Website of the Royal Society presenting Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee as a Foreign member.

This year, Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee received two honorary awards, the Charles D. Scott Award and the Pony Chung Innovation Award, and has been elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in the UK.

The 2021 Charles D. Scott Award is bestowed by the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, USA, and Prof. Lee is the first Asian researcher to receive this award. The Charles D. Scott Award, initiated in 1995, recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to advancing biotechnology to produce fuels and chemicals. The award is named in honor of Dr. Charles D. Scott, who founded the Symposium on Biomaterials, Fuels, and Chemicals. Meanwhile, the Innovation Award by the Pony Chung Foundation was established to honor the late Se-yung Chung, the former chairman of Hyundai Development Company. Chairman Chung developed Korea’s first domestically manufactured automobile, ‘Pony,’ in the mid-1970s that became the cornerstone of Korea’s auto industry today.

On May 6, the Royal Society in the UK announced a list of distinguished new 52 fellows and 10 foreign members who achieved exceptional contributions to science. Prof. Lee is the first Korean member to be ever elected as a Foreign member along with Prof. V. Narry Kim from Seoul National University. The Royal Society, established in 1660, is one of the most prestigious national science academies around the world, and has a fellowship of 1,600 of the world’s most eminent scientists. From Newton to Darwin, Einstein, Hawking, and beyond, pioneers and paragons in their fields are elected by their peers. To date, 280 Nobel prize winners have been elected as the fellows of the Society.