SG50 SINGAPORE’S SCIENTIFIC PIONEERS SCIENTIFIC SINGAPORE’S

SINGAPORE’S SCIENTIFIC PIONEERS

BY JULIANA CHAN, GRACE CHUA, SHUZHEN SIM AND REBECCA TAN BY JULIANA CHAN, GRACE CHUA, SHUZHEN SIM AND REBECCA TAN This book is dedicated to all scientists in Singapore, past, present and, most of all, aspiring. Copyright © 2015 Juliana Chan, Grace Chua, Shuzhen Sim and Rebecca Tan. Published by: Asian Scientist Publishing Pte Ltd 5 Toh Tuck Link PREFACE Singapore 596224 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.asianscientist.com ISBN: 978-981-09-5893-0 (hardcover) Juliana Chan and Rebecca Tan ISBN: 978-981-09-5894-7 (paperback) ISBN: 978-981-09-5895-4 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, ingapore has made much progress in the 50 years since its independence, not least in stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by terms of research output and achievements. Although many people are aware of the any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or importance of research and development for Singapore’s growth, little is known about otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. the individuals who laid the foundations for Singapore’s scientifi c achievements. S Th ese scientists, although lauded by their peers internationally, are not household names in Singapore; their contributions can seem obscure. National Library Board, In celebration of our nation’s 50th anniversary, and supported by grants from Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data the SG50 Celebration Fund and Nanyang Technological University, the editorial team at Asian Scientist has initiated a combined online and print project to celebrate Singapore’s scientifi c pioneers. In this book, Chan, Juliana, author. we try to capture the struggles and successes of their extraordinary lives, while articulating their immense Singapore’s scientifi c pioneers / Juliana Chan, Rebecca Tan, contributions to the world of science. Grace Chua and Shuzhen Sim.– Singapore : Asian Scientist Above all, we thank the 25 people who agreed to be interviewed for this book. Th ey are all above Publishing Pte Ltd, [2015] 50—born before Singapore gained independence—and have made exceptional contributions to our pages cm country’s scientifi c, engineering, medical and education sectors. Although we approached each interviewee ISBN : 978-981-09-5893-0 (hardcover) with a similar set of questions, we gave them the freedom to emphasise and elaborate on diff erent aspects 978-981-09-5894-7 (paperback) of their lives. As such, the reader may notice slight diff erences in structure and content between profi les. We feel it is important to preserve the voices and inclinations of the scientists, even at the expense of some 1. Scientists – Singapore – Biography. 2. Science – Singapore – consistency across profi les. History. One major challenge was selecting 25 individuals for this book. Th ere are of course many other I. Title. II. Tan, Rebecca, author. III. Chua, Grace, author. IV. deserving Singaporean scientists whom we could not feature. We regret that our own limitations prevent Sim, Shuzhen, author. us from being able to commemorate here their signifi cant contributions to Singapore. It is clear to our small editorial team that this book cannot be a comprehensive repository of Singapore’s scientifi c history, Q141 and certainly it would be impossible even if we tried. Rather, the stories here are meant to inspire young 509.225957 -- dc23 OCN910911412 people to embark on science careers of their own someday. Finally, we thank Grace Chua and Shuzhen Sim, who wrote many of the chapters; Sudhir Th omas Vadaketh, who edited all the chapters; Cyril Ng and Bryan van der Beek, who took the beautiful Book design by: Oxygen Studio Designs Pte Ltd photographs that accompany the profi les; Eunice Ong, who edited the photographs; and our design team Printed by: KHL Printing Co Pte Ltd from Oxygen Studio Designs, who did the design and layout for the book. We appreciate your support and this book is very much your hard work. 008 014 018 070 074 078

Introduction Freddy Boey Ariff Bongso Kanagaratnam Sit (Wong) Kim Ping Su Guaning Shanmugaratnam

022 026 030 082 086 090

Sydney Brenner Cham Tao Soon Louis Chen Bernard Tan Tan Chorh Chuan Tan Gee Paw

034038 042 094 098 102

Chou Loke MingHang Chang Chieh Huang Hsing Hua Leo Tan Tan Tin Wee Teoh Swee Hin

046 050 054 106 110 114

Lam Khin Yong Gloria Lim Lim Pin John Wong Wong Poh Poh Timeline

058 062 066

Low Teck Seng Lui Pao Chuen Phua Kok Khoo Contents had never been commercially grown anywhere SINGAPORE’S FIRST DEDICATED homogenise rat livers at high speed. She also used a else. Malaya’s main cash crops then were coff ee, MINISTRY FOR SCIENCE AND cooking pot with holes drilled in it to boil multiple nutmeg and cloves. In 1895, Dr Ridley discovered TECHNOLOGY test tubes over a Bunsen burner. a new method of tapping rubber: by making tiny Th ose were straitened times for researchers. incisions into the tree’s lactiferous vessels (little Nevertheless, a 1975 review of the civil service chaired After the 1968 general elections, Toh Chin Chye Toh Chin Chye (left) viewing tubes containing latex), one could spare the was appointed Singapore’s fi rst minister for science by Lee Kuan Yew, the prime minister, recommended a moon rock at the National cambium (stem cell) layer from serious damage, and technology. As manpower development was that the Ministry of Science and Technology fund Museum of Singapore, January 13th raising overall yields. the top priority, Dr Toh introduced research projects that are more applied in nature. “Ours 1970. Dr Toh completed a PhD in His timing was fortuitous. In the early 1900s, fellowships and grants for graduate-level research, is a nation with no natural resources. Neither can physiology at the National Institute for Medical Research, London, Henry Ford’s mass production of the automobile which were managed by the Science Council. we afford the means to carry out fundamental in 1949. He joined the University fuelled a worldwide demand for rubber tires. It was another decade before basic research research…” the review report gravely stated. of Malaya in 1953 as a physiology Malayan rubber output, catalysed by Dr Ridley’s In 1981 the Ministry of Science and After retiring in 1911 and returning started to take shape in Singapore. With meagre lecturer, before entering politics to England, Dr Ridley published in new method, boomed. resources at their disposal, scientists had to be Technology was folded into other ministries. Th e in 1959. Putting him in charge of 1930 a seminal and comprehensive resourceful. Consider Sit (Wong) Kim Ping (see Science Council was placed under the purview science and technology was an easy work on plant dispersal, based on his THE SCIENCE COUNCIL—ONE p.74), professor of biochemistry at the National of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and its decision—Dr Toh was the only Cabinet member with a PhD. scientifi c expeditions in both Malaya SMALL STEP FOR SCIENCE IN University of Singapore (NUS), whose research role reduced to promotional activities such as and Sabah, and a review of widely- SINGAPORE organising conferences and establishing links with scattered literature on the subject. into mitochondria required analysis of metabolic Photo credit: Courtesy of the processes in rats. In the 1970s, she jury-rigged international scientists. National Museum of Singapore, Photo credit: Walter Makepeace, In 1965, research and development (R&D) in a pestle onto a rotating drill bit in order to National Heritage Board. Gilbert Edward Brook and Roland Singapore was rudimentary—technicians were St John Braddell (Eds.) trained to manufacture products, not innovate. One Hundred Years of Singapore, 1921. Th e Science Council was given a seemingly straightforward task—to raise public awareness of odern Singapore’s foray into the importance of science and technology (S&T) to science is generally believed to industry and academia. But in reality this was a tall have begun with the formation order. Most Singaporeans did not have undergraduate M of the Science Council in 1967, degrees, let alone graduate degrees in S&T. Amid two years after the country the uncertainty of developing a newborn country, gained independence. R&D seemed like a frivolous pursuit. But in the 1890s, Henry Nicholas Ridley, Lee Kum Tatt, one of Singapore’s earliest an English botanist and geologist who was the homegrown PhDs, was the Science Council’s fi rst fi rst scientifi c director of the Singapore Botanic chairman. Among its many outreach activities Gardens, was already carrying out experiments were a 1970 survey of R&D activities in the public on a plant that would fl ourish across the Malay sector and the 1972 Science Quiz. In 1970 it also Peninsula—rubber. mooted the formation of the Singapore Science At the time, the rubber tree (Hevea Centre—a project completed in 1977 at a cost of brasiliensis), indigenous to the Amazon basin, S$14m (S$32.5m in today’s dollars). INTRODUCTIONINT

008 009 SINGAPORE PIVOTS INTO new scheme called the A*STAR National Science HIGH-TECH R&D Scholarships was launched to cultivate local PhD Tony Tan Keng Yam addressing the audience at the 2012 Lindau scientifi c talent; it has since funded more than Nobel Laureate meeting. Dr Tan, Despite these setbacks, there was growing corporate 1,000 Singaporean scholars and fellows locally the seventh president of Singapore, interest in Singapore as a gateway to Asia. Large and abroad. Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd was served as the inaugural chairman multinational companies in the semiconductor and also established to manage A*STAR’s intellectual of NRF from 2006 to 2011. disk drive industry, such as Seagate Technology, property and facilitate technology transfer in the After graduating with a degree in physics from the University Motorola and Fairchild Semiconductor, set up form of licensing agreements or new start-ups. of Singapore, he received a PhD R&D units here. In 1981, Apple Computer opened Biomedical scientists had reason to cheer in applied mathematics from the a manufacturing plant in Singapore to assemble in 2003, when a sprawling research hub, called University of Adelaide in 1967. personal computers. Biopolis, was offi cially opened. Th ere, joining four He was a mathematics lecturer at It was the deep recession of 1985-86— young biomedical research institutes is the much the University of Singapore before sparked partly by wage infl ation among low-cost older Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, entering politics. factory workers—that prompted Singapore’s shift established in 1985. Large pharmaceutical and Photo credit: Markus Pössel/ into high-tech R&D. Th e country was no longer biotechnology companies such as Novartis Creative Commons. able to compete with lower-cost manufacturing Pharmaceuticals have also set up facilities there. destinations, such as China and Malaysia. All these developments are part of the Singapore thus continued its move up the value biomedical sciences initiative, a S$1.48bn plan to Goh Keng Swee (left) at the offi cial opening of the Singapore Mint, chain. It began training a sophisticated workforce establish the sector as the fourth pillar of Singapore’s importance to Singapore. Its prestigious Singapore 1986, Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) appointed 24 April 1968. Often described as and establishing research institutes to attract economy, alongside electronics, engineering and NRF Fellowship supports independent researchers Lui Pao Chuen (see p.62) to the new position of Singapore’s economic architect, investors and collaborators around the world. chemicals. Many have helped Mr Yeo implement based here. In 2013, it launched its fl agship Global chief defence scientist. Dr Goh served as minister of To lead this charge, Philip Yeo, then this initiative, including Sydney Brenner (see p.22), Young Scientists Summit, an annual conference In 1997, Su Guaning (see p.78), a founding fi nance, minister of defence, deputy permanent secretary of defence and chairman of the an elder statesman of science; Tan Chorh Chuan attracting Nobel Laureates and other award winners, member of Project Magpie, led the incorporation prime minister and minister of National Computer Board (NCB), was appointed (see p.86), then dean of medicine at NUS; John inspired by the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. of DSO as a non-profi t company limited by education, among other roles. During his undergraduate days at Wong (see p.106), then an oncology-haematology chairman of Singapore’s Economic Development guarantee, henceforth known as DSO National the London School of Economics Board (EDB) in 1986. Under Mr Yeo, the Science professor at the National University Hospital FROM A HUMBLE MAGPIE— Laboratories. In 2000, he converted MINDEF’s (LSE), he was the founding Council was replaced by the National Science and (NUH) and NUS; and Kong Hwai Loong, former THE GROWTH OF SINGAPORE’S Defence Technology Group into a statutory chairmain of the Malayan Forum, an Technology Board (NSTB) in 1991. Th e NSTB executive director of the A*STAR Biomedical MILITARY RESEARCH AND board called the Defence Science and Technology anti-colonial, nationalist movement, was tasked with attracting foreign investment into Research Council. DEFENCE CAPABILITIES Agency (DSTA), where he served as chief executive which counted Lee Kuan Yew and Toh Chin Chye as co-founders. Singapore. New research institutes in the country Th e physical sciences and engineering sector until 2002. Dr Goh later returned to LSE focussed on R&D into disk drives, semiconductors, has been the mainstay of Singapore’s economy Many are familiar with the narrative of how post- These combined organisational changes where he earned a PhD in chemicals and pharmaceuticals, among others. since independence. Fusionopolis, which opened independence Singapore lacked a strong military and scientifi c advances have helped transform economics in 1956. S&T budgets have grown in tandem with next to Biopolis in 2008, was built as a home for all force, prompting the government to implement Singapore from a tiny country worried about the sector’s growing importance to the country. the physical scientists and engineers in Singapore. mandatory National Service for all Singaporean existential threats to South-east Asia’s leader in Photo credit: Courtesy of the Th e fi rst fi ve-year National Technology Plan for Exceptions are the Institute of Chemical & males, as part of a broader defensive strategy to military spending and arms exports. National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board. 1991-95 had a budget of S$2bn (S$3.1bn in today’s Engineering Sciences, which is located on deter real and present threats to the country. dollars), which was promptly doubled fi ve years Jurong Island; and the Singapore Institute of But few have heard the story of how, in 1971, later. Th e most recent fi ve-year budget for 2011-15 Manufacturing Technology and the Data Storage Singapore also started to prepare for a “future” war. is S$16.1bn. Institute, both of which are located on university It was the peak of the two-decade-long Vietnam campuses. Subsequent phases of development war; the US was fi ghting Russian surface-to-air REACH FOR THE STARS will expand Fusionopolis into a business park for missile systems using electronic warfare. information technology (IT), media, electronics, Goh Keng Swee, then minister of defence, In the 2000s, R&D activity grew exponentially. physical sciences and engineering companies. realised that mastery of the electromagnetic Mr Yeo became co-chairman and then executive Meanwhile, a cluster of start-ups, mainly in spectrum would be crucial for military success in chairman of NSTB in quick succession. He the media and IT space, is located in the adjacent the future. He assembled a team of engineers— reorganised NSTB-funded research institutes Ayer Rajah Crescent area, the so-called “Silicon codename Project Magpie—to develop R&D under two councils: the Science and Engineering Valley of Singapore”. capabilities for such a scenario. Research Council, overseeing the physical sciences In 2006 the National Research Foundation In 1977, Project Magpie evolved into the and engineering, and the Biomedical Research (NRF) was established as a department within the Defence Science Organisation (DSO). Unable to Council, overseeing the biomedical sciences. Prime Minister’s Offi ce with a mandate to set the acquire defence technologies from other countries, NSTB was renamed the Agency for Science, national direction for R&D. Among other things, DSO bootstrapped Singapore’s modern defence Technology and Research (A*STAR) in 2002. A it off ers grants to fund research that has strategic sector partly by investing in PhD-level research. In

010 011 RECYCLING SEWAGE AND Singapore’s water demand, while desalination will University of Singapore (NUS), with Lim Pin (see which treated both locals and Japanese civilians SEA WATER account for another 25%. And the remaining 20%? p.54) as founding vice-chancellor. and soldiers. “Free from the sky,” says Mr Tan. Th e merger met with strong opposition from Independence left Singapore without a sovereign Singapore has today become a global hub the Nanyang University alumni and the Chinese- SINGAPORE THROUGH THE EYES defence force but also without a sovereign water for water research, with more than 180 water speaking community. Nanyang University’s OF ITS SCIENTIFIC PIONEERS supply—it was almost entirely dependent on companies and 26 water research institutes. grounds were taken over by a new technical imported water from Malaysia. Singapore’s long- institute, the Nanyang Technological Institute When one considers the long arc of history term water security is guaranteed only till 2061— SINGAPORE’S ACADEMIC (NTI), with Cham Tao Soon (see p.26) as its through the lives of Singapore’s scientists—from when its only remaining water agreement with COMMUNITY IN TRANSITION founding president in 1981. Professor Shanmugaratnam, who learned his Malaysia will expire. In 1991, the government fulfi lled a promise trade during some of the country’s darkest days, With this resource constraint in mind, after In the 1960s, there were two universities in it had made to disgruntled alumni ten years to the relatively youthful Tan Tin Wee (see p.98), independence Mr Lee led Singapore on a relentless Singapore. Th e Chinese-medium Nanyang University before—NTI was upgraded to university status an Internet pioneer comfortable hobnobbing in drive to achieve water self-suffi ciency. In 1971, was founded in 1956 to provide higher education to as Singapore’s second English-medium university. Silicon Valley—it becomes apparent just how he set up the Water Planning Unit in the Prime the Chinese community. Meanwhile, the English- NTI merged with the National Institute of remarkable the last fi fty years have been; not Minister’s Offi ce. medium University of Singapore was founded in Education (NIE) to form Nanyang Technological simply for Singapore, but for the wider world with Tan Gee Paw (see p.90), now chairman of the 1962 following a split by the University of Malaya University (NTU), with Professor Cham as which the “tiny red dot” is inextricably linked. Public Utilities Board (PUB), oversaw many of its (UM) into two autonomous divisions. (Th e Kuala founding president, a position he held for 22 years. Th ese scientists’ stories embody the struggles successes, including the decade-long project to clean Lumpur campus retained the UM name.) In the past two decades Singapore’s higher- and successes of Singapore. Common themes up the Singapore River. Singapore now has two Over the next two decades, both universities education landscape has blossomed. In 2000, the emerge: dealing with the limited resources available additional source of water—recycled used water trained Singaporeans for various professional Singapore Management University was founded. in a young country; the need to both persevere (NEWater) and desalinated seawater, in addition occupations. But in 1980, in part to consolidate In 2009, the Singapore University of Technology and adapt when there is no clear goal in sight; to local catchment and imported water from Johor. resources and in part to promote the English and Design was founded as a tie-up with the the thankless and unglamorous nature of much By 2061, PUB expects NEWater to fulfi ll 55% of language, they were merged to form the National Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. research; the value of pursuing one’s passions; In 2011, Singapore’s fi rst liberal arts college, Yale- and the importance of family and colleagues in NUS College, was established as a collaboration overcoming adversity. between Yale University in the US and NUS. Th e Much as they acknowledge Singapore’s Singapore Institute of Technology enrolled its tremendous accomplishments, the scientists inaugural cohort in 2014, catering primarily to profi led here do not shy away from highlighting local polytechnic graduates. areas in which there is room for improvement. Singapore’s hitherto only medical school, the Th ese include: encouraging a culture of debate and Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at NUS, was dissent; making data more transparent; mitigating joined in 2007 by Duke-NUS Graduate Medical environmental damage; and reducing gender School, a tie-up with Duke University in the imbalances. US. Th e Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at As the scientists here admit, science is not Lee Kuan Yew (left), Singapore’s NTU was launched in 2013 in partnership with necessarily a path that leads to fame or fortune. founding prime minister, visiting Imperial College London. Both medical schools Sometimes the thrill and validation is intensely the Institute of Molecular and were opened to help meet Singapore’s future personal. “I think it’s the greatest adventure in the Cell Biology (IMCB) in 1988. healthcare needs and to train the next generation of world to really know, at a given point, that you’re Mr Lee is recognised for his visionary leadership and for clinician-scientists. the only person in the world that knows something developing Singapore into a high These new developments must seem new,” Professor Brenner says. income country. He supported astonishing for Singapore’s older practicing Like the slow, steady growth of a coral reef, the establishment of the IMCB doctors, who trained in diverse, fascinating scientifi c contributions may only be truly apparent to help Singapore become a key settings. Consider 94-year old K Shanmugaratnam decades or even centuries later. In 2015, when the player in the emerging fi eld of (see p.70), who in 1938 enrolled at Singapore’s King 74-hectare Singapore Botanic Gardens, home to biotechnology. To achieve water self-suffi ciency for Singapore, Edward VII College of Medicine (one of UM’s more than 10,000 types of plants, was declared the he encouraged R&D in water predecessors). When World War II interrupted his country’s fi rst UNESCO World Heritage Site, it recycling and desalination. studies, he found work under the Japanese in their was is no small part due to the eff orts of pioneers bacteriology and serology laboratories, and then long gone, including Dr Ridley, who chipped away, Photo credit: Courtesy of the at the Chuo Byoin (Central Hospital)—present- patiently, at the bark of the rubber tree. Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology day KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital—

012 013 The basement tinkerer

Freddy Boey

By Grace Chua

s a child, Freddy Boey took no plaything at face value. A metal helicopter was something to be taken apart and put back together. Wooden blocks and a pile of sand became railroad tracks and tunnels. Two pieces of wood and some nails became a replica of A a toy airplane. He progressed from taking apart and reassembling his toys in the zinc-roofed kampung house he shared with his grandmother, parents and ten siblings; to tinkering with inventions in the basement of his home; to becoming a serial inventor and entrepreneur winning more than S$30m of grants and licensing biomedical devices worth millions of dollars over the years. As he is being readied for this profi le’s photo shoot, the 59-year-old professor of materials engineering—also deputy president and provost at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU)— looks uncomfortable. “Do I need a jacket? You can take all the pictures you want, I’m not going to get any more handsome,” he quips.

