Becoming an International Scientist in South Korea: Ho Wang Lee’s Research Activity about Epidemic Hemorrhagic Fever

• Main Author: Miyoung SHIN
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korean Society for the History of Medicine 2017-04-01
• Series: Uisahak
• Subjects: Ho Wang Lee; Epidemic Hemorrhagic Fever; Science latecomer; Karl Johnson; George French; WHO; WHO Collaborating Centre
• Online Access: http://www.medhist.or.kr/upload/pdf/kjmh-26-1-95.pdf

In the 1960-70s, South Korea was still in the position of a science latecomer. Although the scientific research environment in South Korea at that time was insufficient, there was a scientist who achieved outcomes that could be recognized internationally while acting in South Korea. He was Ho Wang Lee(1928~ ) who found Hantann Virus that causes epidemic hemorrhagic fever for the first time in the world. It became a clue to identify causative viruses of hemorrhagic diseases that were scattered here and there throughout the world. In addition, these outcomes put Ho Wang Lee on the global center of research into epidemic hemorrhagic fever. This paper examines how a Korean scientist who was in the periphery of virology could go into the central area of virology. Also this article shows the process through which the virus found by Ho Wang Lee was registered with the international academia and he proceeded with follow-up research based on this progress to reach the level at which he generalized epidemic hemorrhagic fever related studies throughout the world. While he was conducting the studies, experimental methods that he had never experienced encountered him as new difficulties. He tried to solve the new difficulties faced in his changed status through devices of cooperation and connection. Ho Wang Lee’s growth as a researcher can be seen as well as a view of a researcher that grew from a regional level to an international level and could advance from the area of non-mainstream into the mainstream. This analytic tool is meaningful in that it can be another method of examining the growth process of scientists in South Korea or developing countries.