Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Nanomedicine pioneer Cheon Jin-woo named Korea’s top scientist of 2026
Cheon Jin-woo, Underwood Distinguished Professor at Yonsei University, speaks during a press conference at Government Complex Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
By Nam Hyun-woo
Cheon Jin-woo, a professor at Yonsei University widely regarded as 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 announced Monday that Cheon, a distinguished professor and founding director of the Institute for Basic Science Center for Nanomedicine at the university, was selected as this year’s award winner.
Cheon was recognized for pioneering the field of nanomedicine by integrating nanochemistry with biotechnology to develop novel medical approaches for disease diagnosis, cell therapy and neural circuit modulation.
Nanomedicine is increasingly being applied beyond disease diagnosis and drug delivery, with researchers exploring its potential in brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and other areas of neuroscience.
Cheon developed magnetogenetics technologies to demonstrate that the neuronal activity of living animals can be wirelessly and remotely controlled using magnetic fields. This has addressed longstanding challenges in BCI research, introducing a new therapeutic paradigm for safely controlling specific neural circuits without surgery. The findings were published 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 said.
“Nanoscience is both the foundation and an enabler for advanced industries. Its first wave has already laid the groundwork for the semiconductor industry. I believe the next, even a bigger wave, will be a revolution in medicine, with nanomedicine at its center."
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.