014 Credit: Cyril Ng FROM KAMPUNG TO By 1987, he had completed his PhD and When Professor Boey’s eldest sister died in nanoparticles for applications such as detecting BASEMENT LAB found a job. “I joined NTU because I was given London of lung cancer that year, in her early 60s, biochemicals. Meanwhile Vincent Lau, a materials the freedom to do what I could do, and I’ve been he was driven to study biomedical devices. “Why science alumnus, developed an online-retail Professor Boey has always been more ready to get his here since,” he says. And one thing he could do was can’t a device delivering a small dose of radiation solution called Paywhere. hands dirty than pose for corporate pictures. Th e invent things. be implanted next to a cancer?” he asked himself. “I think innovation can come in any ninth of eleven children born to a mechanic and a For instance, for Singapore’s Mass Rapid He soon realised that the techniques and environment; but you need to have an inquisitive housewife, he was largely left to his own devices as Transit (MRT) system, which began running in ideas used in one domain could be applied mind, and you need a sense of optimism,” Professor a child. “My parents and siblings didn’t have a clue 1987, he made soft plastic ticket barriers—the to another. For instance, to make very thin Boey says. “Most of the time invention comes what I was doing,” he says. distinctive red fare gates. He developed the material, biodegradable heart stents of an even thickness, he when you persist, and it happens by accident more Even without parental pressure, he breezed then ordered a fi rst batch from plastic moulders used a technique called multilayering, commonly often than not. If you are a pessimist looking for a through secondary school, then topped his cohort in Australia. used in microelectronics, which involves spinning perfect answer, you’ll never get it done.” at St Andrew’s Junior College. But he was denied Another project involved developing carbon- drops of liquid material till they become fl at layers. And as provost, he is trying to encourage a government scholarship due to his congenital fi bre parts for the A-4 Skyhawk jet fi ghter. At “It’s a lot of lateral thinking,” he says. that happy optimism and innovation in the kidney illness. the time, he says, use of the laboratory for non- With colleague Subbu Venkatraman, a undergraduate population. “I believe in having Instead, Professor Boey scraped together academic pursuits was frowned upon, so he set up polymer chemist, he developed fully biodegradable an education, not a degree,” he says. “A lot of our savings from odd jobs during National Service, and a lab in his home basement. heart stents that can deliver drugs. Th ey spun education is spent on feeding went to Australia’s Monash University, which at “For two years, late at night when my off a company, Amaranth Medical, in which the students information, where the time off ered free tuition. Th ere, he remembers children and wife were asleep, I’d work for a couple Boston Scientific, a medical device giant, exams are the focus.” sneaking out of a dull chemical engineering lecture of hours,” he says. “I bought my own materials—I bought a stake. They also redesigned the He would like to teach into the next class. It happened to be on materials remember buying carbon fi bres from Russia as surgical tissue retractor, which surgeons use students the basics better and science. “Th e professor was explaining how an they were cheaper.” Professor Boey’s carbon- to expose a surgical site. Th eir now ubiquitous faster, perhaps using online Most of the airplane wing can bend, and it blew my mind,” fi bre parts, though approved, were never used by disposable version is gentler than conventional learning technologies, “and the time invention he says. the Singapore Air Force, which later decided to metal ones. rest of the time educate them as With that, Professor Boey switched to upgrade its fl eet of A-4 Skyhawks. Profesor Boey’s newest company, Peregrine a person, as a leader. What you comes when materials science—and evangelised to friends For Hewlett-Packard’s semiconductor Ophthalmic, expects in three years to gain approval learn in class lasts only for a couple about it. (Th e department’s class size promptly factories, Professor Boey designed a series of carbon- from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of years, but inquisitiveness you persist, and doubled, said Ian Polmear, a materials science foam indexer wheels on which to mount robotic for a treatment that would replace glaucoma-drug and learning how to learn lasts professor at Monash, in 2011 at an award arms. His wheels were less than half as heavy as eyedrops with an injection that delivers drugs you longer.” it happens by ceremony recognising Professor Boey as Monash’s conventional aluminium ones, and less susceptible slowly for months. As Professor Boey shows Distinguished Alumnus of the Year.) In 1980, he to vibrations that slowed the pace of the robots’ Th ough he holds countless patents, Professor off photos of his family—three accident more graduated top of his class—all while holding down work. To get the wheels perfectly fl at, he cast them Boey does not believe in fi ling new ones uncritically. daughters, a son, three dogs, a variety of jobs, from cleaning pubs to delivering on large pieces of fl oat glass—glass made by fl oating “I don’t fi le unless I believe they can be licensed; “and one illegal cat who walks often than not. eggs, to make ends meet. molten glass on a bed of molten lead. more than two-thirds are,” he says. in and out and doesn’t even pay Professor Boey then spent a year as a All this work in the basement laboratory rent”—he shares his equally metallurgist at the Singapore Institute of Standards caused little marital friction, until his wife Celina, FOSTERING INNOVATION relaxed approach to parenting. and Industrial Research (SISIR), developing its a general practitioner, discovered epoxy cooling in “I am not someone whose aim in trademark gold-plated Risis orchids, and a further the kitchen fridge. “When I told her what it was, it “I’m glad the experience I have is helping to shape life is to sit down with all my children and make ten months volunteering with an aboriginal was not funny,” Professor Boey grimaces. the whole of NTU,” he says. “Th e culture here sure they pass their PSLE [Primary School Leaving community in a remote part of North Queensland. today is very diff erent from the time I was doing Examination] with fl ying colours,” he says. “I said He then began graduate studies at the National ROBOT ARMS TO NANOMEDICINE things in my basement.” to them, whatever result you get is all right; there University of Singapore under Teoh Swee Hin (see In 2011, Professor Boey was appointed NTU will always be a place for you whether you are a top p.102), a materials engineering pioneer. Such tinkering, he says, was not discouraged by provost, and created a new path for researchers student or not.” Th ere, Professor Boey examined the impact NTU, but neither was it actively promoted at fi rst. to get tenure through world-class, high-impact In the long run, he believes Singaporean of impregnating polymer into wood—wood’s Only from around 2000 did the university begin innovation. Likewise, as dean of the school of researchers are capable of inventing things that fi re- and water-resistance is raised, boosting to ramp up its research and innovation eff orts. materials science and engineering, he challenged will have a world-class impact, and materials its value. “My job was to do the modelling,” he Th at year, NTU’s materials engineering division the faculty and students to spin-off at least one science is a fi eld ripe for such invention. “Today, remembers. “I had a modelling equation with nine was upgraded to a full-fl edged engineering company a year—a target they promptly exceeded. energy depends on new catalysts and storage; clean or ten variables, and we were using this so-called school, and Professor Boey became its vice-dean For instance, Hydroemission Corporation water depends on new materials to purify the ‘supercomputer’—you put the question in in the of research. makes biodegradable controlled-release technology water. Materials science is going through a golden morning, and you could go to lunch before the for water treatment, waste treatment, and age—and the sun hasn’t set.” answer came out.” other applications; and NanoFrontier develops

016 017 Conceiving many world firsts

Ariff Bongso

By Rebecca Tan

n 1965, Singapore had a total fertility rate (TFR) of 4.66 children per woman and an average household size of about six, according to the Singapore Department of Statistics. By the time Samuel Lee was born in 1983, however, the situation had changed I drastically, with the TFR dropping to 1.61, below the generally-accepted replacement rate of 2.1. But Mr Lee was no ordinary baby: he was Singapore’s—and Asia’s—fi rst “test-tube baby”, brought into the world by a team led by the late S. S. Ratnam. Since then, thousands of babies have been born in Singapore through assisted fertility techniques, with 1,158 in 2009 alone [the most recent publicly-available datum]. Although these numbers are not high enough to cause a discernible rise in birth rates, perhaps more importantly, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) has given many infertile couples a shot at parenthood. Much of the credit for this should go to Ariff Bongso, professor of the department of obstetrics & gynaecology at the National University of Singapore, who has made several pivotal research breakthroughs that have improved IVF success rates. “I have watched some of the children born through IVF grow up and enter university. To me, it is overwhelming to know that a technique conceptualised in the lab ultimately results in so much happiness and joy,” says Professor Bongso, who is a faculty member at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and the National University Health System. Over the course of his still active career, Professor Bongso has also been at the forefront of one of the most exciting fi elds of the last decade: stem cell research.

018 Credit: Cyril Ng REACHING PEAK PRODUCTIVITY the fi rst place is challenging. For also been involved in developing IVF techniques RIDING THE WAVE IN SINGAPORE roughly one-third of infertile ranging from microinjection—a procedure couples, the male’s sperm is enabling men with poor sperm counts to father But the problem of mouse feeder cells was only Like many other IVF pioneers in his time, Professor lacking in either quantity or children—to zona-free blastocyst transfer, whereby one of many. Still, unfazed by the challenges and Bongso, a native of Sri Lanka, fi rst perfected his quality. In another one-third I strongly believe the outer shell of the embryo is enzymatically convinced that the opportunity was promising, skills on animal embryos before making the jump of cases, the female experiences removed to increase the chance of implantation in Professor Bongso co-founded ES Cell International to humans. Although off ered a place to pursue hormonal imbalances resulting that in the older women. (ESI), a biotechnology startup supported by the medicine overseas, he chose to study veterinary in the egg not being released Economic Development Board of Singapore. medicine instead, completing a fi ve-year programme into her fallopian tube; or she biomedical fi eld ENTERING THE STEM CELL FRAY Incorporated in 2000, the company had at the University of Ceylon in 1970. has structural defects in her research teams early success, including the patenting of Professor “Th e initial shift from human to veterinary fallopian tubes which prevent While his success in the fi eld of IVF made him Bongso’s human feeder method and its selection medicine turned out to be a defi ning moment the sperm and egg from should comprise something of a household name in Singapore by the US National Institutes of Health as one of in my education,” Professor Bongso recalls. “My meeting. In all other cases, both and the region beyond, Professor Bongso’s next ten groups to have its stem cell research eligible for strong background in comparative mammalian male and female partners have a mix of discovery launched him onto the world stage. In federal funding. Th e company also scored a coup reproduction has in fact been an asset in one or more issues resulting in 1994, he became the fi rst scientist in the world to with its recruitment of Alan Colman—famous for understanding and providing solutions to some of infertility. clinicians, basic report the isolation of human embryonic stem cells cloning Dolly the sheep—fi rst as chief scientist and the problems in humans.” IVF can be thought of (hESCs), which have the potential to develop into then as CEO. He went on to complete a master’s and PhD as speed dating, concentrating research scientists any human cell. But in the wake of that early euphoria, the stem in mammalian reproductive biology at the University sperm and egg cells outside the Building on his IVF-related knowledge, cell industry at large was about to experience its fi rst of Guelph in Ontario, funded by a Canadian body to increase their chances and clinician- Professor Bongso used a fallopian feeder culture, boom and bust cycle. By 2007, ESI had given up its Commonwealth Scholarship. He then returned to Sri of meeting and fusing. Th e in which he was able to maintain the hESCs for research on treatments for diabetes and heart failure, Lanka to work but after ten years, and in inauspicious embryos thus formed in “test scientists working two generations. In contrast, a group in Wisconsin switching instead to the less risky option of licensing circumstances, felt the pull of Singapore. tubes”—or, more likely, petri together. using mice cells as a feeder culture succeeded at hESC lines and using them in screening assays In 1987, while attending the funeral of his dishes—are then transplanted maintaining their hESCs for over 40 generations, for drug development. A US company eventually close friend, S. M. Ratnam, in Kuala Lumpur, into the womb where they receiving a patent for their work in 1998. acquired ESI in 2010 and renamed it ESI BIO. Professor Bongso met the deceased’s brother, hopefully begin to grow. By this time, stem cells had evolved from a Professor S. S. Ratnam, who persuaded Professor “Back then, the culture purely academic research interest to an intensely PRESSING ON Bongso to join him in Singapore. Professor Bongso conditions for the growth of commercial one, with many companies realising and his family liked Singapore so much that he took human embryos in the laboratory were suboptimal,” their vast potential for treating diseases such as Professor Bongso has continued slowly chipping up citizenship in 1991. Professor Bongso explains. “As a result, IVF Alzheimer’s and diabetes. away at the hurdles in stem cell research. In “Without a doubt, the most productive part specialists were transferring fertilised embryos after Arguing that patents on hESCs restricted particular, his research group has focussed on cells of my career has been during my stay in Singapore,” culturing them for only two days, whereas in natural access to the potentially revolutionary cells, several isolated from the Wharton’s jelly of the human he muses. “In those early years of my career in conception the embryos reach the uterus from the groups sought to overturn the patent held by the umbilical cord, a much less controversial and Singapore, I spent less time on writing and winning fallopian tube on day fi ve—at the blastocyst stage.” Wisconsin group. In the ensuing legal battle, more readily available source of stem cells than research grants… manpower, material and funding In 1988, Professor Bongso and his team Professor Bongso’s work was cited as evidence that discarded embryos. were all provided by the department. Th ese to me attempted to develop a co-culture system in the the Wisconsin group was not necessarily the fi rst to As excited as Professor Bongso is about his were the key ingredients that resulted in several lab that would mimic the conditions of the human have discovered hESCs. current research, he has not neglected to train breakthroughs and world fi rsts.” fallopian tube. Th ey grew the embryos on a bed However, culturing hESCs on mouse feeder the next generation of scientists. Fong Chui Yee, of human fallopian tubal cells in a plastic dish in cells is not without its limitations. “Cell lines grown for instance, was once his student and is now LIVING PROOF OF A LIFE’S WORK the presence of a synthetic formulation of fallopian on mouse or other animal cells could possibly be a respected researcher in her own right. She has tube fl uid that they developed. “Th is allowed us contaminated with viruses and bacteria from worked closely with Professor Bongso over the Although the very fi rst IVF baby was born in 1978, to prolong the growth of human embryos to the the feeder cells,” Professor Bongso says. “Th is years and is poised to take over his lab when IVF techniques were still relatively crude in the late blastocyst stage and doubled the IVF pregnancy risk seriously curtailed the possible downstream he retires. 1980s and had a very low success rate of 10-15%. rates,” he says. applications of hESCs.” “I strongly believe that in the biomedical fi eld, Conception begins when a sperm cell meets Professor Bongso’s co-culture technique In 2002, Professor Bongso and his team research teams should comprise a mix of clinicians, an egg cell in the fallopian tubes. Each sex cell has soon spread from Singapore to IVF programmes succeeded in establishing a “pure” stem cell line basic research scientists and clinician-scientists only one copy of the pair of chromosomes found in all around the world, where it remained the gold grown in completely animal-free conditions, by working together,” Professor Bongso says. “Synergy non-reproductive cells. When sperm and egg fuse, standard until recently, when a new cell-free liquid using embryonic muscle and skin cells rather than between all these three types of specialists in a the resulting embryo has a full set of chromosomes. culture medium formulated on the knowledge adult fallopian tube cells for the feeder culture. Th is complementary manner will draw in diverse ideas If all goes well, it starts developing into a baby. gained by the co-culture system replaced it. removed a major obstacle to the progression of stem and fruitful results.” However, getting the sperm and egg to meet in Apart from co-culture, Professor Bongso has cells from lab to clinic.

020 021 The greatest adventure in the world

Sydney Brenner

By Shuzhen Sim

n 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson, two scientists working at the University of Cambridge in the UK, deduced the molecular structure of DNA, proposing a double helix formed by paired chains of the nucleotide bases A, C, G and T. I Sydney Brenner, then a 26-year-old PhD student at Oxford University, describes seeing their model of DNA for the fi rst time as a watershed moment in his scientifi c career. At that point, the question of how a mere four bases could encode the information required for cells to make all the proteins necessary for life—the genetic code—was as yet unsolved. In the early 1960s, Professor Brenner’s role in deciphering the genetic code helped lay the foundation of modern molecular biology. Few scientists make their mark on even one specialised fi eld of research. Several years later, Professor Brenner’s pioneering use of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as a model for understanding human biology revolutionised research in genetics and developmental biology, and in 2002 earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Since 1983, in his capacity as a trusted advisor to the Singapore government on scientifi c policy, Professor Brenner has been instrumental in establishing Singapore as a biomedical research centre of international repute. In 2003, Singapore conferred on him its inaugural Honorary Citizen Award, the nation’s highest form of state recognition for non-citizens. Today Professor Brenner, 88, is senior fellow at Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), and also holds senior faculty positions at the Salk Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the US. “I’ve had a good long run in science,” he acknowledges.

022 Credit: Bryan van der Beek THE GENETIC CODE AND Professor Brenner recognised the potential of Professor Brenner is, understandably, tired could be used to make strong, fl exible materials for NEMATODE WORMS C. elegans, a one millimetre-long nematode worm of talking about his older achievements. But ask applications ranging from reconstructive surgery to with a transparent body and simple nervous system, him about his latest endeavour, the Molecular eco-friendly packaging. Professor Brenner developed an interest in for studying developmental biology. In a 1974 paper, Engineering Laboratory (MEL), set up in 2009 at Others in the laboratory are developing molecular biology as a medical student in the he described important aspects of its genetics, along the Biopolis, and his eyes light up. molecular probes—molecules that exhibit a 1940s in his native South Africa. Keener on with methods for studying it in the laboratory, thus In the early, heady days of molecular measurable change, such as emitting fl uorescence, research than medical practice, he moved to the establishing it as a new model organism. biology, Professor Brenner and his fellow rebels at after interacting with other molecules. Th ese are UK in 1952 for a PhD at Oxford. Th en in 1956 Research on C. elegans blossomed. Scientists Cambridge did not accept students. “Who wants useful in a wide variety of industrial and research he joined the Laboratory of Molecular Biology tracked the development of every single one of to be stuck with a student for three years when applications—monitoring chemical manufacturing (LMB) at Cambridge, where he would share an its 959 cells and mapped the wiring of its 302 the fi eld was changing almost every month?” he processes, for example, or detecting a specifi c offi ce with Dr Crick for twenty years. neurons. By the early 1990s, scientists had started muses. “In a dynamic fi eld you can’t maintain a DNA sequence. In 1961, together with Dr Crick and others, to sequence entire genomes of simple, single- project because a student has to get his PhD.” MEL, Professor Brenner hopes, will nurture Professor Brenner showed that the genetic code celled organisms—the fi rst was the bacterium Today, under constant pressure to compete talented young researchers, whom he views as the biggest is composed of non-overlapping triplets—three Haemophilus infl uenzae. for grants and pass performance reviews, principal investment in the future that Singapore can make. bases, or a codon, encoded one amino acid, the In 1998, thanks to a consortium of researchers investigators (PIs, the heads of laboratories) tend “Ninety percent, maybe even more, of what basic building block of proteins. in the UK and US, C. elegans became the fi rst to maintain large groups of graduate students goes on in research and development is essentially Turning next to the question of how multicellular organism to have its complete genome and post-doctoral fellows, on whom they rely to routine,” he says. “And that’s fi ne. But you also need information is transferred between DNA and sequenced. Dubbed “nature’s gift to science” by produce the science. In the US, especially, this the talent to do something new.” proteins, Professor Brenner demonstrated Professor Brenner in his 2002 Nobel lecture, this has resulted in a glut of PhD holders, without a Constant reinvention, he thinks, is especially the existence of messenger RNA, an unstable humble organism has helped researchers understand corresponding increase in jobs for them. important for small countries like Singapore, intermediate molecule that fundamental cellular processes such as cell division, Th e entire system of academia, thinks which must keep creating new possibilities and carries information from DNA embryogenesis, ageing and cell death. Professor Brenner, is bad for scientifi c innovation. opportunities for their people. It certainly helps that in the nucleus to ribosomes— Th e bureaucracy stifl es talent. “PIs have ceased Singaporeans, in his opinion, are focussed on self- the cell’s protein making DEVELOPING BIOMEDICAL to become scientists,” he worries. “Th ey become improvement. MEL often loses talented research machinery—in the cytoplasm RESEARCH IN SINGAPORE managers and sit in offi ces all the time and have technicians to graduate programmes at top-notch [At MEL] you’re of the cell. group meeting and so on. Th at’s not the way universities. independent, Today, “DNA makes In 1983 the Singapore government, eager to you create new science.” As employees of the PIs, Singapore, Professor Brenner believes, like RNA and RNA makes protein” diversify the country’s economy away from low- students and “post-docs” also lack the independence most of Asia, has a problem that cannot easily be but you’re also is considered the “central cost manufacturing, sought Professor Brenner’s to work on problems that really interest them. solved by throwing money at it. “Th ere is a lesion dogma” of molecular biology. advice on developing a biotechnology sector. He In a bid to liberate them, Professor Brenner which is very bad, and that is respect for seniority,” responsible. If But in the 1950s, the scientifi c proposed setting up the Institute of Molecular and established MEL. Here, freshly-minted PhDs are he says. “People don’t ask questions in lectures. I establishment ridiculed the Cell Biology (IMCB) at the National University of their own bosses. “You’re independent, but you’re think we’ve got to encourage the questioning.” you’ve got ideas, idea that DNA could carry all Singapore (NUS) in order to train Singaporeans also responsible,” he says. “If you’ve got ideas, you the information required for and provide research infrastructure. implement them. You really need to take it all the A THRILL THAT’S WORTH IT you implement life. Professor Brenner had “to Inaugurated in 1987, the IMCB’s mandate way through.” preach to the heathen”. was also to prove that Singapore, despite being a tiny MEL is not only unique in its structure, but For Professor Brenner, science has always been all them. You really In the late 1960s, population with little experience in basic research, also in the scope of its research. It was the fi rst consuming. “Work doesn’t start at 8 and fi nish at 5 need to take Professor Brenner became could produce high-calibre scientifi c research. place, Professor Brenner says, to institutionalise and then you forget about it,” he says. “It goes on day interested in the genetics Professor Brenner ran a laboratory at the molecular engineering, an extremely broad, and night. And of course it’s hard to keep a family it all the way of how complex organisms IMCB, and led eff orts to study the genome of the interdisciplinary fi eld involving the design, life when most of the time you’re living in your own grow, particularly in the Takifugu rubripes puff er fi sh—or fugu in Japanese. manipulation, and synthesis of molecules for head.” Nevertheless, Professor Brenner and his late through. development of the human His team showed that the fugu and human myriad applications. Th ese proteins can be used wife May raised four children, and were married for brain and nervous system. genomes share similar blueprints, even though the to make materials with unique properties, for 58 years, until her death in 2010. Scientists often study model former is about eight times smaller than the latter. example, or chemical scaff olds that can be used to Professor Brenner believes that any sacrifi ces organisms—simple organisms Like C. elegans, the compact fugu genome is an design better drugs. he has had to make pale in comparison to the that can be easily handled in ideal model for studying larger and more complex One area of research at MEL is biomimetics—a excitement of discovery. “I think it’s the greatest the laboratory—to gain insights into the biology genomes. Th e IMCB enhanced its international fi eld in which the imitation or mimicry of nature is adventure in the world to really know, at a given of more complex animals, such as humans. In reputation when it became a key member of an used to solve engineering problems. Here, the team point, that you’re the only person in the world that genetics, for example, the fruit fl y Drosophila international consortium that in 2002 published is studying and designing potentially useful proteins knows something new,” he enthuses. “Th at’s a thrill melanogaster and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae a draft sequence of the fugu genome in Science, from marine organisms. For instance, suckerin, the that’s worth it.” are widely-used model organisms. a journal. protein present in the sucker ring teeth of squid,

024 025 The pragmatic university- builder

Cham Tao Soon

By Grace Chua

n his book on the evolution of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Cham Tao Soon, professor of fl uid mechanics and its founding president, explains the relative youth of the administrators and leaders involved: “It was a diff erent age, and many I things were started by young men.” Again and again in the Singapore story this comes up, and it is nearly always young men in their twenties, thirties and forties who are the key players in the tale—men whose wives gave up thriving careers to support their husbands’ endeavours, men who loved and provided for their children but saw them rarely, men who sacrifi ced lucrative job off ers and personal dreams for duty, for country, for the things they built from scratch. It was indeed a diff erent age: in 1981 Singapore’s population was less than 2.5m (more than 5m today), its gross domestic product per person only US$5,000 (more than US$50,000 today). Th e then 41-year-old Professor Cham was tasked with training engineers for the nation’s future.

