Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo-suk

Korean scientists and doctors picked Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo-suk as the nation most viable Nobel Prize candidate, according to a survey by a government agency. The Korea Science Foundation (KSF) on Monday revealed the results of its recent poll on who will be Korea first scientist to win the Nobel Prize. The KSF asked 463 scientists, doctors and researchers to name the country leading contenders in three Nobel Prize segments _ physiology or medicine, physics and chemistry. Stem cell scientist Hwang received the most ballots overall as 127 out of 363 respondents chose him as the strongest candidate for the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Professor Kim Sung-ho of the University of California came in at second with 43 votes, followed by Professor Je Jeong-ho of Pohang University of Science and Technology with 18 ballots. Proponents of Hwang said they selected the 51-year-old professor because his therapeutic cloning research had a good shot of being put to practical use. Hwang basked in global fame early last year after he cloned a human embryo and established stem cell lines from it for the first time in history. The medical breakthrough caught the world by surprise since back then the consensus was that it was impossible to harvest stem cells through cloning human somatic cells. "I am happy with the survey, which acknowledges our research. I think Koreans will be able to receive a Nobel Prize within 10 years," Hwang said. For the Nobel physics and chemistry awards, Professor Cho Zang-hee at the Gachon Medical School and Harvard professor Park Hong-keun topped the list with 32 and 36 votes, respectively. Former president Kim Dae-jung was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his efforts to reconcile the two Koreas after the historic South-North summit in that year. However, the nation scientists have yet to win the prestigious honor.