"장애도 멈추지 못한 과학의 열정"...한국의 스티븐 호킹 이상묵 교수<br /><br />Accidents can lead to permanent disabilities that make everyday life almost impossible.<br />However, a life-changing accident hasn't stopped Professor Lee Sang-mook from sharing his passion for Earth sciences.<br />Park Se-young has more.<br />A professor in an electric wheelchair is presiding over a research conference.<br />He moves the computer mouse using his breath and writes his thesis through voice recognition.<br /> “There are unsolved mysteries of the Earth’s interior. One of them is how the earth’s oceanic crust is created and evolves back to extinction 200 million years later.”<br />Professor Lee Sang-mook began his career as a marine scientist at the recommendation of his father.<br />He worked as a researcher from 1998 and has also been a professor at Seoul National University since 2003.<br />But in 2006, while on a field trip in the U.S. with his students, the professor was critically injured in a road accident and became quadriplegic.<br />The injury left him paralyzed from the neck down but he returned to school in an electric wheelchair.<br /> “A scientist is a person who always thinks and tries to find answers. That’s the lifelong work of a scientist and I’ve been trained to do that my whole life.”<br />The professor says the accident has given him more chances to challenge himself.<br />His goal is to solve the secrets of the Earth through oceanic seismic observations and minimize the damage of earthquakes on the Korean Peninsula.<br />Park Se-young, Arirang News.<br />
