Giants in History: Seung-Yull Cho

Korean parasitologist Seung-Yull Cho (16 November 1943 – 27 January 2019) is remembered largely for his pioneering works to control infections caused by helminthic parasites and his contribution to journal publishing. The soil-transmitted nematodes such as Ascaris, hookworm, and Trichuris were commonplace in Korea when Cho was a student. Trained as a scientist at Seoul National University’s Department of Parasitology, Cho later became professor of parasitology at institutions including Seoul National University, Chung-Ang University, the Catholic University of Korea, and Sungkyunkwan University. Besides developing methods of infection control, Cho improved the diagnosis of these life-threatening, foodborne parasitic infections by developing means to detect antibodies produced by the host when infected by the pork tapeworm, the Japanese lung fluke, and the sparganum tapeworm. The multi-antigen ELISA system developed by him is still working as a standard diagnosis of tissue parasitic helminthiases in Korea.  A prolific scientist with a lifelong devotion to advancing medical science in Korea, Cho published approximately 300 papers on parasitology in scientific journals, and served as President of the Korean Society for Parasitology and of Korea’s National Academy of Medicine. In addition to his work on parasites, Cho made huge contributions to medical publishing in Korea. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Korean Medical Science from 1997 to 2006. With other editors of Korean medical journals, Cho founded the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors in 1996, providing a firm foundation for the publication of medical journals in Korea. He served as President of the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors from 2002 to 2005. He is a leader of research and publishing of medical science in Korea. (Photo courtesy of Journal of Korean Medical Science)