026 Credit: Cyril Ng A SWEATY, UNGLAMOROUS JOB AN ENGINEER’S UNIVERSITY it’s time for them to leave. In six months, they can appointment, the former prevails,” he says. learn a meaningful job.” Professor Cham also says he turned down a Th e new president had nearly become a musician. As By 1981, Professor Cham had been dean of the As for building the university itself, the lucrative job off er when he was tapped to run NTI. a child he had taught himself several instruments, engineering faculty for three years. sturdy, bespectacled Professor Cham would roll up “At the time, my income was about $200,000,” he including the piano and violin, and as an upper- Th en came word from higher up. To address his sleeves and sweat through a plate of fi sh-head says. “Th is was in the 80s, so that was quite a lot, secondary student at Raffl es Institution, he had told Singapore’s persistent shortage of engineers, the curry at a Jurong kopitiam (traditional coff ee shop) but I was off ered a million dollars a year to run his father he wanted to study music. government had decided to open a new school: the each week with his colleagues. Th e tableful of men a company.” His father, a court interpreter and fi lm censor Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI). Together, in button-down shirts would eat and talk through Good thing he stayed. Within four years, for the Ministry of Culture, discouraged him, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and decisions informally before going back to the offi ce before its fi rst students had even graduated, NTI saying it would be diffi cult to make a living. Instead, NTI would train 1,200 engineers a year to feed the and signing off on them. In all, the university’s was named one of the best engineering institutions he urged his son to take up engineering—seen as a burgeoning building, electronics, petrochemical, initial development budget was a generous S$170m. in the world by the Commonwealth Engineers sweaty, unglamorous profession by most. and other industries, which Singapore aimed to As a political project which had to succeed, it did Council, the Commonwealth’s professional- “Either you worked in the sun as a builder or modernise with technology-intensive activities not want for funds, he says. engineering body. you tinkered with your car engine,” Professor Cham such as R&D, engineering design and computer Physically, NTU is a school evidently designed recalls. But it was a secure living, his father insisted; software services. by engineers. Visitors are often bemused by its fl oor A MELODIOUS RETIREMENT engineers created wealth and comfort, improving Th e new institute was something of a political numbering system, in which all the levels marked people’s quality of life by building material things. hot potato. Th e Chinese-medium Nanyang 1 are at the same altitude across campus, all those Professor Cham remained president of NTU So off Professor Cham went, on a government University was a hallowed institution among marked B1 at the same level, and till 2002. Over the years, he scholarship, fi rst to the University of Malaya in overseas Chinese, whose alumni ranged from so on down. has also found the time for Kuala Lumpur (as the Singapore campus had Singapore to Vancouver. When the University “For a large and undulating many corporate, non-profi t and no engineering school at the time); then to the of Singapore merged with the original Nanyang campus this was deemed to be the educational board positions. University of Cambridge for a doctorate in fl uid University to form NUS in 1980, it rankled the most sensible way to determine After starting up NTI, mechanics. When he returned to serve his bond, alumni that the government had simply done away the altitude with respect to outside I always try he joined the board of Keppel it was as a pioneer member of the University of with their alma mater at the stroke of a pen. roads,” Professor Cham says. my best and if it Shipyard. He has also held Singapore’s engineering faculty. “I remember In that sense, NTI was partly a political Buildings and hostels, too, directorships at firms such when the faculty of engineering started,” he says. project to appease this large Chinese-educated were numbered—N1, N1.1, S1, doesn’t succeed, as NatSteel, Singapore Press “April 1st, 1969. Everybody thought it was an April constituency. NTI later became the full-fl edged Hall 4, and so on—temporarily, Holdings and United Overseas Fool’s joke.” Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 1991. in the hope of raising funds with too bad. I sleep Bank. Th e music-lover at one Th e main task of the 13 pioneer faculty From the start it was Professor Cham who naming rights. Alas, there have time also chaired the Singapore members was to train some 120 undergraduate supplied the vision for modernising engineering been no takers. very well at Symphony Orchestra’s board of engineers a year for the massive infrastructure education. He desired an engineering school Th e 107-hectare campus, directors. “I’m down to just two projects that marked Singapore’s early years— with a diff erence. Unconvinced by what he saw in the far reaches of Jurong, was night. listed companies now,” he laughs. housing; roads; and drainage to help prevent the as engineering’s excessive emphasis on academia in the middle of a jungle. “Th ere Last year, he retired as fl oods that tormented neighbourhoods in the and theory, he recruited lecturers with extensive were still squatters, feral dogs, chancellor of SIM University monsoon season. In 1974, weeks before the start of industry experience, such as Brian Lee, an and it was heavily overgrown,” (UniSIM; formerly Singapore the term, the Ministry of Trade and Industry rang electrical and electronic engineer, who had spent Professor Cham says. One Institute of Management, SIM) with a request: please double your enrollment to 240 more than a decade at General Electric, and morning, he arrived in the offi ce to fi nd a snake in his as well. Today, he remains special advisor to the students. On the list of national priorities, research Bengt Broms, a soil foundation engineer, who dustbin. Meanwhile, the staff operated out of an old SIM governing council and senior advisor to the was rock bottom. had earlier worked for Shell, and on geotechnical auditorium which some were convinced was haunted. president at NTU. Professor Cham kept busy by consulting projects in Sweden. All this took Professor Cham away from his How does he juggle all these commitments? for Singapore’s rapidly growing industrial sector. Like medical students, the new engineering family. When work started on the institute, he He plucks out a small diary from a shirt pocket. For instance, he designed a water-based cooling students would shadow and learn from the and his wife Ee Lin—a geophysicist he had met “By November, I’ve already got all my meetings system for a printing fi rm that took advantage of professionals. Th ey helped build and design parts of in secondary school when they attended the same planned for the following year,” he says. Th at air-conditioner discharge. He also literally helped their own school, such as several thin-shell concrete music competitions—decided she would give up her includes family functions and regular SSO build the university, by designing some of its air- roof structures, during a second-year training stint. job so someone could be home with their children. concerts, such as a performance by renowned conditioning systems. And, uniquely for Singapore at the time, they did Today Gee Len, his daughter, is a project pianist Krystian Zimerman. In 1975, restless, he wanted to leave the compulsory six-month internships in their third year. manager, while Tat Jen, his son, is a computer Ask if he would have done anything diff erently, university to start an engineering fi rm with a friend. “Th e companies welcomed it,” Professor engineering associate professor at NTU. and he claims he has no regrets, aside from wishing “But we already allow you to do consulting,” Regina Cham says. “Th ere were more places on off er than “It was a very easy decision as our philosophy he were less impatient and more compassionate. Kwa, the deputy vice-chancellor, retorted. Professor we had students! Why? In the usual two- to three- is family above career. Even for me if I have a “I always try my best and if it doesn’t succeed, too Cham took the hint and stayed. month internship, by the time they know the work, family appointment which clashes with a business bad. I sleep very well at night,” he says.

028 029 A series of rare events

Louis Chen

By Grace Chua

icture the young mathematician, a recent Stanford University graduate, among a pioneer batch of Singaporean scholarship holders who have returned home to teach. In the early 1970s, the University of Singapore is a quiet academic backwater, P not the bustling campus with the tens of thousands of local and international students it has today. Laboratories are rudimentary. Th e Internet does not yet exist and postal services are slow—by the time a journal or book arrives in the university library, it is already out of date. Funds for travel to mathematics powerhouses in Europe and the US are meagre. But pure mathematics is part of the life of the mind, limited not by technology but only by one’s imagination and work ethic. Th us the young mathematician, who lectures in the day and works on his doctoral thesis at night, publishes in 1975 a seminal paper in a relatively new fi eld—a new method for understanding the probability that rare events will occur. Th e paper will give rise to a new area in discrete probability, with applications in many fi elds including computational biology, epidemiology, economics and computer science. Th is is the life and work of Louis Chen, 74, distinguished professor of mathematics and statistics at the National University of Singapore (NUS). In the 43 years he has been there, NUS’s mathematics department has climbed from the doldrums into the world’s top-20-ranked programmes.

030 Credit: Cyril Ng A SEQUENCE OF RARE EVENTS work out whether their similarities the recorder—not the squeaky plastic device played the last International Congress of Mathematicians, are due to mere chance or something by children, but a sleek professional woodwind. a kind of world summit of mathematics held every Professor Chen almost missed out on Stanford more fundamental, scientists “One fortunate thing was that all of us could four years, four of its members were among the 200 University. He had applied for the US’s Fulbright- can make inferences about the study,” he says. “We could get good grades.” Unusual or so invited to give lectures. Hays Program, which gave students travel grants for sequences’ biological functions. I wanted to do for an eldest son at the time, his parents did not pull Unsurprisingly, Professor Chen agrees with their PhDs, and was off ered a scholarship to either One component of sequence him out of school to support the family. the Singapore school curriculum’s emphasis on Adelphi University or Ohio State University. comparison is the calculation of physics, because Professor Chen’s teachers were also mathematics. “Mathematics is so fundamental To meet the looming acceptance deadlines, p-values, a probability function for a encouraging. Sheng Chen Kuo, a Marist Brother, to science that everybody should have some Professor Chen thus accepted the Ohio State off er particular sample. Before biologists there was no nudged along the nascent talent, entering him into understanding of it,” he says. before the other schools he had applied to—Stanford discovered the Chen-Stein method, inter-school mathematics competitions, which he won As for research, “the mathematics community and the University of California, Berkeley—had they calculated the p-value through Nobel Prize in thrice. Meanwhile, popular science books such as One, as a whole understands that we have to continuously responded. Th en came a fateful phone call from the relatively tedious inclusion- mathematics, Two, Th ree... Infi nity by George Gamow, a physicist, move up, to continuously get better,” he says. the offi ce in Kuala Lumpur that administered the exclusion formula. captured his imagination with simple, entertaining Mentoring individual students, passing on a passion Fulbright-Hays Program. Th e Chen-Stein method but in the explanations of the concepts of infi nity, exponential for mathematics, and being role models can help make “Congratulations Mr Chen,” the administrator offers a simpler formula for growth and topology. the diff erence in inspiring students to pursue graduate said. “You have got an off er of scholarship from calculating p-values; as a end I found But Professor Chen could not aff ord to go studies and become mathematicians themselves, Stanford University!” Th e admission would prove corollary of that, it provides a to university. Fortunately, his grades earned him Professor Chen adds. fortuitous not only for Professor Chen, but the whole theoretical basis for the Basic that my fi rst a prestigious state scholarship to the University of mathematics world. Local Alignment Search Tool Singapore. He graduated in 1964 then left for Stanford. RETIREMENT PLANS At Stanford, keen on pure mathematics, he had (BLAST), an algorithm that is love was still And in perhaps the most important chance event hoped to complete his thesis on probability theory used widely in sequence searching of all, Professor Chen met his wife-to-be in the library Even though Professor Chen plans to retire in 2015 with Rupert Miller, the department’s chairman. But and comparison. mathematics. at Stanford while looking for reference material. Today from administrative and teaching duties, he is Professor Miller referred him to Charles Stein, a In short, by helping to they have two daughters and two granddaughters. nowhere near done with research. mathematical statistician, who had just come up with speed up sequence comparison, In particular, he plans to study the connections a novel idea in probability—a new way of proving the Chen-Stein method has been NURTURING SINGAPORE between Stein’s method and other branches of the central limit theorem, a fundamental theorem a boon for computational biology MATHEMATICS mathematics, such as number theory, which includes that says that enough random observations will be and genomics. problems involving prime numbers. distributed according to a normal distribution, the How might one researcher stumble into work Upon Professor Chen’s return to Singapore in the Another branch is a species of non-Newtonian classic “bell curve”. that will become highly infl uential years down the 1970s, he remained focussed on his research, driven by calculus called Malliavin calculus. While conventional Professor Stein was the quintessential brilliant road, and another researcher end up in a cul-de-sac? ambition and a good work ethic, imbibed at Stanford. calculus is the study of change for functions of the mathematician. “He’s the sort of person who goes to It is fate, Professor Chen believes. Although “I was working in an area which was the real number, Malliavin calculus studies change for the lecture room to talk about his latest ideas, and his professional end-point was not obvious initially, beginning of a fi eld,” he says. “When you work in functions of normally-distributed random variables, gets stuck halfway,” Professor Chen says. “He’d tell he now believes that each step in his life somehow the beginning of a fi eld, there are always problems you i.e. those exhibiting a bell-shaped distribution. us to come back next week, but be talking about guided him towards it. can solve; there are many open questions to tackle.” And while other researchers may use computer something else altogether the following week. But As the university’s lone probabilist and models to simulate their results, Professor Chen says we heard his latest ideas. It was a goldmine.” EARLY LIFE statistician, and one “not shy to express opinions he could work on a couple of blackboards if need be. Professor Chen’s eventual research—applying about things”, he was often shepherded into “In the past, we did not have the environment the so-called “Stein’s method” to Poisson distributions Born on the eve of the Japanese Occupation to administrative roles, such as head of the mathematics that young people enjoy today—the Internet, funds as probability approximations for the occurrences of immigrant parents from Chaozhou, Guangdong, department, head of the statistics and applied for travel, and so on,” says Professor Chen. “And for rare events—would be published in 1975. Professor Chen was the second of seven children. probability department, and eventually director of the many years I was always involved in some sort of But its real impact would come years later. During the war his father, a primary school university-level Institute for Mathematical Sciences, administration. So now the time has come for me In the 1980s Persi Diaconis, a Stanford probabilist, principal, became a vegetable seller in order to which promotes research interaction between local to do the things I am really interested in without brought the research to the attention of computational escape the infamous Sook Ching: Japanese purges of and foreign mathematicians. distractions. I’m really looking forward to it.” biologists. Th ey soon realised its applicability to intellectuals, particularly teachers and journalists, who Th e institute also organises research Th is also includes indulging in hobbies such sequence comparison in bioinformatics and began were thought to harbour anti-Japanese sentiments. programmes, conferences, workshops, and academic as travel and music, and spending time with his calling the new formula the Chen-Stein method. After the war, Professor Chen attended Catholic and public talks in mathematics; the subjects of peers. In 2000, friends and colleagues organised DNA sequences, which encode the biological High School and St Joseph’s Institution. From an these range from the highly theoretical to those a mathematics conference to mark Professor Chen’s instructions for building an organism, can consist of early age, he was keen on mathematics and physics. directly relevant to various fi elds such as fi nance, 60th birthday. Ten years later, they outdid themselves millions of pairs of “letters”—the chemical building “I wanted to do physics, because there was no Nobel epidemiology and computing. with an even bigger conference, with more international blocks adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine Prize in mathematics, but in the end I found that my NUS’s mathematics department has grown invited speakers. (commonly known as: A, T, C and G). By comparing fi rst love was still mathematics,” he says. from fewer than 15 faculty members in the 1970s to In a lifetime of rare events, it appears some two sequences and using the Chen-Stein method to He also liked music, and continues today to play more than 70 today. It is also globally renowned—at traditions still have a comforting predictability.

032 033 A champion for conservation

Chou Loke Ming

By Rebecca Tan

otted with old shophouses that are home to a 90-year-old Hainanese kopitiam, achingly hip cafes, and much else, Singapore’s East Coast area is known for its laid back charm. For Chou Loke Ming, a recently retired professor of biological sciences D at the National University of Singapore, it is the place where he fi rst fell in love— with the sea. “When the fi shermen came back from a day’s work and started to put their catch on the shore, the whole community would come down and have a look, myself included,” Professor Chou muses, recalling his childhood growing up in the Siglap neighbourhood. “Th at’s when I started to become very interested in the sea and anything to do with marine life.” After completing his PhD on house lizards at the University of Singapore—because the university was looking for lecturers to teach vertebrate zoology—Professor Chou turned his fascination with the sea into a thirty-year career in marine ecology and conservation, with a special focus on coral reefs. Commonly mistaken for plants due to their extremely slow growth, corals are actually animals closely related to sea anemones and jellyfi sh. Th e so-called “rainforests of the sea” occupy only 0.1% of the ocean’s surface yet are home to 25% of the world’s marine species. Th e secret to this amazing biodiversity is a unique partnership between coral animals and single-celled algae known as zooxanthellae. Th ese photosynthetic algae reside within each coral polyp, supplying the corals with as much as 90% of their energy requirements. In turn, the corals absorb calcium from the surrounding seawater, building a hard, protective structure that can grow to become a massive coral reef like Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the only living entity visible from space.

034 Credit: Bryan van der Beek SHAPING AND and cowries, in huge numbers. the environmental damage “The rate of species RE-SHAPING You can still fi nd them there these and as evidence to convince extinction has not been as drastic SINGAPORE days, but you will have to hunt policy makers to act. However, as expected, given the scale of very hard.” Singapore was not well known the environmental changes,” Although coral reefs need a long I remember for marine biology and a lack of But if there Professor Chou shares. Of time to develop—the Great CORAL REEFS OR government support meant that Singapore’s 250 recorded coral Barrier Reef has been growing a permanent GOLF COURSES? research facilities were few and is one wish I species, for instance, while 70 are for half a million years—their far between. now “quite rare”, only two have destruction can be swift. In the secretary asking At an estimated 7,618 people per “Th ankfully, there were could have, I gone extinct locally. 1960s, Singapore was looking for sq km, Singapore has the third a few Association of Southeast Even those that have a fast way to meet the demands me why we highest population density in the Asian Nations (ASEAN) projects would like to disappeared may one day return. of a growing population. Land world after Macau (21,190 people on marine science in the late In 2014, divers spotted a Neptune’s reclamation had long been part should preserve per sq km) and Monaco (18,475 1980s, supported by Australia, see the waters cup sponge (Cliona patera)— of Singapore’s developmental people per sq km). With so many Canada and the United States,” believed to be extinct since 1908— strategy; it was fi rst used in 1822 the reefs since competing land-use demands, Professor Chou recounts. “At become clear incongruously clinging on to a to create the area today known Singaporeans marine conservation has that time, there were only four again. landfi ll lagoon. Today the western as South Boat Quay. historically been a low priority. other countries in ASEAN reefs of both Pulau Tekukor and However, land reclamation could easily go But since the 1970s, Professor [Th ailand, Malaysia, Indonesia St John’s Island are part of the reached an unprecedented scale Chou has tried convincing and the Philippines], each of Sister’s Islands Marine Park, the in the post-independence years, to Malaysia or Singaporeans that coral reefs are them big countries with a lot of fi rst of its kind in Singapore, which with an aggressive plan that saw worth saving. marine space.” was established in 2014 after some Singapore’s land area increase Indonesia if “I remember a permanent It wasn’t apparent why Singapore deserved a thirty years of lobbying by Professor Chou. from 580 sq km in 1960 to 630 secretary asking me why we slice of ASEAN’s marine budgets. “Scientists in the “[Th e park] will inspire more people to sq km by 1990. Today, it stands they wanted to should preserve the reefs since other ASEAN countries would tell me, ‘Singapore understand that the environment is part of our at 720 sq km, almost 25% Singaporeans could easily go to is so small, you just need a bicycle to get from one national heritage, something that we should try to larger than it was just before go diving. Malaysia or Indonesia if they end to the other; you don’t need a boat!’” Professor conserve and protect,” Professor Chou says. independence. wanted to go diving,” Professor Chou says. “But in the end, the collegial spirit “But if there is one wish I could have, Involving the levelling Chou shares. “I thought for a prevailed and the budget was equally shared.” I would like to see the waters become clear again,” of hills and dredging of the while and then said, ‘Yes, but the Th e money helped him establish facilities he quips brightly. “It will take a lot of eff ort. It will sea fl oor, the extensive land same is true of golf courses.’ Th e for marine biology—focussing on underwater and take a lot of money as well. It will take a lot of reclamation has almost completely smothered the meeting stopped soon after that!” scuba capabilities—which allowed more research commitment on the parts of the diff erent agencies. costal coral reefs surrounding mainland Singapore But by the late 1980s, he says, attitudes had to be conducted. Anything on land development also fl ows out to and left whatever remains threatened by extremely begun to change, in tandem with rising incomes Professor Chou has also worked on other the sea, so it’s not work that can be done by a single high sedimentation levels that block out the and growing local environmental activism. Th e international projects. Among other things, he agency. It will be challenging, but I don’t think sunlight needed for photosynthesis. government, meanwhile, started participating in contributed to the United Nations Environment it’s impossible.” Research by Professor Chou shows that international conservation pow-wows such as the Programme (UNEP), helping to edit the State of Part of his optimism no doubt comes from Singapore has lost 65% of its coral reefs since 1992 United Nations Earth Summit. the Marine Environment Report for the East Asian the knowledge that the many of his former students 1986, in large part due to land reclamation. [By Today, for any construction project, developers Seas (2009), the fi rst such assessment for the have taken up the cause and are continuing his comparison, over the same period the Great need to conduct impact assessment studies, region; and was appointed to the UNEP’s regional work. Karenne Tun and Jeff rey Low, for instance, Barrier Reef lost 50% of its coral coverage, largely mitigation exercises, and real-time monitoring offi ce in Bangkok to review Cambodia’s coastal are deputy director and senior manager respectively due to cyclone damage and a population explosion programmes. management plans. at the National Biodiversity Centre Division. of destructive crown-of-thorns starfi shes.] “Projects must be stopped if measurements “If we look at the past 50 years, after all the Most of Singapore’s reefs are now found such as sedimentation exceed certain limits,” says SINGAPORE’S SURPRISINGLY impact, our natural resources are still there, they only off surrounding islands such as Pulau Pawai Professor Chou. “[In the past] if we had these RESILIENT REEFS haven’t been completely degraded,” says Professor and Pulau Semakau, which are used for live fi ring measures in place, it would really have helped slow Chou. “Now with all the measures in place—the exercises and a landfi ll, respectively. One of the very down the total impact to the reefs.” Professor Chou’s local research revealed a pleasant national marine park, the government agencies, the few mainland areas where corals can still be found surprise. In spite of all the damage done to them, NGOs—we’re beginning to have more discussion is off Labrador beach. REGIONAL RESEARCH Singapore’s coral reefs have still managed to and collaboration. I hope that we will somehow “I remember Labrador beach from my student sustain a wide range of wildlife, including 130 make the waters clear again in the next 50 years, days, before the land reclamation, when there was In the late 1980s, Singapore lacked adequate species of fi sh, 250 species of molluscs and over so that the next generation will be able to enjoy the still an extensive rocky shore,” Professor Chou says. marine science research, which was needed by 800 crustacean species. environment just as we have.” “We used to fi nd all kinds of diff erent seashells, cones conservationists both to understand the scale of

036 037 Wealth and intelligence, re-defined

Hang Chang Chieh

By Juliana Chan

ingapore, an island city-state just north of the equator, has a hot and humid climate. To compensate, Singapore’s buildings maintain some of the world’s coldest indoor temperatures, powered by air-conditioners that whir along day and night, 24/7. S Th e late Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s fi rst prime minister, used to joke that when indoors he needed to wear clothes intended for European climates. More seriously, Mr Lee has argued that the greatest invention of the 20th century is the air-conditioner, especially for those living in the tropics. But in order to run air-conditioners effi ciently, intelligent thermostats are needed. Th is is where Hang Chang Chieh, professor of electrical engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS), comes in. “When it rains, the air-conditioner continues to work, wasting a lot of energy. It is not only energy- ineffi cient, it also makes people very uncomfortable,” says Professor Hang. To improve the technologies behind air-conditioners—and many other consumer goods—Professor Hang has, among other things, taken sophisticated control systems found in the military and aerospace industries and made them cheaper and simpler.

