Professor Steitz revealed the tertiary structure of the libosome large complex and identified the structure and functional relationship of how process protein is synthesized, and utilizing that result, he contributed to developing a new antibiotic. For this contribution, professor Steitz shared the 2009 Nobel prize in chemistry with professor Ramakrishnan of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in England and professor Yonath of Weizmann Institute in Israel.

Professor Soo Hyeon Um(department of life science, age 44) who supervised this event said "by establishing the Nobel Steitz Structure Biology Research Center, our goal is to establish a joint research system with the structure biology center which has already been founded and is being operated in Yale University, so as to obtain state-of-the-art human resources, technological connection and worldclass research capacities in the structure biology sector through GIST-Yale exchange student training and joint research".