Yu Myeong-Hee (born 5 September 1954) is a South Korean microbiologist, currently serving as the president of Korea Federation of Women's Science & Technology Associations ^[2] and a principle researcher at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. In July 2010, under President Lee Myung-bak, she was appointed as an inaugural Chief Secretary to the Future Strategy Planning Office, and served until February 2013. ^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}

Early life and education

Yu was born in Seoul. ^[7] She realized that she was interested in science and technology when she was in middle school. ^[8] Yu earned her Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology from Seoul National University in 1977 and her doctorate in microbiology from University of California, Berkeley in 1982. ^{[6] [7]} She later worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1985. ^[7]

Career

Scientific research

After moving back to Korea, Yu worked at Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology until 2000. ^[7] After that, she has been working at Korea Institute of Science and Technology, holding a position of a principle research scientist. ^[7] Much of Yu's work has focused on unlocking the structure and folding of the protein alpha-1 antitrypsin, which is a serpin protein. ^[9] Yu and her research team have worked to discover what amino acids can suppress certain types of mutations, such as the tsf mutation which is a protein folding error. ^[10] She has also patented the alpha-1 antitrypsin mutein with a disulfide bond and the method for preparing it along with her research group. ^[11]

Her work has appeared in Nature, ^[12] The Journal of Proteome Research, ^[13] the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, ^[14] the Journal of Molecular Biology, ^[15] the Journal of Biological Chemistry, ^[16] the BMB Reports, ^[17] and others. Her work is highly cited in the fields of biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, immunology and microbiology. ^[18]

Public work

Yu served as the Director of the Functional Proteomics Center, a part of the 21st Century Frontier R&D Program, at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology from July 2002 to July 2010. ^{[6] [7] [19]} In 2010, she was appointed to a new post in the South Korean government: senior officer for national future. ^[19] Her responsibilities included overseeing government communications regarding science and technology and to help promote low-carbon and green technologies. ^[20] She also served as the president of the Korean Biophysical Society from 2009 to 2010, and the president of the Korea Genome Organization in 2010. ^{[21] [22]}

Awards and recognition

• Mock-Am Award from the Korean Society of Molecular Biology (1996) ^{[7] [23]}
• L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (1998) ^{[9] [23]}
• The Seoul City Cultural Award (2001) ^{[6] [7] [23]}
• The Order of Science and Technology and the Ungbi Medal, from the Korean Government (2004) ^{[7] [23]}

References