Mr Ko Min Jun, a Master's student in the Department of Forest Resources at our university's Graduate School (supervised by Professor Park Ji Hyun), was awarded the Grand Prize (Director of the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences Award) at the Plant Disease Diagnosis Competition held during the ‘2025 Korean Society of Plant Pathology Autumn International Conference’ from 21 to 24 October.

This conference, held under the theme " Held under the theme ‘Korea Plant Pathology Towards Global Plant Health’, this conference saw participation from approximately 600 plant pathologists from Korea and abroad. The Plant Disease Diagnosis Competition, jointly organised by the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (NIAS) under the Rural Development Administration and the Korean Society of Plant Pathology, assessed diagnostic skills among attending students, postgraduates, researchers, and postdoctoral fellows. Participants evaluated photographs of over 400 plant diseases listed in the Korean Plant Disease Catalogue.

Award recipient Ko Min Jun stated, ‘I am extremely pleased and grateful to have achieved an unexpected result in this inaugural competition. Building on this experience, I wish to conduct in-depth research into the diseases threatening the health of trees and plants – which serve as the Earth's carbon sinks and form the foundation of our lives – thereby contributing to sound forest management.’