038 Credit: Bryan van der Beek “INTELLIGENT” A CLARION CALL TO SERVE Polytechnic (the only polytechnic in Singapore at in NUS and NSTB, Singapore awarded Professor CONTROL SYSTEMS that time) for two years before the University of Hang the Public Administration Medal (Gold) in Like many young people growing up in Singapore Singapore department of engineering absorbed the 1998, and the National Science and Technology As a student Professor Hang built his own radio today, CC—as he is often referred to—was programme. His entire graduating class had only Medal in 2000. In 2001, NSTB was renamed and hi-fi audio speakers, and had a knack for determined to get into medical school. 40 engineering students, of whom 18, including the Agency of Science, Technology and Research repairing things. His PhD research topic covered In the 1960s, medicine was off ered only by him, majored in electrical engineering. (A*STAR), where he was seconded full-time from adaptive control, a fi eld where control systems are the University of Singapore—not by the country’s Professor Hang later received a bond-free 2001 to 2003 as its executive deputy chairman. programmed to detect changes in the environment only other university, the Chinese-language scholarship from the UK government to pursue a and adjust their parameters automatically. Nanyang University. PhD at the University of Warwick. WEALTHY IN KNOWLEDGE Th is fi eld is at the heart of the aerospace Professor Hang, who was then enrolled His post-PhD career as a control system industry, where adaptive control systems are at the Chinese-language Chung Cheng High designer at the Shell Eastern Petroleum Company Professor Hang remains active in engineering critical in stabilising airborne aircraft. For School, realised that he would not be able to pass ended after three years when he received a phone education—as head of NUS’s division of example, as a plane progressively the medical school qualifying call from Jimmy Chen, head of NUS’s department engineering and technology management since depletes its fuel supply along exams if he was not profi cient in of electrical engineering, who wanted to recruit him. 2007 and as executive director of NUS’s Institute its fl ight path, lightening its English. In 1964, he transferred Acquiescing, Professor Hang took an immediate for Engineering Leadership since 2011. load, it needs to detect the to Anglican High School, also pay cut of 20%, a choice he has never regretted. He encourages bright, young people to study change of its mass to maintain a Chinese-language school but engineering because of the many academic, industry a comfortable experience for Don’t chase allowed him to take his papers THE FIRST OF MANY and entrepreneurial careers available to them. To those on board, while burning in English and was strong in FIVE-YEAR PLANS prepare them for a life of entrepreneurship, the less and less fuel to maintain its money, let biological subjects. NUS faculty of engineering is making curricular speed. Conversely, as and when money chase One incident, however, Th ough the veteran engineer has long been focussed changes to allow students to enter a design and air resistance increases, the would change the course of his on his research into control systems, he has also had innovation pathway. plane needs to burn more fuel. you. When you life. During his school holidays to wear many other hats along the way. Th e engineer in him also wants to let the facts But the technology used after his fi rst year studying for NUS appointed Professor Hang consecutively speak for themselves. He cites a 2013 Wall Street in commercial airplanes— are successful in a higher-level certifi cate (HSC, to three senior roles—vice-dean of the faculty of Journal article, which described how participants and also in space programmes the precursor to the GCE ‘A’ engineering in 1985, head of the department of of an investor conference voted engineering as the and the military—remains your work, at the levels), he read in a magazine that electrical engineering in 1990, and deputy vice- number one subject to study for a life of innovation, too expensive for everyday Japanese youth were applying chancellor (research and enterprise) in 1994— and their top choice for their children’s college applications such as air- minimum, you in droves to study engineering during which time he has had to oversee the major. A 2015 article in Th e Telegraph also noted conditioner thermostats. To as they wanted to help rebuild university’s transformation from a primarily that more than a fi fth of the world’s wealthiest sharply reduce costs, Professor will be wealthy the country’s shattered economy teaching institution to one that is research intensive. people studied engineering in university. Hang had to imbue these after the Second World War. Part of his mandate was to raise research funds. “Parents of course always say those in the control systems with some kind in knowledge. Intrigued, Professor Hang “I was one of the most expensive beggars around. I fi nance sector, property, can make money,” he says. of artifi cial intelligence. started reading lots of engineering asked for hundreds of thousands, millions,” he says But regardless of one’s career ambitions, he believes These systems are articles and introductory textbooks. with a laugh. engineering will provide a strong foundation. “intelligent” in that they are It was a revelation to the wannabe- In parallel, he became the founding deputy Consider his daughter, 33, who studied electrical able to measure a variable (e.g. doctor, who changed his mind chairman of the National Science and Technology engineering and later worked in public service, the outdoor temperature after a rainy spell) and and decided to become an engineer instead. Board (NSTB) in 1991, a part-time position he held consulting and then banking. adjust the control parameters accordingly (e.g. “Singapore was in bad shape in the 60’s; we until 1999. Th e government gave NSTB just fi ve years Nevertheless, despite the allure of these raise the temperature setting on an air-conditioner were still a colony. Th ere was poverty and many to produce concrete results, such as helping to attract high-paying professions, Professor Hang has some thermostat) without the need for human people could not aff ord medical healthcare,” he foreign investment and growing local industries. “We fi nancial advice for Singaporean youth, including intervention. says. “I thought, at that time, instead of being a had to make sure the fi rst fi ve years succeeded so that his daughter and son, 26. “Don’t chase money, Beyond air-conditioners, intelligent control doctor, if I became an engineer, I could help the we would have a next fi ve-year plan,” he says. let money chase you. When you are successful in systems have much wider application in robotics, country create wealth, and more people could By seeding a group of talented researchers, your work, at the minimum, you will be wealthy disk drive manufacturing and even in healthcare. aff ord healthcare.” his eff orts would eventually bear fruit and lead in knowledge.” “We are now coming up with the next generation It was all rather anti-climactic when Professor to multinational companies making signifi cant Singapore should certainly be thankful of rehabilitation equipment, which are light Hang found out that the University of Singapore investments here. Th e fi rst fi ve-year National that Professor Hang himself chose not to “chase weight, low cost, and can be rented or borrowed did not have an engineering programme in 1966. Technology Plan in 1991—with a budget of S$2bn money”. Among his many engineering and and put at home, cutting out travelling time,” says Undeterred, he studied in the electrical (S$3.1bn in today’s dollars)—was renewed; two research contributions to the country, one bears Professor Hang. engineering degree course at the Singapore decades later, the 2011 plan had a fi ve-year budget reiteration: the “intelligent” air-conditioner, which of S$16.1bn. will help reduce energy use—and sweater sales— For his contributions to championing research in this tropical island.

040 041 Shaping molecules and universities

Huang Hsing Hua

By Shuzhen Sim

n biology, form and function are inseparable. Molecules of identical chemical makeup can bend, twist and rotate into a variety of diff erent conformations. Th is aff ects their physical interactions with other molecules, and determines how accessible their reactive I groups are to enzymes, the proteins that catalyse chemical reactions essential to life. For instance, our basic senses—sight, smell, sound, taste and touch—depend on cascading signals initiated by the docking of appropriately-shaped molecules onto receptor proteins. As molecules are tiny—a raindrop contains about one billion billion (1018) water molecules— chemists have developed ingenious techniques to determine their shape. Th ey bombard molecules with electron beams, magnetic fi elds, and just about every wavelength along the electromagnetic radiation spectrum from everyday radio waves to biologically-hazardous gamma rays. Th e molecule’s response to these perturbations off ers insights into its structure. Huang Hsing Hua, professor emeritus of chemistry at the National University of Singapore (NUS), is one such molecular detective. A physical organic chemist, he has spent his career developing methods to reveal the shape of organic molecules, and thus better understand the mechanisms behind the reactions they participate in.

042 Credit: Cyril Ng SCIENCE ON A SHOESTRING the molecules to have two polar symmetrical halves on research and innovation as an economic driver. with the unique chemical and physical properties connected by a bond between the two carbon Th e Science Council started to accept applications occurring at the interface of two phases, such Professor Huang came to Singapore from Malaysia atoms. Because the two halves rotate around the for research funding. Meanwhile, money began as solid-liquid or solid-air, and has applications in 1952 to study chemistry at the University of carbon-carbon bond, the molecules cycle through to fl ow in from unconventional sources such as in areas such as semiconductor manufacturing, Malaya (UM). After doctoral studies at Oxford several diff erent conformations and energy states. Singapore Pools, the state-owned lottery fi rm. industrial catalysis and fuel cell production. Under University, he returned to Singapore in 1959 to By measuring the various dipole moments In 1981, the newly-formed NUS appointed his leadership, NUS established a surface science work as a lecturer. Professor Huang could work out the angle Professor Huang as deputy vice-chancellor. He laboratory in its department of physics, which At the time, many university faculty and of rotation, and thus deduce the molecule’s was charged with promoting interdisciplinary allowed for collaborative work with its department staff had left for Kuala Lumpur, where another conformation, along with its potential reaction research, which integrates concepts, techniques of chemical engineering. UM campus was being established. “We were left mechanisms. and data from multiple fi elds of study to solve Th is laboratory was an early iteration of with only a skeleton staff in Singapore,” he recalls. Although Professor Huang worked with complex problems. Dealing with outbreaks of the many NUS-founded research institutes that Given these meagre resources, Professor synthetic organic molecules that do not exist in infectious diseases such as infl uenza and Ebola, for are multidisciplinary in nature today, including Huang decided to revisit a research area from nature, this technique could also be broadly applied example, requires cooperation between medical the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology his master’s programme at UM. Th is involved to other naturally-occurring molecules that are professionals, biologists, epidemiologists and (IMCB), the Institute of Materials Research and using dipole moments to deduce the shape of soluble in non-polar solvents such as benzene. public health authorities. Engineering (IMRE), and the Institute of Systems organic molecules. Professor Huang’s molecular- “No one can predict the issues that science Science (ISS). Chemical bonds—in detective work—fi rst on dipole and society will consider most pressing in the As the research environment at NUS essence, electrostatic attractions moments, then later on other decades to come,” says Professor Huang. “Th e improved, the university started to attract talented between atoms—hold molecules analytical techniques such as integration of research and education through students and post-doctoral researchers from together. In some molecules, infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet interdisciplinary training prepares a workforce to around the world. “By the time I retired [in 1997] these bonds are polar, meaning No one can photoelectron spectroscopy, undertake scientifi c challenges in innovative ways.” NUS had started to make a name for itself,” says that there is a separation of and X-ray crystallography—has Th e value of interdisciplinary collaboration Professor Huang. positive and negative electric predict the issues contributed to the theoretical is well accepted today. But researchers at the time In recognition of his contributions to science charges within the bond, known that science understanding that chemists now felt that they could more easily make advances and and to the university, Professor Huang received as a dipole. have of molecular conformation achieve recognition within their own fi elds, and the NUS Distinguished Science Alumni Award A water molecule (H O), and reactivity. were thus reluctant to engage with those outside. in 1999. 2 and society will for example, is polar because Th is knowledge underpins “Nevertheless, it was important because real life its electronegative oxygen atom consider most modern advances in applied fi elds problems or issues require for their solution a GOING BEYOND HEAD attracts negative charge away such as molecular pharmacology. combined attack using knowledge from diff erent KNOWLEDGE from its two hydrogen atoms. pressing in Th is includes the design of eff ective disciplines,” says Professor Huang. Th e dipole moment is a measure drugs, which requires detailed To encourage them to venture outside the Professor Huang is optimistic about the future of of polarity or the degree of charge the decades to knowledge of how molecules confi nes of their own fi elds of expertise, Professor NUS under its current administration, although separation, and can provide interact in three-dimensional space. Huang held formal seminars and informal he is unsure when it will achieve its ultimate goal information about the position come. For his scientifi c contributions conversations with NUS staff . From his tenure of producing a Nobel laureate. “Singapore has been of atoms around the bond. to the fi eld of physical organic onwards, NUS started to look favourably on very successful in producing people with book As research funds were low chemistry, Professor Huang funding requests for collaborative projects, and knowledge,” he says. “But beyond that you need in pre-independence Singapore, received the National Science hosted interdisciplinary conferences in a variety of people who can think originally to really make a UM was focussed mainly on Award in 1994 from the National areas, including environmental science, computer huge impact.” teaching. So Professor Huang, in keeping with the Science and Technology Board. science, mathematics and biomedical engineering. Since his retirement in 1997, Professor resourcefulness of the times, used a dipolemeter Professor Huang’s own fi eld of research had Huang has dedicated a large portion of his time built from scratch by his supervisor. It was made SHAPING A UNIVERSITY already matured by the time he became deputy to studying the Bible. But that’s not enough. out of inexpensive radio components: oscillators vice-chancellor. Another of his roles, then, was to With religion, as with science, he believes in the that emitted radio waves at fi xed and variable Funding for research remained extremely limited identify new research niches in which Singapore importance of linking theory with practice, of frequencies, a high-precision condenser (a glass in the 1960s-70s, and many would-be academics could develop an expertise. He recruited talented translating book knowledge into action. For tubing that cools hot gas into its liquid state), as turned instead to careers in the foreign service faculty members in burgeoning fi elds such as him, part of the answer lies in volunteering at well as a cell made by a local glass-blower. or in politics. During those years the research nanotechnology and surface science. St Andrew’s Community Hospital, where he In addition to this improvised equipment, budget for the entire university was a few hundred Surface science, in particular, was spends time talking with patients and keeping Professor Huang also used a simple but novel thousand dollars. “You can imagine how much where Professor Huang saw opportunities for them company. method of synthesis to create new organic each department got,” Professor Huang says. interdisciplinary collaboration. Th e fi eld deals molecules—derivatives of ethane (C2H6)—that Th e situation improved in the 1980s, when would serve as his subjects for study. He designed the government began to place more importance

044 045 The rainmaker

Lam Khin Yong

By Grace Chua

ow does an underwater mine shockwave travel through the sea towards its target? What happens to a pager when it is dropped from a certain height? And if a fi re breaks out in an enclosed space, how does the smoke fi ll the room? H Lam Khin Yong, 58, chief of staff and vice-president for research at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), has explored or managed all these research questions and more in a three-decade career. A professor of mechanical engineering, his expertise and consultancy work for companies has also helped secure more than S$200m of research grants and collaborations for the Singapore research community, including a S$75m lab with aerospace giant Rolls-Royce. In other words, Professor Lam has managed to combine two successful careers: one as a hands-on scientist and another as one of Singapore’s preeminent research rainmakers.

HUNGRY FROM DAY ONE

As a young graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor Lam developed hydraulic fracturing methods—the same technology widely used in the oil and gas industry, especially for shale gas extraction today. His research focussed on modelling a fl uid as it travels through a narrow channel and interacts with its surroundings. He worked on a complete simulation of hydraulic fracturing in three dimensions, fi rst understanding the basic physics behind fl uid movement, then building mathematical models to explain how fracking would work under various fi eld conditions. With his advisor, Professor Lam developed software based on this work. It was later used by industry to simulate underground oil extraction.

046 Credit: Cyril Ng Most importantly, he learned to be helped the Navy design naval vessels that could better mechanics had merged with the national centre In 1999, the IHPC signed a research entrepreneurial. “I think my MIT training gave me withstand underwater shock. for supercomputing research and services to form agreement with Rolls-Royce and Imperial College an added advantage,” he says. “My professor was Five years later, his team became the fi rst led the Institute of High Performance Computing London. “We had a supercomputer in Singapore, always on the lookout for funding and I learned to by a university academic to win the Ministry of (IHPC), under the auspices of the NSTB and later but the data had to be couriered to Imperial in be hungry from day one.” Defence’s Defence Technology Prize for its work. A*STAR. As the NUS centre’s founding director, those days because the network link was not When he graduated, oil and gas companies Professor Lam also became founding director of strong,” Professor Lam recalls. tried to recruit the newly-minted PhD, but he decided BEYOND EXPLOSION IHPC, which studies the properties of materials Meanwhile, NTU and Rolls-Royce had to return home in 1985 to be nearer to his family. SIMULATIONS and fl uid movement. Its visualisation group is the been collaborating on an ad-hoc basis since 2005, He joined the National University of fi rst in Asia to have a three-dimensional immersive but a long-term working relationship had yet Singapore (NUS), which at the time was just One advantage of Professor Lam’s specialty, visualisation “cave”. to crystallise. beginning to grow into a major research university. computational modelling, is that it is endlessly “Th e most interesting and fun years I had “Essentially, we needed to fi nd a common But research funding was hard to come by at versatile. were when I was running IHPC,” he says. “You platform and agree on thematic research areas that the time. “Th ere was no NSTB [National Science “If you have the skills and the basic are like a ‘super-PI’ [principal investigator, the integrated the university’s mandate of basic research and Technology Board], no A*STAR [Agency understanding of physics, you can apply these to lead researcher in a group], running research in and innovation with Rolls-Royce’s emphasis on for Science, Technology and Research], only the any other domain,” he says. “Before computational your fi elds of interest and managing a large team. fast-tracking applications for commercialisation,” Science Council of Singapore,” he says. “It was one modelling, you had to do experiments; these You, your colleagues and PhD students do basic Professor Lam says. or two years before I got my fi rst PhD student.” could tell you whether a design would pass or research, but the results get adopted by companies So when the National Research Foundation fail in the engineering sense, but computational and agencies.” announced its Corporate Laboratory scheme A LUCKY BREAK modelling helps you understand its behaviour in Despite his intimate knowledge of academia- in 2013, in which major fi rms would co-fund various conditions.” industry collaborations, Professor Lam never really dedicated research labs at local universities, NTU In 1991, while working as the principal investigator With the Navy as its fi rst major client, word considered joining the private sector. and Rolls-Royce were perfectly placed to work on a project to model the eff ectiveness of civil- soon spread of Professor Lam’s underwater shock “It was always clear that my primary interests together. Th e Rolls-Royce@NTU Corporate defence shelter doors, Professor Lam dreamt up his laboratory. Th is spawned several more industrial lay in academia,” he says. “I also enjoy forming Lab, jointly funded by the National Research fi rst big research project for Singapore. collaborations with fi rms such as Motorola and research partnerships and naturally gravitated Foundation, Rolls-Royce and NTU, was born. Having served his reservist duty in the ST Kinetics. towards bringing like-minded researchers and “I believe it is our long partnership of trust Singapore Navy, he was already familiar with For instance, in a project for Motorola, industry counterparts in collaboration. Th erefore, and mutual understanding which allowed us its design and testing procedures for new vessels Professor Lam’s modelling was used to answer the IHPC was a natural progression while I was in NUS.” to resolve any diff erences, and come to mutual and equipment. Recognising the need for vessels question: how will a pager casing behave when it is Following IHPC was a string of more agreement with relative ease,” he adds. to better withstand shock, Professor Lam and dropped from a certain height? (In the process he administrative appointments, such as head of In April 2015, NTU and ST Engineering, a his team carried out computational modelling to surely saved the lives of many “crash-test” pagers.) A*STAR’s graduate academy, to nurture students local engineering giant, announced a S$53m corporate simulate fi eld conditions. One memorable project, Professor Lam for science and engineering fi elds; chair of NTU’s laboratory in robotics and autonomous systems. “It In 1993, his project recalls, was modelling the ventilation system for school of mechanical and aerospace engineering; took me and my colleagues more than a year to get proposal received a S$3.13m the Esplanade’s theatres. His research questions associate provost for graduate education and the lab proposal approved,” Professor Lam says. (S$4.6m in today’s dollars) included: how will cool air fl ow through the space special projects; and chief executive offi cer of Today, Professor Lam continues to help grant—one of the biggest at to make the temperature even for all audience NTU Innovation. In these capacities, Professor guide NTU’s research directions and hopes to be the time—from the Naval members? If there is a fi re, where will the smoke go? Lam helped manage ever-bigger budgets and tasks. active for many years yet. I think my MIT Logistics Department and In all, between 1995 and 2007, Professor At a larger level, Professor Lam believes DSO National Laboratories. Lam helped secure more than S$30m of external, LINKING INDUSTRY AND Singapore should strengthen its collaborations training gave Th us was born the underwater competitive research grants for computational ACADEMIA between universities, research institutes, national me an added shock laboratory at NUS. mechanics work, from companies and agencies and industry in a triple helix partnership, Professor Lam, with organisations. As NTU’s chief of staff and vice-president for to create real research impact and innovation. advantage… I support from his colleagues Over the years, advances in computing research today, he helps to manage research in an It should also continue eff orts to get students and students, used a mini power have sped up modelling and simulation array of fi elds. In 2013, for example, he helped the excited about a science or engineering career. learned to be supercomputer bought with tasks. Supercomputers that once performed one university secure a major collaboration with Rolls- “I hope these eff orts will translate not only the grant money to model million operations a second can now perform a Royce, a renowned British engine and power- into creating a future generation of exemplary hungry from shock waves and the resulting billion times that, Professor Lam explains. systems fi rm. STEM [science, technology, engineering, bubbles travelling through “Problems that seemed insurmountable years But the S$75m lab, which studies electrical mathematics] leaders and researchers at home day one. water, such as from underwater ago have become routine tasks,” he says. “And we power and control systems, manufacturing and but also create a generation of Singaporeans who mine explosions, analysing now have the capacity to solve challenges in a virtual repair technologies, and computational engineering, are curious and appreciate the spirit of scientifi c their interaction with the environment on a scale never dreamt of before.” is actually the product of a long courtship. inquiry and innovation,” he says. surroundings. Th e research By 1998, the NUS centre for computational

048 049 Bloom where you are planted

Gloria Lim

By Rebecca Tan

emale researchers make up 27% of all researchers in Singapore today, a fi gure close to the global average of 30%. While this puts Singapore ahead of Japan and South Korea (13% and 15% respectively), it is still far from parity and lags behind Malaysia F (37%) and the Philippines (52%). One of the factors contributing to the imbalance is that girls have historically been given fewer educational opportunities. Even when they were allowed to go to school, science was not deemed a suitable subject. Such was the case for Gloria Lim, a retired professor in botany at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Although she had no background in science, having come from a girls’ school which did not teach science at all, she nonetheless found her way into the science faculty, joining the University of Malaya (UM) the year it was founded, 1949. “When I applied to the university, they fi rst gave me a course in the arts faculty,” Professor Lim recounts. “My mother said, ‘No, if you’re going to do arts you might as well go to teacher training straight away.’ So I appealed to the university and they put me in science. And lo and behold, in my fi rst year I was like a sponge, absorbing all the scientifi c things around me.” Professor Lim went on to become one of two inaugural honours graduates from the department of botany. Subsequently, she served as the fi rst—and only—female dean of science, as well as the fi rst female member of the Public Service Commission (PSC), roles for which she was awarded the Public Service Star in 1993 and the title of distinguished science alumni in 2005 by the NUS faculty of science.

050 Credit: Bryan van der Beek MAD ABOUT MYCOLOGY their plant-like appearance. “Th e botanists left the IT’S (STILL) A MAN’S WORLD many other women before her. In 1991, she was department one by one,” she says. appointed founding director of the National As much as she enjoyed and excelled at science, a Despite funding constraints, Professor Lim In 1982, Professor Lim was invited to join PSC, Institute of Education (NIE)—thereby helping to life in academia was then seen as an unconventional over the years managed to publish hundreds of a body tasked with recruiting and managing transform the Institute of Education (IE) into a career path for women. Th erefore, in addition research papers, with the help of her students civil service talent. Approached for her extensive fully-fl edged degree-awarding institution. to completing a master’s in plant pathology, she and through experience gained from sabbatical experience in the university, particularly in managing “My role was very clear: to raise the IE to a hedged her bets by doing a diploma in education, stints overseas. tenure committees, Professor Lim university standard,” she says. at the suggestion of her mother. Apart from authoring several books on served PSC for 14 years, bringing “Going in as a sort of outsider, I She was then posted to Raffl es Girls’ School. mycology, she has also consulted for both the a diff erent perspective to their could sense a kind of resentment. But the university’s botany department also wanted private and public sectors—serving on the scientifi c selection policies. I knew I had to tread carefully her. “So I would teach in the morning and rush back advisory board of MycoBiotech, a company “One of the things I asked for and yet at the same time be fi rm to the university in the afternoons—I had more focussed on medicinal mushrooms, and advising was more female physical education We mustn’t in implementing the changes energy in my younger days!” she the Ministry of Defence when (PE) teachers; they had never sent a required.” shares, laughing. they had mould problems in their woman to do a scholarship for PE keep thinking By the time she stepped Eventually, H. B. Gilliland, underground storage bunkers. before,” Professor Lim says. of only doing down in 1994, NIE was off ering the head of botany, submitted When Professor Lim not only four-year bachelor’s Professor Lim’s name for NAVIGATING stepped down in 1996, PSC applied research degrees, but also master’s and the Inter-University Council [Fungi] can POLITICAL TURMOIL again became a male dominion. PhD qualifi cations. Fellowship, which allowed her Th at changed in 2009, when because we need Professor Lim regards to complete her PhD at the cause disease, Professor Lim’s ability to “cut Chua Sock Koong, CEO of the students she has taught, University of London. Upon but they can according to the cloth given” Singtel Group, and Lily Kong, basic research as many of whom have already her return to Singapore, she also served her well during two vice-president of NUS, joined it. retired, as her most important continued her work on fungi, also heal you… stints as dean of the University Despite these and other our foundation. legacy. Nevertheless, she establishing a name for herself as of Singapore’s science faculty— accomplishments by women remains concerned that too a mycologist. important drugs fi rst in 1973-77, then for a period in Singapore, Professor Lim is Buildings few Singaporeans—male or For Professor Lim, living in in 1980. Right from the start, sceptical about the progression female—are pursuing science the tropical climate of Singapore like penicillin certain colleagues questioned of gender diversity in the without strong careers. is a mycologist’s dream—the her suitability for the role. country. Even today, she notes, foundations Although Singapore has humid environment supports a were fi rst found Th ere were other problems the fellows of the Singapore achieved economic success, she diverse array of fungi, as anyone at the student level, too. “I National Academy of Science are topple over, says, there is still much to do. who has ever left out a slice of in fungi. remember being stuck at the top all male. Complacency is dangerous, bread would know fi rsthand. fl oor of the Bukit Timah campus “I’ve come to the stage no matter how partly because resource allocation Over the course of her during a student riot protesting where I feel that there will remains a challenge. career, she painstakingly built up the arrest of Tan Wah Piow,” always be a gender imbalance pretty they “We have to be careful a fungal collection, maintaining Professor Lim says. “It was an in Singapore,” Professor Lim about the areas of research we a unique repository of the region’s under-studied exciting time for me—I learnt a lot of lessons on contends. “I’ve seen it in my may look above go into, because money used fungal species. Unfortunately, when the zoology how to cope with situations of that kind.” own life—50 years and still no improperly can be bad for us,” and botany departments were later merged after [In 1974, Mr Tan, president of the University change. I noticed that all the ground. she cautions. “We mustn’t keep Professor Lim’s retirement, there was a shift in of Singapore’s Students’ Union, was charged, other retired deans were given thinking of only doing applied emphasis towards zoology, perhaps because fungi convicted and sentenced to one year in prison for appointments. When I retired, I research because we need basic was generally then seen more as a problem than unlawful assembly and rioting, after being accused was never off ered any opening. research as our foundation. a resource. of instigating shipyard workers to agitate against It might never have crossed their Buildings without strong “Yes, they can cause disease, but they their employers. He moved to London in 1976 and minds, or they thought I was incapable. Either foundations topple over, no matter how pretty they can also heal you,” Professor Lim stresses. “For has been living there in exile ever since.] way, the diff erence was stark, at least to me.” may look above ground. It’s also crucial that we example, important drugs like penicillin were fi rst Professor Lim’s second term was much develop our own people and put them in leadership found in fungi.” shorter. Shortly after she was re-elected as dean CALLED OUT OF RETIREMENT positions, people who understand our history Th e new department discarded her fungal of the science faculty, the University of Singapore and context.” collection, which is ironic, considering that as and Nanyang University merged. She then stepped Although some glass ceilings have been Perhaps some of these roles might even eukaryotes or cells with nuclei, fungi are actually down in favour of Koh Lip Lin, the Nanyang dean harder to crack, the fi eld of education has been be fi lled by women, she says, with a twinkle in more closely related to animals than plants, despite and a former member of parliament. much more welcoming of Professor Lim and her eye.

