Professor Yeom Han Woong of the IBS Center for Artificial Low Dimensional Electronic Systems received the Korea Science Award today, on December 22nd, at the Korea Press Center in Seoul.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Korea Science Award. Three winners have been selected every two years since its inception in 1987. The winners receive prize money totaling 50 million KRW.

This award is presented by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the National Research Foundation of Korea to promote basic science research in Korea and encourage creative and innovative R&D activities. It recognizes scientists who produced outstanding research achievements by identifying the fundamental principles of natural science.

photo. Director YEOM Han Woong. Center for Artificial Low Dimensional Electronic Systems

Professor Yeom is a distinguished scientist in the field of physics. He received his Ph.D. in 1996 from the prestigious Tohoku University in Japan. He relocated to Korea and gained full professorship at POSTECH in 2000. A research team led by Professor Yeom recently observed the existence of chiral solitons on indium atonic wires. Chiral solitons are topological edge states in one-dimensional atomic chains that store and release a single electron. This discovery is expected to have future implications for developing single-electron information storage devices.

IBS has an illustrious history with the Korea Science Award. Five directors have previously won the award. Director Kimoon Kim of the Center for Self-assembly and Complexity won the 8th Award in 2001, and Director Tae Won Noh of the Center for Correlated Electron Systems received the 9th edition of the award in 2003. Director Hong Gil Nam of the Center for Plant Aging Research won the 10th Award in 2006. Kiwoon Choi of the Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe received the 13th Award in 2011, and the most recent recipient, Director Sukbok Chang of the Center for Catalytic Hydrocarbon Functionalizations won the 14th edition of the award in 2013.