Seoul National University seeks to invite three Nobel Prize-wining chemists from Israel to be full-time professors next year, school officials said Thursday.

One candidate is Daniel Shechtman, professor of materials science at the Technion ― Israel Institute of Technology ― who received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2011 for his discovery of chemical structures called quasicrystals.

The others are Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover from the same university, who were jointly awarded in 2004 for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.

SNU is looking to appoint Hershko and Ciechanover as chair professors at the college of medicine and Shechtman at the college of natural sciences, according to an SNU official.

The three professors have yet to sign official contracts, but “negotiations are well underway” with Hershko and Ciechanover, and they are very likely start to teaching at SNU from next year.

The school also received a “positive response” from Shechtman, the official added.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)