Korean innovation chief forced out after four days

Global Government Forum 19 August 2017

The new head of South Korea’s innovation office has resigned just four days after being appointed, after 288 professors at Seoul National University signed a statement demanding her resignation amid public outrage over her alleged role in a scientific fraud scandal, writes Liz Heron for Global Government Forum.

Park Ky-young, who stepped down as chief of the Science, Technology and Innovation Office on 11 August, is a former biology professor at Sunchon National University. She was appointed on 7 August by South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, to spearhead a drive to boost technological innovation in the country.

But the appointment provoked an outcry from scientists and opposition politicians over Park’s link to the 2005 scandal in which leading stem-cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk was accused of using fabricated data and embezzling research funds.
Full report on the Global Government Forum site

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