052 053 Growing a research culture

Lim Pin

By Grace Chua

hen he was a young doctor and one of Singapore’s early clinician-scientists, Lim Pin, professor of medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS), saw patients, lectured at the university’s medical school, went about “begging” from foundations W and fi rms for research funding, and wrote his papers at night and on weekends. He proved naysayers wrong, showing that medical papers from tiny Singapore were in fact good enough to be published in brand-name journals such as the British Medical Journal. Today the trim, articulate grandfather of ten is best known for his contributions to NUS. In the course of becoming its longest-serving vice-chancellor, he built the university into a modern research powerhouse.

054 Credit: Cyril Ng PUTTING SINGAPORE ON THE Lim admits, because doctors then had to do more able to go much further, other than assembling two dollars of R&D funding for every public MEDICAL RESEARCH MAP calls than they do today. “Th e only time you had for toys,” he says. “We needed scientifi c expertise, and dollar—the right mix, contends Professor Lim, and research was weekends and your own time... I had a the mindset of the workers too needed to change, in line with other developed countries. Professor Lim, the son of a Chinese-school very indulgent family.” to develop inquiring minds and a research-oriented But he believes the prerogative is still with the principal and teacher, was a top student at Raffl es Funding was another challenge. In the kind of culture.” public sector to initiate and direct research. “And if Institution, and subsequently chose to study university’s early days, just after Singapore With policymakers starting to view research the private sector sees that the research is relevant to medicine. “You’re always challenged by problems separated from Malaysia in 1965, scientists less as wasteful expenditure and more as an their needs, they’ll join in,” he says. that are not trivial—they involve people’s lives and often had to seek research support from family investment in Singapore’s future, Professor Lim suff ering,” he says. “Th e attraction was being able foundations and pharmaceutical fi rms. “We were and others successfully lobbied for the Institute of A MATURE RESEARCH CLIMATE to do something of value.” bankrupt,” Professor Lim says, in reference to the Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), opened in In 1963, when Professor Lim returned entire university’s paltry annual research budget of 1985 at a cost of S$25m (S$42m in today’s dollars) In 2004, the IMCB was incorporated into the Agency from the University of Cambridge, he spent his S$20,000 (S$78,000 in today’s dollars). to perform research on subjects from immunology for Science, Research and Technology, which was days tending to patients at the Singapore General “Whatever money we needed, we sourced on to plant cell biology. It was one of the fi rst research setting up its Biopolis research campus. “It was a bit Hospital. A holder of a Queen’s Scholarship—the our own,” he says. “But even as a lecturer, I thought: institutes at NUS. painful, but it’s all for a good cause,” Professor Lim precursor to Singapore’s President’s unless we do some research, it’s Th e university had spent years scouting for and admits. “Th ere is better synergy between institutes if Scholarship—he also lectured at not a university; it’s a glorifi ed recruiting talented Singaporean researchers, such as they are managed under one umbrella.” the University of Singapore. high school.” plant biologist Chua Nam Hai, who had already Since those early, lean days, Singapore’s Before long, he noticed a Even the lack of a laboratory established careers abroad. “We managed to get a commitment to science and technology has been clinical problem: kidney- and did not deter him. In order to core of maybe half a dozen good people,” Professor on the right track, he thinks. “In the early days, heart-failure patients, who Unless we do analyse samples, he collaborated Lim says. “It was like a crystal—once we were able to [science] as a career was not quite as attractive. had ostensibly normal levels of with colleagues at the hospital’s get a nucleus sorted out, it grew very nicely.” Now, respect is there and the remuneration is magnesium in their blood, were some research, biochemistry department, Even Glaxo, a pharmaceutical fi rm, donated quite respectable.” still suff ering the symptoms of off ering them joint authorship of S$6m (S$10.1m in today’s dollars) to the institute, Importantly, he says, the government believes magnesium defi ciency, such as it’s not a publications. “Many of my senior spearheading public-private sector symbiosis that science and technology are fundamental for cramps and muscle weakness. colleagues had never dreamed in Singapore. Singapore’s future development. “Th e ultimate Magnesium’s role in university; it’s of being able to publish in an “Glaxo... had a large manufacturing operation objective is to produce something useful to the metabolism takes place within a glorifi ed high international journal [the New in Singapore that made an antacid called ranitidine, socioeconomic development of Singapore,” he says. cells, where it binds to and guides England Journal of Medicine],” and they decided to do something as gratitude to On the question of managing Singapore’s a molecule called ATP that serves school. Professor Lim enthuses. Singapore and encourage it to move up the science human resources, Professor Lim believes it is as a key cellular energy source. His time in the UK had and technology ladder,” says Professor Lim. “Plus, as important to both recruit the best foreign talent Professor Lim guessed that any given him the confi dence to the industry became more and more high-tech, you available while grooming local scientists for the magnesium in the blood must successfully break through this need support, labs, training and so on... So it was long term. As vice-chancellor, he scaled up NUS’s be an imperfect indicator of a psychological barrier. “Our also in their interest!” senior tutor scheme, which hired promising young person’s true magnesium levels. people are equally driven, With encouragement, incentives and funding, graduates, sent them abroad for their PhDs, and gave Professor Lim and his colleagues tested these equally bright, so why are we not there?” he muses. the university’s research output grew. Professor Lim them jobs on graduation. (It was later replaced by patients’ tiny muscle samples, which proved a more “Had I not gone abroad, I wouldn’t have been able made research a key determinant of promotion for the NUS Overseas Graduate Scholarship scheme.) accurate method of assessing true magnesium levels. to compare.” professors, and prioritised funding for projects that Today, those onetime senior tutors include Th ey found that many patients were suff ering from relied on interdisciplinary collaboration. Brenda Yeoh, dean of NUS’s arts and social magnesium defi ciency. Th e prestigious New England FROM CLINICIAN-RESEARCHER In the 1980s, the university’s research budget sciences faculty, and Karina Gin, professor of Journal of Medicine and the British Medical Journal TO KEY ADMINISTRATOR was “a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year”; environmental engineering. published their fi ndings. by the time Professor Lim stepped down as vice- At 79, Professor Lim continues to see “Th at’s the secret to any good research project,” By 1978, Professor Lim was head of the chancellor in 2000, NUS had a multi-million dollar patients and tutor endocrinology trainees and says Professor Lim. “You start with a question, do university’s department of medicine. Th e following annual research kitty and half a dozen research undergraduates. He has also chaired the national a search of the literature, and you fi nd out people year, the university appointed him deputy vice- institutes, including those in the social sciences such Bioethics Advisory Committee and the National have not done something which you think ought chancellor, and then in 1981, vice-chancellor, the as the East Asian Institute. Wages Council. to be done. Th at’s what science is about. You look university’s top administrative post. At 45, he had “I think my biggest contribution was to create “Endocrinology is my specialty; I still read at something strange or unusual, and ask ‘Why?’” a chance to really build up NUS’s research prowess. and strengthen the research culture on campus, and journals and keep up in this area of medicine— Th eir work shifted clinical thinking on how “By the 1980s, [Singapore’s] economy had I hope that has rubbed off onto the whole country,” there’s always something new. Medicine’s always to treat such patients, prompting doctors to look improved, and there was a general realisation that he says. growing,” Professor Lim says. “But younger people beyond blood for magnesium defi ciencies. unless we moved up the ladder in terms of manpower Today, the private sector contributes about are more agile; I’m an armchair researcher now.” Finding time for research was tough, Professor training and technology and skills, we wouldn’t be

056 057 The builder

Low Teck Seng

By Juliana Chan

ome people think of him as an electrical engineer and educator, but “builder” makes perfect sense as well. From colleges to research institutes and government agencies, Low Teck Seng, S professor of electrical & electronic engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), has built and run some of the largest organisations in Singapore. It has been a long journey for the boy from Kuala Pilah, a small town in Negeri Sembilan. When Professor Low moved across the Causeway, it was with only one intention in mind: to complete his pre- university education and apply to a local university. In those days one could study for the GCE ‘A’ levels at Singaporean secondary schools, as National Junior College was the country’s only junior college. So Professor Low worked towards his ‘A’ levels at Swiss Cottage Secondary School, under principal Rudy Mosbergen (later Raffl es Junior College’s founding principal). But shortly after the exams were over, Professor Low was rejected by both NUS and the University of Malaya. “Th ey didn’t want me,” he says wryly. On the advice of a family friend, he applied to and was accepted by Southampton University in the UK. Th ere, his passion for engineering led him to a fi rst class honours degree in electrical engineering in 1978, and a PhD in 1982. In 2009, his alma mater conferred on him an honorary science doctorate.

058 Credit: Bryan van der Beek SOME PEOPLE SAID I WAS With the support of Philip Yeo, then chairman uses the intrinsic spin of electrons become more eff ective at assessing individual WORKING ON LODESTONES of the Economic Development Board of Singapore and their associated magnetic performance without compromising the intellectual (EDB), and funding from the National Science and moment to develop new magnetic freedom on which discovery science depends. For Professor Low, one memorable episode Technology Board (NSTB), Professor Low founded materials and structures for To gauge Singapore’s R&D performance, from the UK revolves around his undergraduate the Magnetics Technology Centre (MTC) in 1992. It’s a good and circuits and devices. Professor Low believes the overall rankings of fi nal year project—when he developed a two- As founding director of MTC, later re- Bringing together institutions are important, to a degree. Being ranked dimensional model for permanent magnets under named Data Storage Institute (DSI), he diversifi ed bad thing, right? researchers at NTU and NUS, highly on international lists helps EDB and NRF the mentorship of KJ Binns, an infamous, cigar- its initial portfolio of mechatronics, tribology and the Singapore Spintronics attract global technology companies to Singapore, chomping professor. coding to encompass magnetic sensors, media and Today our young Consortium (SG-SPIN) was where they will co-create intellectual property and A magnet, like those on refrigerator doors, optics. MTC helped to attract and root key data established in 2015 to develop contribute to the economy, he says. Th ese rankings is any material that has its own magnetic fi eld, i.e. storage manufacturers in Singapore, including people have next generation technologies for also help academic institutions in Singapore recruit the property of being ferromagnetic. Permanent multinational companies such as Seagate, Maxtor, data storage and microchips. talented faculty and graduate students. magnets are made from “hard” ferromagnetic Conner Peripherals and key magnetic media options because Founding industry members “I think our government has been very, very materials such as ferrite (ceramic) and alnico (iron companies. Today Singapore manufactures are Applied Materials Inc, Delta patient,” he says, about the time that has been taken alloys of aluminium, nickel and cobalt), and do not about 40% of the world’s hard disk media, a key of Singapore’s Electronics and GlobalFoundries. to get Singapore’s R&D off the ground. lose their magnetism easily—as opposed to “soft” component of hard disk drives. Advances in spintronics materials, such as iron alloys of nickel and zinc, Professor Low attributes his success at DSI to success. could lead to, among other BUILDING A PIPELINE OF YOUNG which do. Professor Low modelled the properties of good luck and friends, including senior colleagues things, personal devices that are SINGAPOREAN LEADERS permanent magnets and validated his fi ndings with from around the world who helped him chart a road faster, more energy-effi cient, and experimental data. map for the fl edgling institute. have a larger capacity. Imagine His portfolio may have since changed, but you Despite Professor Low’s initial apprehension DSI would go on to spawn many successful not having to charge mobile cannot take the educator out of Professor Low. about Professor Binn’s esoteric teaching style, the alumni, such as Lee Yuanxing of Avago Technologies, phone batteries on a daily basis; and being able to Of the various institutions Professor Low has research led to his fi rst publication, in the IEE a Singapore-based global microelectronics and store almost infi nite amounts of data on laptops, contributed to, he is most sentimental about his Proceedings Part B journal, which he says is the most technology fi rm; Gu Guoxiao, who runs a design accessing them in a fraction of a second. stint as founding principal of Republic Polytechnic satisfying paper he has ever published. centre in Singapore for Western Digital, a US When Professor Low took charge at NRF, in 2002, which led to him receiving the Public Returning on a high from the UK in 1983, technology fi rm; and Wang Jian-Ping, professor Teo Chee Hean, Singapore’s deputy prime minister Administration Medal (Gold) in 2007. Professor Low was shocked by the “abysmal” labs of electrical and computer engineering at the and chairman of NRF, gave him two key objectives. At Republic Polytechnic, he established a and research facilities at NUS’s department of University of Minnesota. Th e fi rst is to foster collegial competition between problem-based learning approach, modelled after electrical engineering. For his role in establishing DSI and the the various research groups across Singapore. the one employed by Olin College in the US. “It To make matters worse, NUS did not have support it provided for the growth of the data Collegiate competitiveness, Professor Low contextualises concepts that you want students graduate students to help Professor Low with his storage industry here, Professor Low received the says, is achieved when scientists have the ability to learn and it is very integrative. You don’t silo research. But he persevered, writing code with National Science and Technology Medal in 2004. to work together on collaborative projects, such as things,” he says. He is hopeful that this type of undergraduate students and collaborating with SG-SPIN, while maintaining a healthy competition integrative curriculum will help to build a strong NUS colleagues Chua Soo Jin, Daniel Chan and A BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF R&D between themselves, to “egg each other ahead”. It is pipeline of young, enthusiastic and entrepreneurial the late Jacob Phang. IN SINGAPORE a delicate balancing act, he says. technologists for Singapore. To add to his list of growing concerns, the Professor Low’s second target is to realise On the broader national R&D landscape, it fi eld of magnetics was “not popular” with funding In 2012, after serving as dean of engineering at benefi ts from Singapore’s R&D investments for is essential for Singapore to have a vibrant talent agencies. “Some people attributed the work I NUS, founding principal of Republic Polytechnic, Singapore and Singaporeans. But assessing R&D pool of scientists and engineers. Professor Low wanted to do on permanent magnets as working and managing director of the Agency for Science, outcomes is an inexact science. says that Singapore must have deeply-rooted locals on lodestones!” he says. Technology and Research (A*STAR), Professor In Singapore, there has traditionally been in leadership positions to complement the many Lodestones, naturally ferromagnetic materials Low took on a new, complex portfolio, as chief an emphasis on individual KPIs (key performance foreign scientists who have come to develop their made out of mineral magnetite, have developed executive offi cer of Singapore’s National Research indicators), which distill a researcher’s output into a careers in Singapore. a poor reputation within the scientifi c fraternity Foundation (NRF). set of numbers. Nevertheless, he is well aware that young after years of misuse by charlatans, for instance as Th e NRF is a department in the Prime “Forget about KPIs,” Professor Low says, people today, like his son, a National Serviceman amulets and good luck charms. Minister’s Offi ce that coordinates the R&D eff orts believing they are reductive and force unnecessary who intends to study chemical engineering at NUS, Fortunately for Singapore, Professor Low had across Singapore. It also funds projects in areas focus on individual achievement. He calls for a more may have other career plans. “It’s a good and bad by then met his wife-to-be, and they intended to where Singapore has a strategic interest, such as nuanced approach to assessing R&D outcomes, one thing, right? Today our young people have options settle down locally. Th is helped to repel job off ers water technology, clean energy, satellite technology which shifts the pressure of achieving results from because of Singapore’s success,” he muses. from the UK and the US. And the local naysayers and urban sustainability. the individual to the system as a whole. Brick by brick, his generation has laid the who did not value his research would change their Of the many areas NRF has supported, one No doubt, individual assessment is necessary. foundations; Professor Low often wonders who will minds in the late 1980s, as the data storage industry of them is particularly close to Professor Low’s But Professor Low believes that the system can take over. grew in signifi cance and importance in Singapore. heart: spintronics, an emerging technology that

060 061 The defence science maverick

Lui Pao Chuen

By Grace Chua

hen armies store explosives, it is in heavily-secured ammunition dumps equipped with blast barriers, vast buff er zones and other safety measures. In 2000, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was so impressed by Singapore’s R&D in W ammunition storage that NATO incorporated the fi ndings, sparking a revision of international safety standards. Singapore’s eff orts eff ectively made ammunition dumps around the world more compact and space- saving than ever before. But how is it that a tiny country in South-east Asia, which has never expended a single round on a battlefi eld, could become a guide for a war-seasoned region 10,000 km away? All this is the result of a calculated risk by one man: Lui Pao Chuen, adjunct professor of industrial and systems engineering at the National University of Singapore, and Singapore’s chief defence scientist from 1986 to 2008.

GOING UNDER

In an eff ort to free up land for residential and industrial use, in 1994 Singapore’s urban planners asked the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) to move its ammunition storage site, a British colonial vestige, out of Seletar East. Th e 100-hectare site crippled land usage far beyond its own boundary—nothing could be built for 300 hectares around it, while buildings for 800 hectares around could not have large glazed windows in case of an explosion. MINDEF tasked Professor Lui with fi nding an alternative site. He thought of moving the dump underground at a disused granite quarry. One at Mandai appeared the most feasible. Th e quarry had already been dug out, providing easy access; it was not being used for anything else, and any potential blasts would be shielded by solid rock.

062 Credit: Cyril Ng Th ere was just one problem: the existing safety underground storage working group,” says Professor military presence from Singapore by the middle of Tong, then the defence minister, to lobby for more codes, which had been developed for rural mining Lui. “Th e international experts participated in our 1968. As the SAF rushed to mechanise with tanks, engineers, to maintain equipment, test it, and write in an earlier era, did not adequately address ground tests and were satisfi ed with the scientifi c evidence that artillery, new aircraft and ships, Professor Lui was the software for it. shock—specifi cally, the impact of an accidental we had used to determine our safety codes and gladly caught up in the resulting scramble. “Th e jump Th ree decades on, the military employs some blast on surrounding high-rise concrete buildings. accepted them. Th at’s how Singapore’s safety codes from infantry force to armoured force was actually 5,000 engineers, up from 250 at the time. “Without Singapore thus had to begin developing its own became international codes.” a consequence of... the withdrawal of the British,” that jump, we could not have gotten the maximum safety models. he says. benefi t from all the investments we had made,” “Th at motivated me to go back to the HAIRY ESCAPES As project director for the SAF’s fi rst Professor Lui says. fundamentals,” says Professor Lui, who studied physics armoured vehicle, Professor Lui was placed in some Singapore’s modern-day military and defence as an undergraduate at the University of Singapore. He Professor Lui’s journey from young physics graduate precarious positions. industry is a well-oiled machine, a far cry from those soon discovered a simplifi cation in the formula used to chief defence scientist was, in his opinion, One narrow escape was while he was testing gung-ho days when young graduates like Professor to determine safety distance in the current ammunition fortuitous. In 1966, the 22-year-old was working an armoured vehicle for amphibious use in the Lui were entrusted with large responsibilities. “We storage standards. When 20 ammunition pallets are for a British science research body—part of the Jurong River. Th e driver had his hatch open, as must make full use of the knowledge that has been placed together, for instance, conventional explosion country’s lingering presence in Singapore in the per testing procedure, but Professor Lui, up in the created over some 50 years, and not have to make models regarded them as a single large mass. “But in a immediate post-independence period—capturing turret, saw the vehicle tilting nose-down when it the same mistakes again,” he says. realistic storage confi guration, they behave more like radio signals from a satellite that orbited Earth. entered the river. But for all the military’s technological might, 20 smaller masses,” explains Professor Lui. “Th e peak A former classmate who was helping develop “I went down to tap the driver on the shoulder to Professor Lui, it is still people who are the source pressure from an explosion would be much lower than Singapore’s nascent defence industry informed to close the hatch and bring the vehicle up, and at of its strength. “When I look back, armoured if they were a single mass.” Professor Lui that the military needed technical that moment, I saw a wall of water,” says Professor vehicles, aircraft missiles—all these are objects,” To develop and test the models, the personnel. Lui. “It struck me, and I didn’t have a helmet on so he says. “It’s people and organisations that live and Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) gathered local and “I went to see the director of logistics at the my head hit the turret basket, which knocked me grow and appreciate over time, while equipment international experts from as far MINDEF headquarters on Pearl’s out. I was unconscious for two minutes.” depreciates. It’s the people that make the diff erence, as Norway and the US. Th e team Hill. In the organisation chart of Although the driver fl oated up, Professor Lui not the hardware.” tested explosions of up to ten the logistics division there was a was trapped inside the vehicle, which had gone metric tonnes of ammunition in section called Test, Evaluation down sideways in the water. “When I came to, my A CULTURE OF SECRECY varying terrains, including the While some and Acceptance and I would be fi rst thought was: ‘If I don’t fi nd my way out, my son harsh deserts of New Mexico and the offi cer-in-charge. I asked: will have no father’,” he says. Professor Lui’s own career path, from young graduate the snowy landscapes of Sweden. things must be ‘What do I do?’ ‘Everything we Fortunately he managed to escape through experimenting with standards to chief defence Work at the Mandai buy, you test,’ he said.” one of the vehicle’s side doors. From that point on, scientist, has mirrored the evolution of Singapore’s quarry began in 1999, and the kept secret, you Professor Lui soon had he conducted all water training with a scuba diver military, from a young nation just fi nding its way to underground ammunition facility a personal hand in almost all in attendance. a technologically advanced force to be reckoned with. was offi cially commissioned in must also allow new military supply. Consider In 1973, he returned from a two-year stint at Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that he 2008. It is recognised as the uniforms. “We couldn’t use the US Naval Postgraduate School with a master’s believes that the next stage of the military’s maturity world’s most urban and compact information the Western sizes, so the tailor degree in operations research and systems analysis. will depend on greater openness. ammunition dump for its large measured me and we decided At the time, the amount of engineering work at “While some things must be kept secret, you capacity. to fl ow so that I was a medium. So whenever MINDEF had dipped, and the engineers there were must also allow information to fl ow so that knowledge Building the underground I went to the store and drew a farmed out to the rapidly expanding commercial can be accumulated,” he says. “Knowledge, if not facility, a world fi rst for such knowledge can uniform, it was a perfect fi t,” defence industry, and to places like the Public shared, is lost.” an urbanised area, “created a be accumulated. he says. (Sizing charts have Works Department. Th at era marked the growth For instance, researchers often buy satellite diff erent mindset—that we dare, since been reassessed for today’s of the Chartered Industries of Singapore, which images of Singapore from commercial fi rms. But that we believe in our physics,” Knowledge, better-nourished soldiers.) was producing weapons, ammunition and other there are local agencies and institutes taking images Professor Lui says. Moving the He grew similarly equipment, and of defence fi rms like Unicorn of Singapore that are newer and of higher-resolution. ammunition facility from Seletar if not shared, acquainted with bullets for the International. If scientists are barred from using these for security to Mandai has freed up about 300 AR15 assault rifl e. “When the But by 1980, Professor Lui says, “it was very reasons, Professor Lui argues, science loses out. hectares of land, or an area half is lost. fi rst batch was ready, I tested it clear that we were spending a lot on defence, but the “If you don’t know what you don’t know, then the size of Pasir Ris New Town. and bang! A bullet exploded. engineering capacity was inadequate to support that you are making decisions based on only a subset of Moreover, as with water Th ey had put too much charge level of capital expenditure.” Compared to Israel available knowledge,” he says. “Th at’s a very serious purifi cation, a resource shortage— in the casing... bits of brass or Sweden, Singapore had a sixth of the engineers loss. So I’m an advocate of openness and shared data.” land, in this case—had spurred embedded in my arm were per dollar of military spending. “Either we were six For that spirit of generosity and universality Singapore to innovate, in the process setting new global quickly removed.” times as smart, or we were doing only a sixth of what it is not just all Singaporeans, but ammunition- standards. “Th e top expert from Norway sponsored Later that year, the British shocked many when they were doing.” storing countries across the world as well, who owe Singapore to become a member of the NATO they announced that they would withdraw their He presented the fi nding to Goh Chok Professor Lui a debt of gratitude.

