NEW BEGINNING, NEW INSPIRATION
The warm-hearted professor who repaid the school | |||
WRITER | 대외협력과 | WRITE DAY | 2022-12-01 |
COUNT | 260 |
The warm-hearted professor who repaid the school | |||||
![]() |
대외협력과 | ![]() |
2022-12-01 | ![]() |
260 |
PKNU faculty succeeded in founding a venture company, donated 10 million won as a campus development fund
- Prof. Cho Seung-Mok, CEO of Nutra-it, a health-functional food company
△ Professor Cho Seung-Mok (left) delivering development funds to President Jang Young-Soo and taking a commemorative photo. ⓒPhoto Lee Sung-Jae (PR team)
“With the research lab in the school being the root of my company, it’s no wonder showing my gratitude for the company’s growth.”
A faculty member at our national university succeeded in founding a company with technology developed in his school’s research laboratory and drew attention by donating a school development fund with sales profits.
Pukyong National University announced that Professor Cho Seung-Mok (food science & technology), CEO of Nutra-it, donated 10 million won at a fund delivery ceremony held in the president's office on the 3rd floor of the Administration Building on the afternoon of November 15th.
Professor Cho Seung-Mok said, “The results of experiments and research together with researchers were able to become a product recognized not only in the laboratory but also in the market because of the constant interest and support from the school. I hope this development fund will repay the support received from the school, and I hope it will be a small help to the school members.”
Professor Cho founded Nutra-it last year, a company specializing in the research and development of healthy functional foods such as functional materials for improving sleep. It was established by using the faculty start-up support system, which allows faculty to start a business by putting the technology developed in their laboratory into practical use.
Professor Cho Seung-Mok, the CEO of the company, is a health functional food expert and has succeeded in developing a functional food that improves sleep derived from seaweed (ecklonia cava) for the first time in Korea, and has been individually recognized by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Subsequently, rice bran extract was also recognized as a sleep-improving functional food.
In particular, Professor Cho succeeded in developing low-dose, high-efficiency materials (N1 and N2) with sleep-improving functions and completed patent applications and trademark applications, his company has received an order of 800 million won from a food company recently and is attracting market attention.
Nutra-it was selected for the K-startup support program within 3 months of its founding with the technology it has, and this year, it was also selected for ‘TIPS’, the Tech Incubator Program for Startup, which supports startups with leading technologies in the world market by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
He said, “From the very beginning when I thought about starting a business, I thought that if the company made profits by using the research results, I would give it back to the school. I am considering donating a certain portion of the sales profits to the school every year.” <Pukyong Today>
△ The research team of professor Cho Seung-Mok and President Jang Young-Soo taking a commemorative photo.