Professor Kim Soo-bong at Seoul National University's Department of Physics has won the prestigious Bruno Pontecorvo Prize for 2016. 
 
He is the first South Korean recipient of the honor which is awarded to distinguished talent in particle physics by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research(JINR) in Russia. 
 
The award ceremony was held Tuesday during the September 2017 Scientific Council session of the institute which is located in the suburbs of Moscow.
 
The prize is shared by Professor Koichiro Nishikawa of Japan and Professor Yifang Wang of China. 
 
Launched in 1995, the prize commemorates Professor Bruno Pontecorvo, a pioneering neutrino physicist who worked for many decades at the Russian institute. 
 
Professor Kim is known for the RENO experiment which is short for Reactor Experiment for Neutrino Oscillations. 
 
Neutrinos are similar to electrons, with one crucial difference as neutrinos do not carry electric charge. They are known to hold the key to the origin of the universe. Neutrinos are produced in the sun but can also be mass-produced through reactors.