064 065 The physicist turned publisher

Phua Kok Khoo

By Rebecca Tan

aborious experiments are conducted with expensive equipment. Th e results are painstakingly recorded, then depicted on graphs and narrated in prose. But those fi ndings do not become part of our collective scientifi c knowledge until journals L publish them. In that sense, academic publishing is the handmaiden of science, helping to disseminate knowledge and spark new ideas. Th e industry has evolved dramatically from its humble origins, 350 years ago, when the Royal Society of London published the world’s fi rst scientifi c journal. Today it is a multi-billion dollar industry dominated by an oligopoly of for-profi t publishers, “Th e Big Four”: Reed-Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer and Taylor & Francis. (Elsevier is the science and medical publishing arm of Reed-Elsevier.) In the natural and medical sciences, the Big Four and the American Chemical Society together accounted for more than half of all journal articles published in 2013. Th e Big Four were all founded sometime between 1807 and 1880. Each has hundreds of years of institutional history and signifi cant economic clout. But in 1991 they were in for a rude shock. World Scientifi c Publishing Company (World Scientifi c henceforth), a young, Singapore-headquartered fi rm, won the publishing rights for the Nobel Lectures, which had been held by Elsevier since 1901. “When we started World Scientifi c in 1981, there weren’t any world-class international publishing houses in Asia,” recalls Phua Kok Khoo, the fi rm’s founder and director of the Institute of Advanced Studies at Nanyang Technological University. “Th ere were established publishers in Japan and China, but they focussed on Japanese or Chinese language titles. Encouraged by Nobel Prize winners that I knew personally—Abdus Salam and C. N. Yang—we decided to start something in the English-speaking environment of Singapore.” (Full disclosure: World Scientifi c is a shareholder of Asian Scientist Publishing, the publisher of this non-commercial book.)

066 Credit: Bryan van der Beek THE ‘GOLDEN AGE’ OF Furthermore, Professor Phua was certain that the THE DIGITAL AGE 65%; the company expects it to rise to a long-run THEORETICAL PHYSICS world’s scientifi c centre of gravity was shifting to equilibrium of about 70%. Asia. He was eager to free researchers in Asia of Just like the rest of the publishing world, academic Professor Phua, who obtained his PhD from their dependence on Western publishing houses. publishing is facing severe digital disruption. Th e A HUNGER FOR HOME-GROWN the University of Birmingham in 1970, began Starting a publishing company from scratch, unusual structure of the industry has long made HEROES his scientifi c career as a theoretical high-energy however, was risky. Professor Phua and Doreen for a very profi table business. Driven by the need physicist, seeking to understand the mathematical Liu, his wife, had two young children at the time. to “be published”, the scientists who produce the What does concern Professor Phua, however, is the behaviour of elementary particles within an In order to raise the necessary capital, they had content relinquish copyright control to the journals relative lack of a culture of reading and creativity atom’s nucleus. to mortgage the family home. Th ankfully, their for free; the content is then peer reviewed for free; in Singapore. “What students here lack is the “In the early 1970s, there were many gamble paid off . and the demand for subscriptions urge to learn,” he notes. “Unlike theoretical physicists returning to Singapore from Now in its third decade, World Scientifi c is inelastic. In 2012 Elsevier enjoyed Cambridge or Harvard, you don’t their training overseas,” he says. “Many of them were has a stable of 10,000 books and 130 journals and a profi t margin of 38% on revenues see students on the campuses here alumni of Nanyang University and returned there more than 500 employees across its offi ces in China, of £2.1bn (about S$4.2bn). reading. Without that habit, we to teach, making its theoretical physics department India, Israel, Japan, Germany, the UK, the US and, of Journals used to turn a become machines, able to read and very strong.” course, Singapore. (By comparison, blind eye on informal sharing Th ere’s no point write but not think out of the box.” As opposed to experimental Elsevier, the world’s biggest journal of published works within the Th is segues onto another physics research, which sometimes publisher, has a stable of 33,000 scientifi c fraternity. But in recent in talking about of Professor Phua’s longstanding requires multi-billion dollar books and 2,500 journals.) times, as the world wide web has how many years concerns: the need for Singapore to facilities such as the Large Hadron Publishing is not “If you look at the statistics, catalysed the (free) distribution better groom home-grown scientifi c Collider, the fi eld of theoretical more and more good research of published papers, copyright it will take for talent. Citing the example of Nagoya physics can progress with little like banking or papers are being published by Asian holders have sought to exercise University in Japan, which has more than a pen and a piece of researchers. We were fortunate to their legal rights, ordering the Singapore to produced six Nobel laureates since paper. More important than opening up a have entered the market at the right removal of content from websites, 2001, he feels that it is possible for computers, contends Professor time,” Professor Phua quips. including professors’ home pages. produce a Nobel other Asian countries to create a Phua, are “ideas, creativity and restaurant—it’s a Despite its international All this has attracted a culture of research excellence. innovation”. growth and interest from potential growing chorus of dissent. Arguing laureate; we need “If you study how Nobel Th e discipline’s low cultural activity, buyers, Professor Phua is adamant that publishers make huge profi ts laureates produced their best work, budgetary requirements, combined that World Scientifi c must remain out of what is typically publically- to talk about you will see that fl exibility and with the wave of returnees, meant not totally a family business. Ms Liu is the funded research, scientists such as the courage to try new ideas was that theoretical physics enjoyed fi rm’s group managing director Fields medallist Timothy Gowers creating the right instrumental,” he says. “So there’s what Professor Phua considers a commercial. while their son, Max Phua, is its have called for a boycott of major no point in talking about how many “golden age” in Singapore’s post- managing director. publishers that hide their research environment years it will take for Singapore to independence years. “Publishing is not like behind expensive paywalls. produce a Nobel laureate; we need “Right up to the merger banking or opening up a New business models, fi rst. to talk about creating the right with the University of Singapore restaurant—it’s a cultural activity, including the successful open- environment fi rst.” in the 1980s, we [Nanyang University] were not totally commercial,” he stresses. “Running access Public Library of Science As a recently appointed fellow publishing papers in the best journals in the fi eld, World Scientifi c as a family business allows us to series, have also sprung up in of Singapore’s National Academy places like the American Physical Review and others,” publish books that might not make a lot of money the last decade. Many countries, of Science, Professor Phua hopes says Professor Phua. “But when the funding shifted but are the best in the fi eld. For example, we just including the UK and the US, are in the midst of a to infl uence more young people to choose science to more applied research we had to change our focus published a book of selected writings of the leading legislative shift towards greater open access. as a career. He also serves on the board of schools to survive.” physicist Freeman Dyson. It probably won’t be a Th rough it all, Professor Phua remains including Hwa Chong Institution, the National For Professor Phua, that was the spur not for bestseller but it is an important record of the life confi dent that World Scientifi c will continue to University of Singapore High School and Pioneer a simple research shift, but a foray into an entirely and work of a world-class scientist.” succeed if it sticks to its guiding principles. “I think Junior College. Meanwhile, World Scientifi c sponsors new industry—science, technology, engineering According to Professor Phua, what the game is still the same. Th e most important one student every year to attend the Lindau meeting and mathematics (STEM) publishing. distinguishes World Scientifi c from the competition thing is still content—whether people access it where they get to meet Nobel Laureates. is the fact that it is run by a scientist with a natural electronically or on hard copy,” he says. “While some of our top students may still end KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY love for science. Other fi rms tend to be managed In any case, World Scientifi c’s digital transition up in law school or medical school because their by “accountants, lawyers and businessmen”, who appears well underway. All of its journals are currently parents feel those are ‘safer’ careers, we cannot be too Th ankfully he had a hereditary head start. may not have had research experience. Th ey can available digitally as “hybrid journals”—with the practical,” he says. “Science, after all, is more than a Professor Phua’s father, Phua Chye Long, owned a end up prioritising commercial imperatives to the option for authors to pay to make their articles open means to an end but a culture and tradition, something Chinese publishing company, South Island Press. detriment of the science. access. Digital’s share of revenues is already some I hope I can impress upon younger Singaporeans.”

068 069 Building a treasure chest of medical data

Kanagaratnam Shanmugaratnam

By Shuzhen Sim

anagaratnam Shanmugaratnam, emeritus consultant at the National University Hospital (NUH) and emeritus professor of pathology at the National University of Singapore (NUS), holds court in his NUH offi ce, surrounded by the tools of his K trade—microscope, slides and years of carefully-collated reports. Sprightly, razor-sharp and Internet-savvy at 94, Singapore’s “Father of Pathology” exudes an air of calm, methodical professionalism. “I’ve been looked after very well by all the consultants here,” he says matter-of-factly, referring to the three stents in his heart. Professor Shanmugaratnam has been working continuously in the fi eld of histopathology—a medical specialty in which diseases are diagnosed by the microscopic examination of tissue samples— since 1948. He is best known for establishing the Singapore Cancer Registry (SCR), a treasure trove of data that has proved invaluable to clinicians, researchers and public health administrators seeking to monitor and control cancers affl icting the Singaporean population. He is also an internationally-renowned expert on nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a cancer of the upper respiratory tract, which disproportionately aff ects ethnic Chinese.

070 Credit: Bryan van der Beek THE WAR YEARS Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a World common among the Cantonese, whereas oesophageal Once cancers have been diagnosed, Health Organization (WHO) agency based in and stomach cancers are more common among the histopathologists further classify them according Professor Shanmugaratnam enrolled at Singapore’s Lyon, France, and later by annual donations from Hokkiens and Teochews. to a detailed range of criteria. Th ese include the type King Edward VII College of Medicine in 1938. But the Singapore Cancer Society and research grants Patterns of cancer occurrence in Singapore have of tissue in which the cancer arises, how abnormal the Second World War and the attendant Japanese from NUS. also changed over time—incidence rates for prostate the cells of a tumour look, and the severity of the occupation of Singapore, which lasted from 1942 to Th e SCR was the fi rst comprehensive, cancer, colon cancer and lymphomas have risen, while disease—whether or not it has spread to other organs, 1945, interrupted his studies. Left adrift, he and his population-based cancer registry in South-east Asia. incidence rates for oesophageal and stomach cancers for example. Classifi cation is not just an academic fellow medical students had to fi nd work of some sort Singapore, says Professor Shanmugaratnam, was an have dropped. Understanding these trends allows exercise; it helps doctors make a prognosis and decide to avoid being taken away for manual labour. ideal country in which to establish such a registry. high-risk groups to be targeted with screening and on a course of treatment. Th e Japanese Army Medical Corps had taken Even back then, there were regular censuses of the prevention programmes. Follow-up studies, which Drawing on his expertise in histopathology, over and converted the College of Medicine building population, identity card numbers for all citizens and monitor patients over time, can also be done to assess Professor Shanmugaratnam was largely responsible into bacteriology and serology laboratories. Professor permanent residents, and good hospital diagnostic the eff ectiveness of treatment regimes. for developing the WHO’s classifi cation of NPC. He is Shanmugaratnam found work there as a laboratory facilities that were easily accessible across the island. Professor Shanmugaratnam served as the SCR’s the leading author of the fi rst (1978) and second (1991) technician, and later also at the Chuo Byoin (Central Still, the sheer amount of data posed challenges. director from 1968 to 2002. “As a pathologist my editions of the book, Histological Typing of Tumours of Hospital)—the pre-war KK Women’s and Children’s To ensure completeness, registration was based on main concern was diagnostic the Upper Respiratory Tract, and also an editor on the Hospital, which during the war was turned into information from several sources: cancer notifi cation work,” he says. “But I felt that this third edition of the book, Th e International Classifi cation a general hospital for local and Japanese civilians. forms submitted by doctors, hospital discharge was important data to collect. of Diseases for Oncology (2000). “It was a very tough time, of course—no forms from all government hospitals, reports from Such information is essential for medications, and diffi culties with food and personal all pathology departments, and death statistics from the development and evaluation AN EVOLVING DISCIPLINE, AND safety,” he says. “But as far as laboratory work was the Registrar of Deaths. Patterns of of cancer control programmes.” A LIFETIME OF LEARNING concerned, under limited circumstances, we did “Th e diffi culty was that we had no computing cancer are In 2001, the SCR, bulging fairly well. It was during those years that I developed facilities when we fi rst started, and that made with more than thirty years of Over the course of a career that has spanned an interest in pathology. I was always interested in cancer registration a very diffi cult, time-consuming changing so data, was transferred to the almost seven decades, Professor Shanmugaratnam has laboratory work on the science side, rather than the operation,” recalls Professor Shanmugaratnam. Ministry of Health. It is now seen the discipline of pathology change dramatically. actual care of patients.” “Everything had to be done by hand.” rapidly that what part of the National Registry While simple tissue sections and stains were the Professor Shanmugaratnam’s classes at the Th e SCR employed just two secretaries and one of Diseases Offi ce, which also standard in the 1950s, pathologists today have access to College of Medicine resumed in June 1946. He record searcher to handle its day-to-day operations. happens in the comprises registries for acute a range of techniques, including electron microscopy, graduated in 1947, and joined the Government Th ey would manually collate the data and transfer myocardial infarction (heart cytopathology (examining cells instead of tissues), Medical Service as an assistant pathologist the it to 80-column punch cards—a now-obsolete data next 10 to 15 attack), chronic kidney failure, immunohistochemistry (the use of antibodies to label following year. He went on to complete a PhD in entry system that involved punching holes in stiff stroke and trauma injuries. cell constituents) and molecular diagnostics (detecting pathology at the University of London in 1957. IBM-made paper cards to encode the information. years may not be While electronic medical genetic changes in cancerous cells, for example). Th ese were shipped to Lyon where they could be read record systems have simplifi ed the Professor Shanmugaratnam still conducts CATALOGUING DECADES OF DATA and tabulated by IARC computers. representative of maintenance of disease registries, fortnightly seminars for trainee doctors in the After a decade of operations, the SCR what happened their importance has not department of pathology, and consults on diffi cult In 1950, keen on observing local disease patterns, eventually acquired its own computing equipment, diminished. “Patterns of cancer cases referred to him by colleagues from both Professor Shanmugaratnam started a simple card largely through the eff orts of Chia Kee Seng and before. are changing so rapidly that what public and private hospitals. Keeping up with new index of all histologically-diagnosed cancers in Lee Hin Peng, now professors at the NUS school happens in the next 10 to 15 years developments in the fi eld has thus become a deeply- Singapore. At the time, the government’s department of public health, who were actively involved in may not be representative of what ingrained habit, now facilitated by modern technology. of pathology, where he was based, provided histology developing the registry. happened before,” says Professor In his free time, Professor Shanmugaratnam services for the whole island, making record-keeping Since 1983, the SCR has published regular, Shanmugaratnam. enjoys reading about local history, and also listens to a simple undertaking. detailed reports on the incidence and patterns of Indian classical music, in which he was trained. He But not all cancers are histologically diagnosed. various cancers in Singapore. Th is data allows public CLASSIFYING CANCERS used to play the pullankuzhal (or venu), an Indian Other methods, such as radiology (the use of imaging health personnel to identify interesting or unusual bamboo fl ute. techniques, including X-rays and ultrasound) are trends among diff erent ethnicities, age groups, In addition to founding the SCR, Professor But simply being able to do his job, he says, is also used, especially when tumours are located in occupations, or other demographic groups. Shanmugaratnam is an expert in the histopathology what gives him the most satisfaction. “I’m glad I have inaccessible locations such as the lung. In 1967, For example, Singapore’s three major and epidemiology of NPC, one of the cancers been able to continue working after retirement as a part- Professor Shanmugaratnam founded the Singapore ethnicities—Chinese, Malays and Indians—have aff ecting the upper respiratory tract. NPC caught time consultant in the NUS department of pathology.” Cancer Registry (SCR)—a nation-wide registry that diff ering cancer incidence rates: Chinese have the Professor Shanmugaratnam’s attention because of And so every weekday morning, without fanfare would capture all cancers regardless of how they highest risk of developing nasopharynx, lung and colon its unusual disease pattern. Rare in most countries, or ceremony, Professor Shanmugaratnam arrives at are diagnosed. cancers, Malays ovarian cancer, and Indians mouth it is one of the leading cancers in southern China his offi ce to peer quietly down the eye-piece of his Established in NUS’s department of pathology, cancer. Among the major Chinese dialect groups in and South-east Asia. microscope, looking for the answers within. the SCR was initially funded by the International Singapore, nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is more

072 073 Tea and mitochondria

Sit (Wong) Kim Ping

By Grace Chua

n most animal cells, there are tiny structures called mitochondria, often called the powerhouse of the cell. Th ey convert the food we eat into the energy needed for a cell to run, and are thus part of the very fabric of life. I But what about the fabric of a quilt? Sit Kim Ping, professor of biochemistry at the National University of Singapore (NUS), weaves mitochondria into the quilts she makes in her spare time. Th e petite, dapper 75-year-old spreads out one of these elaborate quilts, as long as she is tall, on a couch at the home she shares with her clinician husband. “It took me three years to make this. Here, you can see the date, 2008,” she says. Th e intricate fabric—patterned with squares, hexagons and triangles—bears words such as “mitochondria” and “ATP”, a molecule that ferries energy around cells. Professor Sit has applied the same dedication to her 50-year career, which has been spent studying metabolism—the cellular interactions that make life possible. With more than a hundred international publications, she has, among other things, shed light on human brain and liver functions, as well as the workings of cancer cells.

074 Credit: Cyril Ng EARLY LIFE metabolised for use by the body, and they or their “With oxygen, you get 32 molecules of and commercialise the biomedical sciences. At metabolic by-products must be excreted somehow. ATP with every molecule of glucose [that is the time, six departments including biochemistry, Th e fi fth of nine children born to a successful To be excreted, those by-products must be broken down]. But anaerobically, you only get microbiology, physiology and others taught 90 restaurateur and his wife, Professor Sit grew up in made water-soluble by having a small molecule two molecules of ATP,” Professor Sit explains. or so life sciences modules “with considerable Katong in the postwar years. At Tanjong Katong produced by our cells such as a sulphate attached What baffl ed scientists: why would cancer cells duplication”. Professor Sit chaired the working Girls’ School, she developed a love for mathematics to them, in a process called conjugation. Only then use a respiratory process that produces fewer ATP committee that integrated and streamlined the and science. Later, at the University of Singapore, can they be passed out in urine or bile. Th e liver is molecules with which to ferry energy around the modules and implemented its new life sciences she chose to study science and topped her cohort the main organ that performs this function, but cell? And, with fewer ATP molecules than cells curriculum the following year. with fi rst-class honours. the kidneys and brain do too. that respire aerobically, where do cancer cells get From 2007 to 2014, Professor Sit also served “Medicine was a long course, fi ve years, and the energy to grow? as a research integrity offi cer at NUS, one of fi ve very structured. I decided to do science, as it was THE INCREDIBLE However, on further investigation, Professor faculty members appointed to look into reports of only three years long, but at the end of the day, MITOCHONDRION Sit and her colleagues found mitochondria still potential falsifi cation or plagiarism. “Th e pressure with postgraduate studies, I graduated later than working and respiring aerobically in cancer-tissue is to publish big—and quick,” she admits. “So these my schoolmates,” she laughs. Early on, Professor Sit’s research centred around samples, which ran counter to “the Warburg cases are everywhere, not just here [Singapore].” In 1965, she went to Canada’s McGill understanding the mechanisms by which this hypothesis”. Th ey published their data on ovarian Th e most common issue, Professor Sit says, is University on a Commonwealth scholarship for conjugation process occurs. For instance, she cancer in 2011 and renal cancer in 2015. possible self-plagiarism, in which a researcher graduate studies in biochemistry. “In those days, examined how various substances are conjugated Professor Sit says that for years, the duplicates his or her own previously-published if you wanted to study the body at that level, it and excreted in rats—not only within the liver, but mitochondrion has been her favourite organelle work in another journal without proper citation of was all biochemistry,” she says. “Th ere was hardly in other tissues and organs in the body. Where do (a specialised subunit within a cell, with its own the earlier paper. anything about cell or molecular biology; those conjugation reactions occur? How do diff erent drugs specifi c function). “In metabolic pathways, without Asked if there was anything she would have came much later.” or their by-products, for example, get removed from the mitochondria, nothing would work,” she says. done diff erently in her career, Professor Sit says, Amidst the chill and dark of the Canadian the body and how long does this take? So for instance, while processes inside the cell— “My only regret is that I did not collaborate with winters, where graduate students often laboured Even the brain, she found, is able to carry out in the liver or, say, the brain—make metabolic others that much, although I did collaborate and till the wee hours of the morning and slept in these conjugation reactions. “Nobody expected by-products water-soluble, it is mitochondria that publish with a few clinicians in recent years on the department’s sick-bay, something clicked for that,” she says. “Up to now, I’m still thinking generate the energy to pump them out of the cell. tumour biology.” Today, producing a high-impact Professor Sit. about these possibilities, particularly in relation to publication often takes a larger group of people to Th e specifi cs of the experiment are lost to time, children with autism.” BIOCHEMISTRY IN SINGAPORE address a research question from diff erent angles. but she says, “I was doing thin-layer chromatography One research hypothesis she had hoped “Nowadays, you don’t see any publications with a [a type of separation technique] and suddenly I saw to test is whether autism is related to a disorder Over tea, fruit, and a ginger and pear cake, solo author, and sometimes there are 25 authors or something and said, hey, that’s interesting... You where either some brain neurotransmitters are Professor Sit reminisces about improvised lab more in one paper,” she says. see something that you didn’t expect, and you have not conjugated properly and thus cannot be equipment in the 1970s, such as one made by a Since her retirement in 2015, Professor Sit has to fi gure it out.” But such little “perks” of research excreted; or some other molecule in the brain gets colleague: it was a cooking pot with a stand drilled had more time to spend on her hobbies: crafting are few and far between, she admits, “because most conjugated instead of the target neurotransmitters. with holes to accommodate multiple test tubes for and quilting. She sews her own cheongsams, experiments don’t work.” Unfortunately, she retired before she could explore boiling over a Bunsen burner. collects fabric swatches from her travels, and Soon, she became interested in metabolic this idea further. “When you’re desperate enough, you innovate,” knits. “I’ve quilted for 30 years,” she says. “And processes. She carried out experiments in which Meanwhile, she was also fascinated by she says. “When I moved out of my lab the research every Saturday when I was a little girl, I used to she fed or injected diff erent another research question that assistant said, ‘Prof Sit, what is this? It looks like a go to the Singer [sewing-machine supply] shop substances into rats, and involved cancer cells and the power drill.’ Th ese days we have lots of ready-made to do machine embroidery, and I still have some then analysed their metabolic mitochondria within them. equipment, so we didn’t need the drill anymore and beautiful pieces.” products. “Th ere was lots of About 80 years ago, they didn’t know what it was.” It turned out that a Although Professor Sit lives far from her testing of rat urine,” she says. Otto Warburg, the German pestle, which replaces a rotating drill bit, was used to daughter and son—a pediatrician in London and a “You put the rat in a cage with When you’re biologist and Nobel laureate, homogenise rat livers at high speed. research engineer in Los Angeles, respectively—she wire netting at the bottom, and observed that cancer cells Early in Professor Sit’s career, biochemistry makes it a point to have tea every Sunday with her collect the urine.” desperate produce energy by a process was regarded as an illustrious discipline. But as 102-year-old mother and siblings, most of whom In particular, Professor Sit enough, you called glycolysis, which does not molecular and cell biology techniques improved in are based in Singapore. She shows off a family was fascinated by a biological involve oxygen, rather than by the last two decades, biochemistry became “like an quilt: a patchwork of fabric tea cups, saucers, plates process called detoxifi cation innovate. ordinary mitochondrial (aerobic) antique”. But it is making a comeback, she says: and cakes, each block picked out and sewn by a (much diff erent from today’s respiration, which does. He “Once you’ve done the cell biology manipulation, family member. faddish “detox” diets, which have hypothesised that mitochondrial you still need the biochemistry techniques to prove Quite fi ttingly, the woman who studied no scientifi c grounding). Th ings respiration was impaired in what has happened to its metabolism.” the powerhouse of the cell has no shortage of that enter the body, such as foods cancer cells. In 2001, Singapore began its push to develop energy herself. we eat or drugs we take, get

076 077 A laser- focussed life

Su Guaning

By Juliana Chan

ASER is actually an acronym for Light Amplifi cation by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Laser light is formed when the electrons in a lasing medium are excited to a higher energy state with light or electricity. When the “pumped” electrons L return to a lower energy state, they emit a photon of light, a phenomenon known as spontaneous emission. Occasionally, these photons hit other excited atoms in the lasing medium, amplifying the amount of light by making the atom give off two photons instead of the usual one. Called stimulated emission, this phenomenon is at the heart of how lasers work. In common parlance, the word “laser” can also describe a person’s intense focus on achieving a goal. Interestingly, both the literal and metaphorical use of the word laser can be used to describe Su Guaning, president emeritus and professor of electrical and electronic engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Born into a technically-oriented family—his father was an electrical engineer, and his mother taught mathematics and physics—Professor Su was similarly adept at these topics: “I was also comfortable with abstract things, which you tend to need for electrical things, because it is not a physical thing you can see.” His grandparents had migrated from China to Malaysia in the 1920s to start a school at Tangkak, Johor, near the border of Malacca. His parents, who met while studying at Xiamen University, married and relocated to Taiwan, where Professor Su was born. His family moved back to Malaysia, and then Singapore in 1957, where he joined the primary three cohort two years ahead of his peers at the co-ed Nanyang Girls High School (primary section). Top of his class at Raffl es Institution, Professor Su went on to win a Colombo Plan Scholarship and President’s Scholarship to study electrical engineering at the University of Alberta in Canada, and a fellowship from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in the United States for a master’s degree.

