From country boy to world-class scientist

Seo Dong-chul Ryoo Ryong has come home. After beginning his career as a student at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), he now directs the institute's Centre for Functional Nanomaterials and is a distinguished professor of chemistry there. His research at KAIST has been in nano microporous materials, that is, materials with tiny holes through which molecules can pass. Nano microporous materials play a key role in chemical processes. Zeolite, for example, is a type of mineral that is microporous and it is used as a catalyst in gasoline production. Ryoo's team discovered a method of directing the growth of zeolite, and they were able to grow ultra thin zeolite sheets that were only two nanometres thick. A nanometre is one-billionth of a metre. "My research is to synthesise materials packed with tiny nanometre level holes," Ryoo explains. "Nano microporous materials are used as an absorbent to separate certain materials - as gases prefer sticking to surfaces flying in the air - or as a catalyst to promote chemical reactions." He adds, "Even though people have used such nano microporous materials before, my job is to make holes dense and systematic." The thinness of the zeolite sheets Ryoo has created allows reactant molecules to easily enter the tiny holes in the mineral and allows product molecules to get out quickly. This increases efficiency of microporous materials and increases their lifespan. Ryoo's creation has been hailed as environmentally friendly and cost saving for the petrochemical industry. This year, both UNESCO and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) honoured Ryoo for his work. They selected him as one of the world's 100 best chemists in a rigorous evaluation of research theses published by chemists over the last decade. Only one other Korean scientist Hyun Taek hwan, professor of biochemical engineering at Seoul National University was selected for the honour. "I found out that I was selected as one of the top 100 chemists while reading a newspaper," Ryoo says. "My total theses amount to about 200 and I have been quoted about 13,000 times. I feel proud about that because I think that I contributed to enhancing the status of the Korean science world as my research results were quoted in countries around the world, and I was invited to deliver lectures at chemical academic meetings. But I don't have a big interest in it. My calling is to study, research and teach students." In addition to the UNESCOIUPAC award, Ryoo won the Research of Future Award at the American Chemical Society Symposium on Nanotechnology in Catalysis in 2001, the Academic Award from the Korean Chemical Society in 2002, and the Top Scientist Award from the Korean government in 2005. In 2007, the Korean government designated Ryoo as a national honour scientist. Last year, Ryoo became the first Korean to win the Breck Award administered by the International Zeolite Association, for his contribution to zeolite research. Humble beginnings Ryoo grew up in Maebong myeon, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi do Province. While the town is part of the Seoul metropolitan area today, it was quite rural when Ryoo was a child. The poor electric supply there meant that Ryoo studied by candlelight. But he didn't let that stand in the way of his learning. Ryoo crafted high performance lanterns using steel bottle caps, pipes and wicks so he could study long into the night. "When I was young, I liked to make things and tease my brain," Ryoo recalls. "As I lived in a rural town with almost nothing, I had to make everything. I made toys suck as a slingshot and even a chair and a desk for myself. One of my hobbies was to observe nature and, in particular, I liked birds. By the age of 5, I knew what birds ate, where they built nests, how many eggs birds laid and how long it would take for the eggs to hatch. Even now, I can tell the species of a bird just by seeing it fly." Ryoo was an outstanding student and won honour prizes in elementary and high school. When it came to go to college, though, he was torn on what to study. While he was interested in the natural sciences like chemistry and biology, most top students at the time went to law school, to be a lawyer. His family pushed for him to study engineering, not science, so that he could get a good job after graduating. And in the end, he decided to go to an engineering college to follow his family's wish. "I entered Seoul National University in 1973, the best university with the smartest students in Korea at that time,"' Ryoo says. "But I did not imagine becoming a scientist in the future. As my family was poor, the first thing was to make money after graduation. I did not even think about going to graduate school. At that time, graduate students had a lot of trouble paying for their tuition and even buying research materials. Now graduate schools receive a lot of financial support, but at that time, it was hard for students to study at graduate schools unless their families were rich." But opportunity had knocked. In 1971, the Korean government founded KAIST to develop high quality scientific and technological human resources to support industrialisation while implementing its economic development plan. KAIST was a dream come true for Ryoo as students of KAIST did not need to pay tuition, could receive stipends every month and were exempt from military service. After graduation, Ryoo entered KAIST without hesitation. Ryoo obtained a master's degree in chemistry, a field he had always wanted to study. He went on to get a PhD at Stanford University in the United States, and then returned to Korea in 1986 to teach at his former graduate school. "It was in 1977 that I entered KAIST. If KAIST had not been founded at that time, I would be an ordinary salaried employee today," Ryoo says. "I think that the establishment of KAIST was quite a significant part of the government's science and technology promotion policies during Korea's economic development. As the nation spared no efforts to support, truly excellent scientists could be born in Korea."