’s highest honor for scientists and engineers.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies introduced Monday that Cheon, a distinguished professor and founding director of the Institute for Basic Science Center for Nanomedicine on the college, was chosen as this yr’s award winner.
Cheon was acknowledged for pioneering the sphere of nanomedicine by integrating nanochemistry with biotechnology to develop novel medical approaches for illness prognosis, cell remedy and neural circuit modulation.
Nanomedicine is more and more being utilized past illness prognosis and drug supply, with researchers exploring its potential in brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and different areas of neuroscience.
Cheon developed magnetogenetics applied sciences to show that the neuronal exercise of dwelling animals may be wirelessly and remotely managed utilizing magnetic fields. This has addressed longstanding challenges in BCI analysis, introducing a brand new therapeutic paradigm for safely controlling particular neural circuits with out surgical procedure. The findings have been printed in Nature Materials in 2021 and Nature Nanotechnology in 2024.
“As a first-generation researcher who introduced nanoscience into medicine, I believe this award recognizes not only my research in nanoscience since the late 1990s but also my efforts to expand and integrate it into the field of nanomedicine,” Cheon stated.
“Nanoscience is each the inspiration and an enabler for superior industries. Its first wave has already laid the groundwork for the semiconductor business. I consider the subsequent, even an even bigger wave, will probably be a revolution in drugs, with nanomedicine at its middle.”
In 2015, Cheon founded the IBS Center for Nanomedicine, a research center under the Institute for Basic Science, which was established under a special presidential act to promote basic science research.
Last year, Cheon also played a pivotal role in bringing the Max Planck-Yonsei IBS Center for Nanomedicine Deep Tissue Control to Korea. The Max Planck Society, founded in 1948 to advance basic research, is one of the world’s leading scientific organizations and has produced 39 Nobel laureates.
The science ministry will hold an awarding ceremony during the 2026 World Congress of Korean Scientists and Engineers on Tuesday, present Cheon a presidential citation and a 300 million won ($196,000) cash prize.