078 Credit: Bryan van der Beek PROJECT MAGPIE and Benny Chan. It was completely cut off from other transform DSO’s old adage of “What have people Service Medal in 1998; he also received the National military units. “I still remember our address was PO done, can I do it also?” to “Here’s a problem, let’s Science and Technology Medal in 2003. In 2015, It was during Professor Su’s master’s degree that the Box 822 Tanglin Post Offi ce,” Professor Su chuckles. solve it. Doesn’t matter if nobody has ever done it Professor Su received the Defence Technology Vietnam War and Singapore’s newly-implemented MINDEF recruited the late Tay Eng Soon, before, we can be the fi rst.” Medal (Outstanding Service) in recognition of his mandatory National Service conscription began to then a lecturer at the University of Singapore, to head In 1983, on his return from Stanford, DSO pioneering contributions to defence technology. defi ne his life and career. ETC and lead its research. Meanwhile S. R. Nathan, appointed Professor Su as its deputy director. In 1986, Professor Su had wanted to continue with his the director of MINDEF’s security and intelligence when he became director, he was fi rm in creating a MANAGING A YOUNG PhD under Amnon Yariv, his Caltech professor and division from 1971 to 1979, interviewed Professor “black box” environment—from the outside there UNIVERSITY supervisor, who is world-famous for his work on Su for his role. (Dr Tay would later go on to serve as was a wall of secrecy and from the inside, engineers lasers and optics. But the Public Service Commission senior minister of state (education); and Mr Nathan had the creative freedom to pursue the best science Taking over at the helm of NTU in 2003 from (PSC), which had awarded Professor Su his original would serve two consecutive terms as Singapore’s possible, free from fi nancial and operational concerns. Cham Tao Soon (see p.26), Professor Su maintained President’s Scholarship, asked him to return. “Th ey president, from 1999-2011.) In 1997, in his quest for even more autonomy, the university’s focus on education, with the said we need engineers, so please come back,” he says. Th e government hastily refurbished the top- Professor Su led the incorporation of DSO as a non- building of three new schools, and the move towards His heart sank, as he had planned on building his secret military research facility, and the team soon profi t company limited by guarantee, henceforth a US-style system, with students undertaking both own laser that summer. began its work. ETC conducted all its transactions— known as DSO National Laboratories. He became majors and minors as part of their degree. Back home, he also realised that being two some worth up to thousands of dollars—in cash. deputy secretary (technology) at MINDEF a year Noting China’s growing importance to the years younger than his classmates made him liable later, where he created a new R&D directorate world, Professor Su also developed strong ties to the for National Service. “If I was born two years early BUILDING UP CONFIDENCE under the Defence Technology country, not least through NTU’s like the rest of my cohort, things would have been IN MINDEF Group (DTG) as DSO National 18,000 alumni there. “In several diff erent,” he laughs. Laboratories’s contracting provinces in China, the very top While Professor Su was waiting for In 1977, Project Magpie evolved into the counterpart. In the new scheme, offi cials of every city have been to conscription, Benny Chan, a senior scholar who Defence Science Organisation (DSO), and Professor DSO National Laboratories was NTU for a short-term programme,” had studied at the University of British Columbia, Su and colleagues no longer had to hide behind a PO the service provider and MINDEF Here’s a he says. China has commemorated recruited him to join a top-secret R&D set-up at Box address. the customer. problem, let’s his contributions with the State the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF). “It was a Th ree years later, Professor Su’s eight-year Th e navy became DSO Council’s 2011 Friendship no brainer,” Professor Su says, as the programme commitment to MINDEF came to an end. He National Laboratories’s best solve it. Doesn’t Award and Guangdong’s 2012 allowed him to conduct military research for applied for a senior tutor position at the newly- customer. “Th ey faced the biggest Friendship Award. eight years in lieu of two-and-a-half years of established National University of Singapore (NUS), threat, in the open seas, without matter if nobody Professor Su stepped down as National Service. which came with a PhD scholarship to study at the support from anywhere. It is very president of NTU in 2011, in the Around 1971-72, at the peak of the Vietnam University of Waterloo in Canada. critical that they protect their has ever done it same year Singapore awarded him war, there was a fi erce air battle over North Vietnam, But MINDEF had other ideas. “In those days, ships,” says Professor Su. the Meritorious Service Medal. where the US was fi ghting Russian surface-to-air when you applied [for a posting or a scholarship], you Later in 2000, Professor before, we can Recognising the value missile systems using electronic warfare. Jamming, had to go through the department head, who at the Su spearheaded the conversion of his numerous experiences as it is called, involves sending interfering signals time was the second permanent secretary, Mr Philip of DTG into a statutory board be the fi rst. to young people, Professor Su against radars to fool detection systems, making Yeo,” says Professor Su. called the Defence Science and started teaching a graduate it diffi cult for anti-aircraft systems to accurately Mr Yeo shrewdly provided a counter- Technology Agency (DSTA), course in 2014, called Systems, pinpoint the locations of planes, ahead of a proposal: a fully-paid PhD scholarship to study where he served as chief executive Complexity and Innovation, missile attack. at any university of his choice. Professor Su took until 2002. where he encourages electrical Witnessing all these military advancements up MINDEF’s off er, and went off to Stanford Th ese are all major milestones in Singapore’s engineering PhD students to broaden their research from nearby, Singapore’s then defence minister, University to study signal processing. long, perhaps never-ending, journey of enhancing areas by applying the tools of complexity science. He Goh Keng Swee, knew that victory in future wars Looking back, Professor Su believes that it was defence agencies and structures. With DSO also started a new undergraduate course in 2015 for would require mastery of the electromagnetic MINDEF’s enlightened decision to support PhD- corporatised and DSTA a statutory board, spending business minors, called Management of Research and spectrum—to fi ght stealthily and remain invisible level researchers like him that helped Singapore’s could be clearly accounted for and objectives made Innovation, where students role-play as CEO and to the enemy. “Dr Goh Keng Swee felt there was electronic warfare capabilities blossom. clear. Th is move also helped both organisations functional heads of companies. a need to develop something special in R&D, in In electronic warfare, other countries would attract Singaporean engineers despite a dwindling “I wanted people to see complex systems some sense a secret edge; that others don’t expect,” never sell their most advanced equipment; even if supply of graduates. Feeling sentimental, Professor from a big picture point of view,” he says. “Th e best Professor Su explains. they did, they sold the systems without the techniques Su says, “Th ese are my babies, in some sense”. alignment is when you can seize opportunities and Dr Goh assembled a rag-tag team of newly- required to make it work. MINDEF researchers had For his contributions to MINDEF as one of do something that you feel is worthwhile.” minted engineers under the codename Project to develop the techniques to make sure the equipment its pioneer defence research engineers, Professor Su Th ere may be many CEO role models out there, Magpie. Needing a further cover, the team coined the worked against a real threat. received the Public Administration Medal (Silver) but if students are looking for a case study combining name Electronic Test Centre (ETC), using the initials “All that required confi dence,” Professor Su in 1989; the Public Service Medal in 1997; the derring-do and laser beams, Professor Su’s own story of its three pioneers: Er Kwong Wah, Toh Kim Huat says, which the new PhDs provided—they helped Public Administration Medal (Gold) and the Long is a fi ne one to tell.

080 081 Laying a sound foundation

Bernard Tan

By Rebecca Tan

oth science and music found a champion in Goh Keng Swee. Few are aware that Dr Goh, better known as the architect of Singapore’s economy and a pioneer of national defence, also sparked the formation of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra B (SSO). A lover of classical music, the then deputy prime minister remarked in 1973 that it was “a scandal” for Singapore not to have its own professional orchestra. Five years later, Dr Goh asked Bernard Tan, a young physics professor at the University of Singapore, to draft the SSO’s fi rst budget. Professor Tan, today one of Singapore’s most frequently performed composers, has juggled science and music throughout his career. He even served as acting head of the university’s department of music from 1977 to 1987 while concurrently with the department of physics. In the realm of science, Professor Tan was instrumental in setting up key facilities such as the Singapore Synchrotron Light Source (SSLS)—the largest single research machine in Singapore—and the Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing (CRISP), the country’s fi rst major foray into space technology. “Your generation cannot imagine how primitive research was in the 1970s before we had all these facilities!” Professor Tan exclaims. “In a sense, people like me and all the others who went into administration helped to build up the research infrastructure. But our own research suff ered as a result— we are the lost generation.”

082 Credit: Bryan van der Beek FROM ACCIDENTAL LASERS TO able to maintain its intensity over long distances or level with unprecedented detail, and has become City University of New York BITNET node by SYNCHROTRONS cut through metal. an invaluable tool in a wide range of disciplines. late 1986. Th e fi rst offi cial email was transmitted (For more on laser—actually an acronym Materials scientists, for example, have used the via a 4,800 bps dial-up link on January 13, Professor Tan completed his undergraduate degree for Light Amplifi cation by Stimulated Emission of SSLS for nanofabrication, while biologists use it to 1987, marking the offi cial date that NUS joined at the University of Singapore and then did his Radiation—see Su Guaning, p.78) image cells or even viruses. BITNET. (By comparison, a modern 1 Gbps PhD at Oxford University on a Commonwealth Th e fi rst few times he and his team turned broadband connection is more than 200,000 times scholarship. He went on to serve as vice-dean of the laser on, nothing happened. Th en one day they PUTTING SINGAPORE ON THE as fast.) the science faculty at the National University of noticed that some plastic in the laser’s path had MAP AND IN SPACE Singapore (NUS) in 1980-85 and subsequently melted. Lasers using carbon dioxide as the lasing NOW TO BUILD A HERITAGE dean in 1985-97. medium produce invisible infrared rays. Th ey had Professor Tan is also particularly proud of CRISP, “Th e trouble is that I entered university been lasing all along; they just didn’t know it. a satellite ground station that collects data and Despite the modern facilities and ample funding administration at a relatively young age,” Professor “Looking back now it was very dangerous images from remote sensing satellites 2,300-3,000 Singapore’s scientifi c establishment now enjoys, Tan says. “I became a vice- because it could have easily km around Singapore. Quick to credit Lui Pao Professor Tan nonetheless feels that there is much dean when I was only 37 and blinded us,” he admits. “But such Chuen (see p.62) and Lim Hock as the driving to be done for science, particularly in terms of our stepped down when I was 54— was the state of how we did things force and fi rst director of CRISP respectively, scientifi c culture. so we’re talking about 20 years back then.” Professor Tan serves as chairman of CRISP to “You may say that our publication record of my research career wiped out Two decades later, Professor this day. is very good, but in terms of people being able to from that point on. I wouldn’t I’d really like to Tan was on to bigger—and CRISP was set up in 1992-93, just in time, think and argue and talk to their peers—not only recommend it to anybody!” much more expensive—things. as it turned out, to monitor Singapore’s fi rst haze in their own departments but other departments Part of the problem, he see Singapore During the last few years of his in 1996. Th e haze, which has occurred almost as well—I think we still have some way to go in says, was the immature research become a catalyst deanship, he focussed on raising annually since, is the result of forest fi res in fully developing that kind of intellectual climate,” landscape—rudimentary lab funds for the largest single neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia. he says. “It’s not about being clever; what I mean is facilities and a shortage of for creativity research machine in Singapore, “We were in a position to capture images of being able to accept criticism and discuss diff ering expertise. “If you want to be in a Helios synchrotron for the the haze, revealing its true extent,” he says. “Our views with our peers.” university administration, you because as we’ve SSLS. “After a lot of eff ort and images of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which could While acknowledging there are no easy need to have a lab with reliable strong support from NUS Vice- not have been obtained any other way, similarly answers in this quest, Professor Tan feels that giving post-doctoral fellows or even a said so often, Chancellor Professor Lim Pin helped with disaster relief.” local scientists a larger say in science policy is one colleague who works with you,” (see Lim Pin, p.54) and the While technologies like SSLS and CRISP important way forward. he says. “I tried to carry on all we have are NSTB (National Science and were necessary to grow Singapore’s nascent “Do Singaporean scientists, even the senior individually with no collaborators. Technology Board, predecessor scientifi c culture, being connected to the wider ones like myself, have great input in the science Even with that handicap, I still our human of today’s A*STAR), we fi nally scientifi c community was equally, if not more, policy of the country?” he ponders. “To be honest, managed to produce ten PhD managed to get nearly 40 million important. Here too, Professor Tan has played a I’d have to say not enough. In any fi eld which you students—some supervised jointly resources. dollars [S$54m in today’s dollars] role, helping Singapore become the second node in are trying to build a heritage in—whether it is with colleagues—which is not to set up the synchrotron, which Asia (after Japan) to join BITNET, a US university scientifi c research or art and music—if you don’t too bad!” was commissioned in 1999,” computer network, in 1987. put your bets on Singaporeans, you can never build One of Professor Tan’s he says. “Before that, access to the Internet and email an indigenous capability. It’s as simple as that.” early accomplishments was Th e SSLS, like other was intermittent. BITNET was signifi cant because Professor Tan also hopes that Singapore building Singapore’s—and possibly South-east electron synchrotrons around the world, produces it gave us a 24-hour gateway to the Internet,” will become a nation that leads the world in its Asia’s—fi rst laser in the late 1970s. Armed with exceptionally intense beams of infrared, ultraviolet Professor Tan recalls. understanding and application of science and barely S$2,000 (S$4,500 in today’s dollars) and and X-ray light by accelerating electrons around His main motivation for joining BITNET technology not only as applied to the needs of home-made glassware, he built a carbon dioxide a curved magnetic ring up to an energy of 700 was to make Singapore more attractive to potential mankind, but also for the sake of satisfying man’s laser together with Tan Kuang Lee, Ong Phee Poh MeV. Th e most powerful electron synchrotron hires. “We always found it diffi cult to recruit good curiosity about the world. and Tang Sing Hai at the University of Singapore’s dedicated to the production of X-rays and other scientists from overseas because they were reluctant “I’d really like to see Singapore become a physics department electromagnetic radiation is SPRING-8 in Japan to come to the other side of the world and be catalyst for creativity because as we’ve said so often, Th e light produced by a bulb is non-coherent, which has an electron beam energy of up to 8 GeV. isolated from the rest of the scientifi c community,” all we have are our human resources,” he says. “I with its photons being emitted randomly in all Th e Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, the he says. “To me, BITNET was a great way to believe those human resources reach their fullest directions; its intensity dims as it travels from its largest and most powerful proton synchrotron in mitigate that sense of separation.” potential in creativity, and that’s best expressed source. In contrast, laser light is characterised by the world at 7,000 GeV, is 10,000 times as powerful Th ankfully, the NUS administration under through science, technology and the arts.” its coherence, meaning that each photon of light as the 700 MeV SSLS. Professor Lim and Th io Hoe Ting, director of the is exactly in sync with all the other photons being Nonetheless, SSLS synchrotron radiation NUS Computer Centre, supported his vision. Th e emitted, producing a focussed beam of light that is allows researchers to “see” structures at the atomic university established sporadic contact with the

084 085 A steady hand at the helm

Tan Chorh Chuan

By Rebecca Tan

ith some 600,000 children aff ected by pre-emptive school closures and thousands placed under home quarantine orders, the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak is one of the worst epidemics that Singapore has faced in living W memory. And yet for two whole weeks after the fi rst case was detected, it was a fear that had no name, as doctors struggled to tame the highly contagious but completely unknown infectious agent. “Facing an epidemic is bad enough,” says Tan Chorh Chuan, president and professor of medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Singapore’s director of medical services at the time. “But having an epidemic of a completely novel virus adds tremendous complexity and diffi culty to the situation as nobody knows the mode of transmission or infectiousness of the new agent. If you don’t know these things, it’s very hard to think about eff ective ways of containing it and managing patients.” All this meant, he says, that the degree of uncertainty and fear in Singapore was very high—and not just among the public, but among health workers as well, especially when it became clear that many of the infections were spread in a hospital setting.

086 Credit: Cyril Ng STEERING SINGAPORE SARS from looking after patients,” he says. Medicine (IMM), Oxford University for a PhD Professor Tan played a key role in setting up the THROUGH SARS Professor Tan received the Public Service conferred by NUS in 1993, to become one of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School to train the Star in 2003 in recognition of his contributions fi rst home-grown clinician-scientists in Singapore. next generation of clinician-scientists. As frontline health workers began succumbing to to the management of SARS, and the Public “When I fi rst came back from my research the disease, the fear continued to grow. Nonetheless, Administration Medal (Gold) Medal in 2004 for CHARTING A COURSE FOR training [1992], there was just a handful of MD- not a single doctor or nurse abandoned his or her his work in the Ministry of Health. CAREER AND COUNTRY PhD’s and a few clinicians involved in research. post, recalls Professor Tan, and several even went Today, we have a much larger number of well- far beyond the call of duty. BEGINNING HUMBLY At the time of his graduation, however, Singapore trained, active and productive clinician-scientists, One such doctor was vascular surgeon was placing greater emphasis on chemicals, at least ten times more than before,” Professor Tan Alexandre Chao, the son of respected forensic Professor Tan fi rst heard his calling to the medical electronics and engineering research—fi elds seen enthuses. pathologist Chao Tzee Cheng. Upon hearing profession as a schoolboy at St. Joseph’s Institution, as the three main drivers of economic growth. In this there are shades of Oxford’s IMM, about the SARS outbreak, the younger Chao when, as a member of the St. John Ambulance Undeterred, Professor Tan continued where during Professor Tan’s time one-third of rushed back to Singapore from a family Brigade, he helped resuscitate a footballer who had doing biomedical research while seeing patients, the researchers were also practicing clinicians. holiday abroad to replace colleagues who had collapsed during a match. eventually winning the Singapore Youth Award Quite naturally, he says, IMM’s basic science been infected and could no longer perform However, as the seventh of nine children, in 1996 for his work on the regulation of work became related to clinical problems and surgeries. Tragically, he too became infected and Professor Tan needed a scholarship to pay for erythropoietin, a hormone that controls red blood patient populations. “Th at rich interaction was passed away, leaving behind his wife and two medical school. “It was pretty competitive,” he cell production. very positive in helping to shape the research young daughters. relates, in his trademark, understated style. “I But his hopes for the scientifi c enterprise in questions,” he says. “Seeing people I know pass away, Alex was thrilled to be accepted [by the University of Singapore extended far beyond his own career. Led Beyond clinical research, Professor Tan among them, was the hardest part of the SARS Singapore], and even more so to receive a scholarship by fellow SJI alumnus Philip Yeo, and working with believes greater collaboration between basic medical crisis for me,” Professor Tan reveals, striking a that allowed me to stay in King Edward VII hall for John Wong (see p.106) and Kong Hwai Loong, research and the social sciences is necessary. sombre note. But, he admits to being “deeply the fi ve years of my studies.” Professor Tan was instrumental in conceptualising “It’s clear that most of the health challenges impressed and appreciative of the fact that our Staying at a hall of residence proved to and setting up Singapore’s biomedical sciences that we face will not be solved by science and health professionals lived up to their calling; be a formative experience, both in terms of his (BMS) initiative. Launched in June 2000, the BMS technology alone,” he stresses. “Th ey also require delivering care under very diffi cult circumstances, introduction to medicine as well as his holistic initiative saw a substantial increase in government social science research to understand the behavioural living with the fear and uncertainty but development. In particular, Professor Tan investment with the aim of making the biomedical and social aspects that infl uence them.” remaining driven by the interests of patients and remembers the words of Khoo Oon Teik, professor sector the fourth pillar of Singapore’s economy. Professor Tan gives the example of chronic the public.” of medicine and master of the hall, to the medical Th e BMS’s challenges included growing non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, Professor Tan himself had to make extremely students just days after they registered. Professor basic science strengths from a low base and which require the active participation of patients diffi cult decisions almost on a daily basis. Perhaps Khoo impressed on them the developing excellent clinical research capabilities, and the community if they are to be adequately the toughest was the temporary re-designation of need to be humble as they while fending off naysayers who thought its managed. This is where social science and Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) from general were entering a profession ambitions unrealistic. behavioural science research can help. to SARS-specifi c care. Th e call was made very with many truly distinguished “Today, as we look at the considerable Indeed, Professor Tan’s ability to synthesise early on. members, and an institution Seeing people I science talent and capability base that we have, the medical sciences with the social and “Tan Tock Seng is one of the largest hospitals whose history stretches back it’s hard to recall those early days,” Professor Tan behavioural, in a time of blinding crisis, is a big and at the time had the busiest emergency to 1905. know pass away, muses. “I don’t feel that there were any substantial reason why he has already established a rich legacy department,” explains Professor Tan. “To Inspired by dedicated shortcomings in the approaches taken, although in Singapore. recommend to close the hospital down to normal and passionate mentors such [Dr Alexandre it might have been good to put a stronger focus “Today, Singapore is immensely better operations on the basis of just thirty suspected as Evan Lee and Woo Keng on building our translational and clinical research prepared for an infectious disease epidemic,” SARS cases was a very big decision, as it meant Thye, as well as Professor Chao] among expertise and capabilities earlier on in the process.” Professor Tan says. “Th e policies, approaches taking out quite a bit of capacity of the health Khoo, who set up the National and protocols are in place, and there are many delivery system.” Kidney Foundation, Professor them, was the AN INTERDISCIPLINARY individuals who have deep experience in the In retrospect, it was the right decision, Tan trained as a nephrologist APPROACH TO THE implementation of control measures.” he believes, because it allowed TTSH’s staff to after his graduation from hardest part of CHALLENGES AHEAD In other words, even if the next enemy has no focus fully on learning how to manage SARS; medical school. the SARS crisis history or name, Singapore should feel confi dent their confi dence and expertise spread through Intrigued by the workings Indeed, the main thrust over the course of his in its ability to fi ght it off . the rest of the healthcare system. “For example, of the kidney, he decided to for me. tenure as president of NUS has been the need for after Tan Tock Seng Hospital ensured that the pursue research alongside his multidisciplinary research, especially collaboration personal protective equipment protocol was clinical practice, completing between clinical research and basic science. rigorously adhered to, there were no further cases his research training at Convinced of the importance of such research, of healthcare workers who became infected from the Institute of Molecular

088 089 A love of waterways

Tan Gee Paw

By Juliana Chan

ingapore ostensibly has lots of water. It falls freely from the sky, and surrounds the tropical island in voluminous quantities. But for decades, these two sources remained out of reach to its people, who had no means to capture or purify it in an S effi cient manner. In the 1960s, Singapore was almost entirely dependent on imported water from Johor, Malaysia’s bordering state. Droughts and fl oods made water a collective concern of this young nation, an existential threat. For instance, a particularly severe drought in 1963 led to a ten-month rationing period, during which it was common to see long queues at public water taps. Over the subsequent fi ve decades, Singapore embarked on a relentless drive to achieve water self- suffi ciency, led by Lee Kwan Yew, its fi rst prime minister. It built up water catchment areas, modernised sewerage systems, cleaned up waterways, and introduced innovations in water recycling and desalination. Few people are as intertwined with Singapore’s water narrative as Tan Gee Paw, chairman of the Public Utilities Board (PUB).

