By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Disgraced gene scientist Hwang Woo-suk has been a pariah in the science world since his landmark studies on cloned human stem cells were exposed as fraudulent.
So it's hard to say what the organizers of the Jang Young Shil Award of Science, Technology and Culture were thinking when they decided that Hwang was the most deserving candidate for this year's plaque.
It was an obviously bold, if unwise, decision to name Hwang the winner of the award, which was launched in 1999 to honor Jang, the legendary Joseon Kingdom inventor.
However, Hwang was unable to participate in the awards ceremony at the Press Center in downtown Seoul, due to a previously scheduled court appearance.
At the Seoul Central District Court, Hwang was reunited with five of his former laboratory colleagues, as they continued their game of finger-pointing over who should take most of the blame for faking data.
Hwang is facing criminal charges for violating the country's bioethics law and embezzling government funds he received for research.
``We know that Hwang is involved in litigation, but we concluded that he deserves credit for his pioneering work in stem cell research and dog cloning,'' said a member of the Jang Young Shil Award's organizing committee.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology was quick to make it clear that the government had nothing to do with Hwang's recent triumph. The ministry also manages an annual award named after the Joseon scientist for recognizing industrial achievements, and was sending news releases to reporters to remind them that these were two different awards.
Hwang, then as a Seoul National University (SNU) researcher, achieved rare rock star status as a scientist in 2004, when his research team claimed it had successfully cloned a human embryo and produced stem cells from it, a technique they said could open new opportunities to provide cures for a range of diseases. The following year, Hwang's team claimed to have created patient-specific stem cells from cloned embryos, then regarded as an even greater achievement.
But Hwang's reputation was left in tatters after an SNU panel exposed both studies as fraudulent the following year, which led to his dismissal from the school. Since then, Hwang has been conducting his own research at the Sooam Biotech Research Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.
Last month, Sooam researchers claimed they created cloned pig embryos and used them to make embryonic stem-cell lines for the first time.