Giants in History: Woo Jang-choon (8 April 1898 – 10 August 1959) was a Korean-Japanese agricultural scientist and botanist. Woo performed horticultural research, first in Japan, then in Korea.
Although Woo faced discrimination as a Korean working in Japan, he was a dedicated mentor who guided several Japanese students. When he returned to Korea, Woo developed high quality seeds for staple crops such as cabbages, peppers and onions to improve crop production in South Korea during the 1950s after the country gained independence from Japan. Other significant contributions from his research include disease-resistant seed potatoes as well as the Jeju variety of tangerine.
