Professor Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of Grameen Bank, which pioneered microcredit to empower the poor. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Vanderbilt University and served as Professor of Economics at Chittagong University. His model of providing small loans without collateral revolutionized poverty alleviation and inspired global replication. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, he has also served in various UN advisory roles and continues to advocate for social business and economic justice worldwide.
Joan S. Valentine is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA and served as Visiting Professor of Bio-inspired Science at Ewha Womans University. She earned her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Princeton University and has made pioneering contributions to the study of metal ions in biological oxidation and antioxidant systems. Her lab is renowned for its work on copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD), including its link to familial ALS. A member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, she has received numerous honors including the Glenn T. Seaborg Medal and the ACS Alfred Bader Award in Bioinorganic Chemistry.
Tu Weiming is the Harvard-Yenching Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy and of Confucian Studies at Harvard University. A leading New Confucian thinker, he has taught at Princeton, UC Berkeley, Peking University, Taiwan University, and École des Hautes Études in Paris. He served as Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute and was invited by the United Nations as a member of the Group of Eminent Persons for the Dialogue among Civilizations. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Tu is renowned for his scholarship on Confucian humanism and its modern transformation in East Asia and the global context.
George F. Smoot is a Professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics. He is renowned for his work with the COBE satellite, which revealed anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation, providing empirical support for the Big Bang theory. This landmark achievement helped establish cosmology as a precision science. He has also served as Chair Professor of Physics at Ewha Womans University in Korea.
J. M. G. Le Clézio is a French writer and the 2008 Nobel Laureate in Literature. Gaining early acclaim with his debut novel Le Procès-Verbal, he became known for experimental works exploring themes of language, madness, and exile. His later writings shifted to lyrical explorations of nature, travel, and memory, with major works including Désert, Wandering Star, and Onitsha. He taught at universities worldwide and served as a distinguished fellow at Ewha Womans University in 2009.
Professor Robert H. Grubbs was the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry at Caltech and a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (2005). He was globally recognized for his pioneering work on olefin metathesis and the development of ruthenium-based catalysts widely used in organic and polymer synthesis. A member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, he authored over 400 publications and held more than 80 patents. He served as a Distinguished Fellow of the Ewha Academy for Advanced Studies since 2007.
Dr. Jane Goodall is a world-renowned primatologist and conservationist best known for her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania. Her discoveries about tool use, social bonds, and emotions in chimpanzees reshaped scientific understanding of animals. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977, promoting wildlife conservation, education, and sustainable development. A UN Messenger of Peace and Dame Commander of the British Empire, Dr. Goodall continues to advocate globally for the environment, animals, and youth empowerment through her Roots & Shoots program.
Peter Goddard is a distinguished mathematical physicist and former Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, where he also served as Professor and Master of St. John’s College. Renowned for pioneering work in string theory and conformal field theory, he played a key role in establishing the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences. He received the Dirac Prize in 1997 and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2002. Goddard has also been active in outreach efforts for mathematics education in underserved communities.
Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a resident fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. He holds a B.A. in Classics from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University. He has served in key roles at the RAND Corporation, U.S. State Department, SAIS at Johns Hopkins University, and George Mason University. Fukuyama is widely known for his influential book The End of History and the Last Man (1992), and has authored numerous works on democracy, political order, and international political economy. He has served on the President’s Council on Bioethics and the board of the RAND Corporation, and is Editor-in-Chief of The American Interest.
Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell, DBE, FRS, FRAS, is a British astrophysicist best known for discovering radio pulsars during her Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge. She earned her B.S. in Physics from the University of Glasgow and a Ph.D. from Cambridge (New Hall). She has held professorships at the Open University, Princeton University, and the University of Oxford, where she served as Visiting Professor of Astrophysics and Professorial Fellow at Mansfield College. Her research has spanned gamma-ray, X-ray, and infrared astronomy across institutions including the Royal Observatory Edinburgh and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii. A former President of both the Royal Astronomical Society and the Institute of Physics, she has been widely honored, including being appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Her research interests include neutron stars, microquasars, and gamma-ray bursts.
Professor Jin-Ho Choy earned his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Yonsei University, a Ph.D. in Materials Science from Tokyo Institute of Technology, a diplom in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from UNESCO International Postgraduate Program, and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He served as Professor of Chemistry at Seoul National University and Distinguished Chair Professor at Ewha Womans University. A lifetime member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, he also led the Intelligent Nanobio Materials Research Center (SRC). He has received numerous awards, including the Korea Science Award, the Order of Science and Technology (Changjo Medal), and the Korea’s Top Scientist Award. His research focuses on hybrid nanomaterials, anisotropic oxides, and superconducting materials.
Professor Jae Chon Choe received his B.Sc. in Zoology from Seoul National University, M.Sc. in Ecology from Penn State University, and Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University. He has held faculty positions at Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and Seoul National University, and served as Distinguished Chair Professor at Ewha Womans University. A global authority in sociobiology and behavioral ecology, he is the author of numerous publications including The Ant Empire. He has served as editor for international journals and co-representative of major environmental organizations in Korea. His accolades include the Korean Science Culture Award and the National Medal for Science and Technology Promotion.
Dr. Seo Goo Lee earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from The Catholic University of America after completing his B.Sc. at Seoul National University. He led research on signal transduction and reactive oxygen species at the NIH's NHLBI and later served as a Distinguished Chair Professor at Ewha Womans University. He has published extensively in Science, Nature, and Cell, and received major awards including the Ho-Am Prize and the NIH Director’s Award. His work advanced understanding of oxidative signaling in diseases such as cancer and aging.
