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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The South Korean government on Friday named cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk as the nation's "top scientist," an honor that will grant him as much as 3 billion won ($3 million) in annual funding for five years.
A 10-member committee gave Hwang the nation's first-ever such title "highly evaluating his works that have provided a technology which opens a biotechnology revolution in the 21st century," the Ministry of Science and Technology said in a statement.
Last month, Hwang and his colleagues at Seoul National University created the first embryonic stem cells that genetically match injured or sick patients — a major step in the quest to grow replacement tissues to treat diseases. A year ago, Hwang's team created the world's first cloned human embryos.
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