For Discovering the Epidemological Mechanism of the Effect of Obesity on Disease and Death Professor Jee Sun-Ha (Graduate School of Public Health) was selected as the December Scientist of the Month by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation. He was recognized for his work in discovering the epidemological mechanism of the effect of obesity on disease and death. Professor Jee was a pioneer in the field of Korean epidemiology, working on cohort research (research conducted on a large group of people sharing certain qualities) since 1990. Recently, he has successfully developed the Korean Cancer Prevention Study, a cohort research program which used a research sample of some 1.3 million Korean people, together with the National Health Insurance Corporation and the Johns Hopkins University Graduate School of Public Health. Through this research, Professor Jee was able to clarify the relationship between obesity and death, and also proved that obesity had an effect on cancer, an achievement which was announced in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine in August 2006. Publishing 70 SCI articles in journals such as JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) and JNCI (Journal of the National Cancer Institute), Professor Jee has made incredible progress over the past ten years, developing a prediction model for strokes, and working to develop a prediction model for various disorders including cardiovascular disorders. Also, he is the director of the Metabolic Syndrome Research Team funded by the city of Seoul. Professor Jee’s research has created a foundation of cohort research which will serve as the basis for future research exclusively on the Korean population and develop public health research technology.