Swedish evolutionary biologist Svante Pevo (67), who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on the 3rd (local time), continues the 'family glory' by receiving the Nobel Prize for the second time after his father.



According to Reuters and others, Pebo was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1955 and graduated from medical school. Instead of pursuing a career as a doctor, he dug a well for the study of human evolution and was awarded the Nobel Prize that day.



Among his research achievements at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, the deciphering of Neanderthal genes, a relative of modern humans, is one of the representative works.



It is also famous for the anecdote that he contacted a German museum directly for this purpose and obtained a piece of Neanderthal bone.



In 2006, he was named one of Time magazine's '100 Most Influential People in the World' in 2007 after he announced that he had successfully deciphered some of the maps of the Neanderthal genome in the scientific journal 'Nature'.



He is also active in 2020, publishing a paper that shows that Neanderthals have a low standard for pain.



Pebo is a well-known figure in Korea, with his book 'In Search of the Lost Genome' (2015) introduced in Korea.



In particular, he became the second generation to receive the Nobel Prize after his biological father.



His father, the Swedish biochemist Sunne Beristmöm (1916-2004), was jointly awarded the 1982 Prize in Physiology or Medicine.



Among his children, Berist Ron, Pebo takes his mother's surname instead of his biological father.



His mother was also known as an Estonian chemist.



"My biological father had two families, they didn't know each other's existence," Pebo wrote in a memoir published in 2014.



As an adult, he revealed that he had only seen his biological father "on occasion", but eventually followed his father's path to study biochemistry and earned a doctorate in DNA research from Uppsala University.



Enlarging an image


In an interview published on the Nobel Prize website, Pebo said, "The biggest influence in my life was my mother, who raised me."



He said, "It is a bit sad that my mother, who was a great stimulus and encouragement to me at that time, is not able to share the joy with me today."



Pebo said that when he heard about the award, he initially believed it was a hoax by his colleagues, and that when an international call with a Swedish country code came in, he thought it was from his summer vacation home.



He said, "I was about to pick up her daughter, who had just had tea and spent the night at the nursery, when I got a call from Sweden." I thought," he said.



Pebo mentioned what might have happened if Neanderthals had survived for another 40,000 years.



"I wonder if Neanderthals would have had a much worse racist attitude towards them because they were really different from us in some ways," he asked.



And, he added, "maybe coexisting with another type of human that is very similar to us, yet very different from us, our view of the world will be very different."



A Nobel Committee official said, "I was thrilled and unable to speak. I was very happy" at the news that Pebo won the award.



"He was very excited about the award," the official said.



(Photo = Getty Images Korea)