A researcher who revealed the evolutionary principle of how water striders leap on the surface will receive the ‘1st Lee Byeong-hoon Evolutionary Science Award.’ The Lee Byeong-hoon Evolutionary Science Award was established for the first time this year to honor the achievements of Lee Byeong-hoon, an emeritus professor of life sciences at Jeonbuk National University and a pioneer in Korean evolutionary science. It is awarded annually to a young researcher who has made outstanding research achievements in the field of evolutionary science.
The Korean Evolutionary Science Society announced on the 13th that it will award the Lee Byeong-hoon Evolutionary Science Award to Kim Woo-joo, a postdoctoral researcher at Seoul National University, at the regular conference of the Korean Association of Biological Sciences (KSS) on the 17th.
Dr. Kim is a researcher with a unique background, having earned a Ph.D. in animal behavior after majoring in engineering. He has gained attention by scientifically elucidating how different species of water striders adapt to their environments in various ways according to their body size, integrating an engineering perspective with evolutionary science.
Dr. Kim has identified the principle of surface leaping for the giant water strider (scientific name Gigantometra gigas), which has legs that measure 10 cm and weighs 10 times that of an average water strider, publishing a paper in 2023 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that garnered attention in the academic community.
Previously, Dr. Kim conducted field research in Korea and Vietnam and revealed through computer simulations that water striders choose ‘engineeringly advantageous behavioral strategies’ based on their physical conditions. The research, involving scientists from Korea, Vietnam, and France, has also been published in the Royal Society Proceedings and Nature Physics.
The award named after him, Professor Lee Byeong-hoon, studied biology at Seoul National University and insect phylogenetics at Korea University. He has worked at institutions such as the National Museum of Natural History in France and the East-West Center in Hawaii. In Korea, he has contributed to expanding biodiversity research and evolutionary science by serving as president of the Korean Society of Animal Taxonomy, the Korean Entomological Society, and the Korean Biodiversity Consortium. He has authored books such as ‘The War of Genes’ and ‘Natural History Museums and Biodiversity’ and has translated Edward Wilson’s works ‘Sociobiology’ and ‘Naturalist.’
He stated, ‘It is a great honor to have an award named after me, reflecting the wonder I felt when I first encountered the field of evolutionary biology and the pride I have in being a pioneer in this area in my country.’
Kim Yoo-seob, president of the Korean Evolutionary Science Society (professor at Ewha Womans University in the Department of Life Sciences and Eco-science), said, ‘While research to scientifically clarify the evolutionary processes of organisms has become active worldwide due to recent advancements in genomic sequencing technologies, our country still lacks related research personnel and infrastructure. We hope that the establishment of the Lee Byeong-hoon Evolutionary Science Award will further invigorate evolutionary research in Korea.’