Press Releases
POSCO TJ Park Foundation
Press Releases
Winners of 2022 POSCO TJ Park Award, Nam Ki-tae professor of Seoul National University, etc.
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- Science Award: Nam Ki-tae, Professor, Department of Materials Engineering, Seoul National University, Education Award: Yoo Hae-geun, president of Mongolian School in Korea, Service Award: Jo Jin-kyung, Representative of the Center for Teenage Women's Rights, Technology Award: Cha Ki-cheol, CEO of InBody Co., Ltd.
- The awards ceremony will be held in POSCO Center in April
The POSCO TJ Park Foundation (Chairman Kim Sun-wook) held a board meeting on 21 January and selected the winners of this year's POSCO TJ Park Award as follows. Science Award: Nam Ki-tae, Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Education Award: Yoo Hae-geun, president of Mongolian School in Korea, Service Award: Jo Jin-kyung, Representative of the Center for Teenage Women's Rights, Technology Award: Cha Ki-cheol, CEO of InBody Co., Ltd.
The winner of the Science Award, Nam Ki-tae Professor of Materials Engineering at Seoul National University, who is a world-class scientist who is leading the global academia in the field of ‘bio-mimetic materials engineering’. In 2018, for the first time in the world, it succeeded in artificially realizing a ‘Chiral’ structure that exists only in the natural world on metal. This achievement has led to the publication successively of ‘Nature’ and ‘Science’, the world's top journal for the possibility of developing environmentally friendly new materials that mimic plant photosynthesis, which is expected to play an important role in CO2 reduction technology, and is noted as one of the most influential researchers in the field of new materials and materials engineering.
The winner of the Education Award, Yoo Hae-geun, president of the Mongolian School in Korea, witnessed that children of surrounding Mongolian migrant families do not attend the country's general public school and are left unattended in the educational blind spot while he is working as a pastor, and established Mongolian School in Korea in 1999 to create an educational environment where Mongolian students can grow up to be a steady member of society. For the next 23 years, Mongolian students living in Korea have achieved great results by conducting Korean language education and talent development education, and presenting a new educational model for migrant background children and adolescents who need it in a multicultural age.
The winner of the Service Award, Jo Jin-kyung, Representative of the Center for Teenage Women's Rights, is a female social activist who has been dedicated to eradicating trafficking in women and supporting the self-sustained for victims of sexual exploitation for over 20 years.
Through activities that call for changing our society's perception of prostitution, enacting laws for the protection of victims, proposing related policies, and establishing support systems, we have made a key contribution to the process of becoming known in the world and revising the Law on the Protection of Children and Adolescents in 2020, including the enactment of the Special Act on Prostitution in 2004.
In 2012, it established the ‘Teenage Women's Rights Center’, the first child support organization in the country, to develop integrated support for victims of sexual exploitation.
The winner of the Technology Award, Cha Ki-cheol, CEO of InBody Co., Ltd., is the first person in the world to develop and popularize a body composition analyzer that applies site-specific measurement methods. The ‘InBody’ body composition analyzer measures the amount of moisture in the body just by holding the handle, and based on this, an innovative technology was applied to analyze detailed body components such as muscle mass, fat mass, and visceral fat level. He was highly regarded for being a ‘first mover’ who spent his entire life developing body component measurement technology from his graduate year at KAIST, developing new customers and markets around the world, and growing the company into a strong company.
The POSCO TJ Park Foundation has established the POSCO TJ Park Award in 2006 to contribute to national development by spreading public interest and participation in the creative, talent development, sacrifice and service spirit of the POSCO Entrepreneurship Ideology, leading to the realization of ‘corporate citizenship that develops together’.
The POSCO TJ Park Prize awards four categories of science, education, service and technology, each with a prize of 200 million KRW. The Science Prize is awarded to a Korean scientist who has made creative achievements in natural science and engineering while building on activities in Korea, thereby increasing the status of the country and contributing to the advancement of science and technology. The Education Award is awarded to individuals or organizations that systematically implement creative educational programs and spread them throughout the education world, while the Service Award is presented to individuals or organizations who devotedly practice love and sharing to improve the quality of life in human society. In connection with the Asia Fellowship, the award qualifications are extended to the Asian region. The Technical Award is awarded to personnel who have directly developed and commercialized world-class technology in their respective fields and have contributed to the development of the national industry.
The 2022 POSCO TJ Park Award ceremony will be held in April at the POSCO Center in Seoul. In the aftereffect of COVID-19, the award ceremony will be drastically cut back compared to the previous year, however, the entire ceremony will be broadcasted live through the YouTube channel of POSCO TJ Park Foundation.