090 Credit: Bryan van der Beek HE KNEW EVERY DRAIN AND the 1970s, PWD had a room-sized ICL 1900 series pressure across a semipermeable membrane. In FROM VULNERABILITY TO CANAL IN SINGAPORE mainframe computer that they used to print their reverse osmosis, conversely, applied pressure pushes STRENGTH bills. With the help of the unit’s manager, Lau Peng water against this osmotic gradient, producing clean Mr Tan’s career began as a junior engineer at the Sum, Mr Tan built mathematical models using a water and leaving both salts and pollutants behind. Mr Tan’s thoughts turn to the 1961 and 1962 Water Public Works Department (PWD) in the late 1960s, computer programming language called Fortran, In the 1970s, though the concept of recycled Agreements with Malaysia, which have guaranteed but only after a last minute change of heart. short for Formula Translating System. water was around, membrane technology was Singapore access to subsidised fresh water—while Having won a Colombo Plan scholarship to “I would go in at night with stacks of punch not advanced or cheap enough to scale up. PUB’s also making the tiny country reliant on its much study marine engineering, Mr Tan was en route to cards… I think it is very archaic to you all now,” fi rst reverse osmosis plant in Ulu Pandan was too larger neighbour. He says that by the time the second the Public Service Commission (PSC) to complete he says, recalling the work he did to complete expensive and its equipment kept breaking down. It water agreement expires in 2061, PUB plans to have the necessary paperwork. Singapore’s First Water Masterplan. lasted just two years. tripled NEWater capacity to meet up to 55% of Feeling pensive, he stopped by Cliff ord Pier to In 1974, Mr Tan joined the Ministry of the By the 1990s, membrane Singapore’s water demand, while desalination will look at bumboats, which used to carry cargo back Environment as an engineer in its environmental technology had improved account for another 25%. And the remaining 20%? and forth between the warehouses and ships before engineering division. His job entailed, among other signifi cantly. PUB opened its “Free from the sky,” he says with a laugh. the arrival of modern containerisation technology. things, working with the same bumboats, which fi rst used water recycling plants In addition, Singapore is positioning itself as a Although grateful for the scholarship, Mr Tan by then had become the Singapore River’s main in Bedok and Kranji in 2003. global “hydrohub” where innovative water research was not sure if marine engineering was the right pollution source. How does Public opinion was on takes place. To date, Singapore’s National Research course. “I remember sitting on the parapet wall Th e river then was like an open sewer, its side, Mr Tan says, citing a Foundation has invested close to half a billion dollars overlooking the sea, with my legs dangling out there,” its stench pervading for miles away. Bumboat the mangrove survey that showed 95% of in water-related research projects via the environment he says. “I just pictured myself as a marine engineer residents defecated into the river, whose banks were swamp desalt Singaporeans were in favour and water industry programme offi ce. on board a ship, and I said, ‘How could I spend my crowded with illegal squatters and hawkers jostling of the technology. All the test More than 180 water companies and 26 life that way?’” for a sale. seawater? results underscored the public’s research institutes have set up base in Singapore. In Mr Tan eventually made it to PSC’s offi ce At the opening of Peirce Reservoir in 1977, belief. NEWater—Singapore’s addition, Singapore-based companies have secured at the Fullerton Building, where he declined the Mr Lee challenged the Ministry of the Environment How do some brand of ultra-clean, high-grade well over S$10bn worth of overseas projects in the scholarship. He later successfully applied for a PSC to clean up the Singapore River: “In ten years, reclaimed water—exceeded last ten years. bursary to study civil engineering at the University let us have fi shing in the Singapore River and freshwater the drinking water standards A recipient of the prestigious Stockholm Water of Malaya. Kallang River.” set by the US Environmental Industry Award in 2007, PUB is collaborating Returning in 1967 to serve a four-year bond, Working with Lee Ek Tieng, then permanent fi sh survive in Protection Agency and the with academic researchers to investigate futuristic Mr Tan met the PWD’s director, Hiew Siew Nam, secretary of the Ministry of the Environment, and a World Health Organization. biomimetic technologies—designs that are adapted who informed Mr Tan that he would be posted to team of dedicated offi cers, Mr Tan chaired an inter- brackish water? “Th e fi rst time I saw from nature to solve modern problems. the drainage department. agency committee of 11 government departments, NEWater, it was kept in a well “How does the mangrove swamp desalt “My heart sank,” he says, “Because if you’ve which successfully cleaned up the Singapore River. Th e kidneys do it about two stories deep at Bedok, seawater? How do some freshwater fi sh survive in done well in your studies you expect to be building Th e decade-long project won the team the Clean very easily too. lined with concrete all the way brackish water? Th e kidneys do it very easily too,” bridges, something to show off … Buildings, Rivers Commemorative Gold Medal in 1987. round,” Mr Tan says. “Th e water Mr Tan says, referring to proteins called aquaporins, skyscrapers, funny structures, long structures, and was sparkling, crystal clear.” which control the water content of biological cells in things like that.” TWO NEW WATER TAPS FOR Since its introduction in both plants and animals. Adding salt to the wound, PWD gave him a SINGAPORE 2003, NEWater has been used Where water management is concerned, maintenance role within its drainage department, mainly for industrial purposes rising sea levels from climate change may lead to yet instead of one of the more coveted positions in design By 1995, Mr Tan had become permanent secretary such as wafer fabrication, freeing other sources for another existential crisis for Singapore. Mr Tan sits and construction. of the Ministry of the Environment. He led the re- residential use. Th e same membrane technology also on Singapore’s Climate Change Network committee, However, serendipity came knocking in 1971. organisation of PUB from a utilities provider into a made it possible for the Marina Barrage to be built in which explores ways to mitigate the risks involved. Mr Lee had just set up the Water Planning Unit in national water agency that manages the whole water 2008, creating an expansive freshwater reservoir in As a young engineer in the maintenance section the Prime Minister’s Offi ce. He asked Mr Tan, who cycle—from water supply, to drainage, to used water the city that meets 10% of Singapore’s water needs. of the drainage department, Mr Tan may not have by then had an intimate knowledge of every drain and water reclamation. Th e fourth water tap, desalinated seawater, was predicted that he would receive the 2007 President’s and canal in Singapore, to plan the country’s long- He joined PUB as chairman in 2001, where also a priority for Mr Tan. In 2005, PUB introduced Award for the Environment and honorary doctorates term water supply. he helped to turn on two additional “water taps” Singapore’s fi rst desalination plant at Tuas, in a public- from British and Singaporean universities. In those days, to get a single, statistically- for Singapore—recycled used water and desalinated private partnership project with SingSpring Pte Ltd. But for someone whose lifelong passion even relevant fi gure, a hydrologist had to record a daily seawater—which supplemented the country’s two In 2013, PUB and Hyfl ux Ltd, a pioneering seeps into his hobby of oil and acrylic painting, it is inventory of water rainfall and draw-out—input older sources (local catchment and imported water Singaporean water technology fi rm, opened well deserved. “Most of the landscapes that I paint and output, respectively—from every reservoir over from Johor). Tuaspring Desalination Plant, Singapore’s second will always have some water in it,” he says. “Th ey are a period of fi fty or more years. To recycle either used water or seawater, a desalination plant and also its largest. Hyfl ux is now very quiet, placid, waters. I love waterways.” Mr Tan knew that a computer simulation technology called reverse osmosis is used. In osmosis, building the world’s largest seawater desalination could generate the same data within minutes. In water moves from a state of higher to lower osmotic plant in Algeria.

092 093 A (dino) bone to pick

Leo Tan

By Grace Chua

eo Tan, professor of biology at the National University of Singapore (NUS), runs his hands over the grey stone slabs of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum’s exterior, designed to resemble aeons-old geological strata. Inside, a cavernous central L well shows off three towering diplodocid dinosaur fossils, skeletons of the long, slender, short-legged “daschunds” of the giant dinosaur world, and some of the longest creatures to ever walk the earth. Meanwhile, lining the halls are glass cases of iridescent birds, glossy shells, and even stuff ed squirrels and sun bears. For 70-year-old Professor Tan, the museum, which opened this year, has been a dream four decades in the making. As a schoolboy at St Joseph’s Institution, which was then on Bras Basah Road, he remembers wandering across the street after school to visit the Raffl es Museum, with its spectacular whale skeleton dangling from the ceiling. But in 1960 the museum’s identity changed. It was renamed the National Museum and its focus correspondingly shifted towards the arts and history. Its bird and animal specimens, no longer wanted, were shunted off to NUS and “moved around like nomads” for nearly two decades. Th e whale skeleton was sent to Malaysia’s Muzium Negara.

A VERY LONG GAME

Professor Tan developed a love for animals while he was growing up near Mount Faber, surrounded by greenery. “Nature came into the house, whether it was a snake, a rat, or a centipede,” he says. But in university, his professors dissuaded him from pursuing a doctorate. “First of all, the University of Singapore was then not highly regarded even though it was the only [English-medium] university here,” he says. Moreover, lingering colonial mindsets meant it was relatively harder for Asians to gain employment in academia. Nevertheless, he persisted, obtaining a PhD in marine biology by studying the biology and ecology of mussels. Inspired, he then hoped to become a mussel farmer, but the entrepreneur he worked with could not obtain a loan.

094 Credit: Cyril Ng “Th e EDB [Economic Development Board I found very early that it didn’t pay to fi ght the collaborating with others in diff erent fi elds; being Today, he enjoys playing with his two- of Singapore] wrote a letter of support, but the bureaucracy. You skirt the issue, you go round the good at research was not enough. and-a-half-year-old grandson (“a Dragon baby, banks were having none of it,” he grumbles. “Th ey problem. It takes a longer time but it pays off .” When Professor Tan fi rst joined NIE, few and behaving like one too”). He is married to an said, your collateral is useless; your mussel farm As a young lecturer, Professor Tan observed people wanted to join the teaching profession. ophthalmologist, and they have two sons. can fall into the sea at any time.” So in 1973, he reclamation projects claiming his fi eld sites such “I interviewed fi ve potential students and took in became a senior tutor at the university instead— as Tanah Merah and Tanjong Gul. He argued six,” he jokes. A decade later, NIE was accepting BUILDING A HERITAGE the very job his professors had told him to shun. that Singapore’s natural shores, such as Labrador, just one out of every fi ve applicants, and training In 1986, as a senior biology lecturer and ought to be preserved. For that transgression he 4,000 teachers a year, double what it had before Walking through the seven-storey, S$56m Lee director of the Singapore Science Centre, he was called up by a very senior civil servant who he arrived. Professor Tan stepped down as director Kong Chian Natural History Museum today, with learned that Lim Pin (see p.54), the university’s called him “a stooge of the colonialists”. in 2006. ten times the display capacity of the old Raffl es vice-chancellor, had given the collection some Professor Tan recalls the conversation: Meanwhile, in 2003 he championed the Museum, Professor Tan talks about the fi ve-year room in the new NUS science library building. “Th ey [the colonialists] have destroyed all their Gardens by the Bay project, fi ghting for an fundraising process, which he led as director of His former student Peter Ng resurrected the Raffl es forests, all their trees, now they come into the developing expensive piece of downtown real estate. “We special projects at the NUS faculty of science. Bulletin of Zoology, arguing that zoology research world and tell you not to cut down your trees, in order have to think about investment for the future, After the unexpected response to the would be a fi llip to the university’s reputation. to suppress you and keep you subservient all the time. about a liveable Singapore, about recreation, about museum’s open house, Professor Ng and he sent Hence the collection moved to the new You are playing into their hands.” improving the quality of the air, the quality of out letters to alumni and others. “For 700 letters Raffl es Museum of Natural “Sir, you are probably right, life,” he says. “Why would I want to stay or invest we sent out, we got 400 responses and almost one History with Professor Ng as but I believe in the cause not in Singapore if there is nothing for me after I million dollars,” he says. “Th e donations came its director. It consisted mostly because Westerners told me to, but fi nish my work?” Th e project, conceived to rival from a cross-section of society—we had support of cramped back-room shelves because this is my home.” iconic city parks like New York’s Central Park, was from secretaries, from technicians.” smelling of formaldehyde and Professor Tan refused to approved in 2006. Altogether, they raised S$46m in six months alcohol, accessible only to Why would I be cowed. “I was very polite, Th ese are all reasons why Professor Tan from individuals, foundations, and anonymous researchers, and a tiny display and I think he accepted it,” he describes himself as a “political” scientist—though donors who contributed multi-million dollar sums. space, smaller than two HDB want to stay says. “Are you prepared to get he trained as a scientist, he has spent the better A generous alumnus bought and donated an old fl ats, for visitors. In 2009, a hammered for your beliefs or part of his career as an administrator. “Singapore but spectacular shell collection worth S$20,000, surprising thing happened. On or invest in not? If you aren’t, don’t start any is such a small country,” he says. “To keep the for instance. International Museum Day, campaign—because you are a country running, some of us have to double up and “More important than saying ‘We are when the museum held an open Singapore if fraud or an opportunist.” do a few more things.” going to do it at any cost’, is persuading people house, 3,000 people visited, there is nothing And when he became What if he had remained in research? “I’d to come along on the journey,” Professor Tan more than in the whole of the chairman of the National Parks still be a marine biologist,” he proposes. “I’d be says. Ultimately, the museum is for the people of past year. for me after Board in 1998, Professor Tan enjoying my life, touring all the beautiful reefs and Singapore, he adds. Professor Tan and carried on the fi ght for natural marine stations of the world.” Singapore needs a natural history museum, Professor Ng felt the time was I fi nish my shores. In 2002, thanks to calls he believes, to remind people of its natural heritage right to lobby for a larger natural from the public to preserve it, and of humans’ place in the natural world. It also history museum. But there were work? Singapore gazetted a ten-hectare needs more science-trained leaders, and must significant bureaucratic and stretch of the Labrador coast as a continue to nurture its latent research sector. fi nancial hurdles to overcome. nature reserve. Today it is part of With regards to Singapore’s overall scientifi c a 22-hectare park. research establishment, Professor Tan believes that AGAINST THE TIDE Another challenge came long-term investments are now starting to pay off during Professor Tan’s tenure with the emergence of breakthrough fi ndings. Th ankfully, by then, Professor Tan had as director of the National Institute of Education “It’s not a fi ve-year problem; it’s a fi fteen-year,” he accumulated decades of experience in wearing (NIE), a post he assumed in 1994 after ten years as says. “Halfway through, you cannot say, I don’t down bureaucracy by slow-drip persuasion. director of the Science Centre. see any results, let’s cancel it and start on another While conducting research for his PhD, At the Science Centre, he had observed Cinderella project. You have to see it through.” Professor Tan did whatever was asked of him by some teachers’ casual indiff erence towards their Take it from a man who knows how to dream Th am Ah Kow, the retired fi sheries offi cer who students—dumping them inside then heading to long term. supervised him, even though Professor Tan knew the canteen to wait. some of the “tough cookie’s” suggestions would Eager to motivate them, at NIE Professor not work. On the side, he did what he believed in. Tan introduced a Caring Teacher Award. He “It was double the work, but it’s your PhD,” also convinced the NIE staff —the trainers of Credit: Cyril Ng he says. “You want to get it at almost any cost. teachers—to develop better people skills such as

096 097 The accidental Internet pioneer

Tan Tin Wee

By Shuzhen Sim

verwhelmingly white, male, and chock-full of advanced degrees in computer science and electrical engineering, the Internet Society’s Hall of Fame could not be more diff erent from its Rock and Roll counterpart. O Alongside luminaries such as Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web, and Vint Cerf, who co-designed the Internet’s fundamental architecture, is an unassuming Singaporean: Tan Tin Wee, associate professor of biochemistry at the National University of Singapore (NUS). From fi rst using the Internet to facilitate his own molecular biology research in the early 1990s, Professor Tan ended up pioneering a slew of technologies that has made the Internet accessible to non- English speakers around the world.

WIRING UP A NATION

Professor Tan’s interest in the natural sciences began in childhood, when he would peer through a telescope—a gift from his father—at the night sky. In 1990, after doctoral work at the University of Edinburgh, where he developed vaccines to protect sheep against bacterial infections, Professor Tan returned to Singapore. In the wake of the gene cloning boom and the initiation of the Human Genome Project that same year, Singapore’s government was keen to develop local molecular biology expertise. While in the UK, Professor Tan had accessed gene sequence databases—valuable resources for molecular biologists—via the Internet. He soon realised that Singapore sorely lacked the essential bioinformatics infrastructure to support the fl edgling molecular biology research sector here.

098 Credit: Cyril Ng NUS was then linked to BITNET, an In 1994, taking advantage since its invention. But because the technology had generate a lot of heat. Lots of energy is required to Internet predecessor with origins in the United of the fact that fonts for the stagnated for so long, progress to fully integrate it cool them. One proposal to mitigate this involves States. Professor Tan quickly became one of Chinese language already into the Internet’s infrastructure has been slow. locating servers in a distributed manner in homes its biggest users. “In the daytime I was doing existed, Professor Tan and his and offi ces, and using the waste heat they generate experiments, and in between incubations I was on team wrote a programme that PIONEERING A NEW INTERNET to warm buildings. the computer, connected to the network,” he says. would match the code for each In the daytime PROTOCOL In Singapore, Professor Tan leads the He soon caught the attention of senior character to its corresponding DataCentreX initiative to explore ways to couple administrators at the NUS Computer Centre. image, and then piece the images I was doing In addition to his NUS position, Professor Tan supercomputing operations with heat-requiring Th ey asked him to take over the running into a bigger picture that could experiments, now also chairs the Agency for Science, Technology processes. In tropical Singapore, there is only one and development of TechNet, Singapore’s be displayed in Internet browsers. and Research’s Computational Resource Centre bitterly cold spot—the liquefi ed natural gas (LNG) fi rst dedicated network for the nation-wide research Th ey extended this concept to and in between (A*CRC), which is tasked with equipping Singapore plant on Jurong Island, where LNG exists at -162 community. Professor Tan recalls having to teach the Tamil language, and in 1995 with supercomputing capabilities for the twenty- degrees Celsius. Data centres could theoretically immunochemistry in the morning, and then having demonstrated their work by incubations I was fi rst century. provide the heat needed to re-gasify it before it is to sign purchase orders and tenders in the afternoon. displaying Singapore’s National In that vein, he is now pioneering the use of bottled and sold, says Professor Tan. Th e expanding In reality, his new afternoon job was to build Pledge online in Chinese, on the computer, new technologies for computers to communicate gas could even be used to drive turbines, which would the Internet for Singapore. Singnet, Singapore’s fi rst English, Malay and Tamil. online. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ further off set supercomputing energy requirements. Internet service provider, was established in 1994, By 1996, web browsers connected to the Internet Protocol), the decades-old communications Combining the DataCentreX concept with off ering dialup connections to the public. By 1998, were able to display multilingual language used by the Internet today, is a low- high-performance Infi niBand networking would almost a quarter of households had Internet access; content. But there was another network. effi ciency, computationally-intensive technology allow computing load to be redistributed depending by 2013, some 87% did, almost all via broadband. major accessibility problem. Th e that can barely cope with the billions of devices now on temperature conditions—between Northern Today, Singapore has the fourth highest Internet domain name system (DNS), online, he says. and Southern hemispheres, for example, so that penetration rate in Asia, behind South Korea, Japan which translates human-readable A newer communications technology called computing would always take place during the and Hong Kong. Uniform Resource Locators Infi niBand transmits data with much shorter lag winter. But data security—as sensitive information In the early 1990s the Internet was (URLs)—www.google.com, for example—into times, less information loss, and higher effi ciency is shared globally—remains a major hurdle. primarily used in scientifi c circles—unicasting numeric Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, was still than TCP/IP, but is currently used only in and multicasting, early versions of webcasting, ASCII-only. Th e digital divide remained—Internet supercomputers for short-range communication. LAYING THE GROUND FOR for example, were only used in deep sea and space users had to know English in order to type in an In November 2014, together with PAR ADIGM SHIFTS explorations. However, Professor Tan sensed its address and navigate the web. Australian, Japanese and US universities, as well potential to transform many aspects of society. In In 1998, Professor Tan’s team had an answer. as industry partners Obsidian Strategics and Tata It’s easy to forget that throughout all this, Professor 1994, his team successfully initiated a videocast If a user entered a URL in a non-Latin script, Communications, Professor Tan’s team at the Tan has also built a successful career as a molecular of the National Day Parade, beaming it to the team’s proxy software would convert the A*CRC demonstrated the fi rst long-range, high- biologist and bioinformatician, with a long-standing Singaporeans far away. multilingual characters into Unicode, a computing speed Infi niBand link between supercomputers on interest in vaccines and infectious diseases. Keen to see how the Internet could benefi t standard for text, and then into ASCII. Th is got three continents, on a platform called Infi niCortex. Professor Tan is also kept busy by his two disabled children, Professor Tan also personally passed into the DNS, which would recognise the In conventional grid computing, distributed teenage children, who grew up in NUS’s Eusoff wired up the Singapore School for the Deaf, making ASCII format and return the IP address. processors perform tasks in parallel but more or less Hall where he was hall master—a job that involved it the fi rst primary school in Singapore with Internet “Everyone got very excited for obvious independently of one another. Infi niCortex instead “looking after 485 students who don’t sleep till 4am”. access. Its students, hitherto reliant on sign language reasons—the Internet was not big in China back allows for concurrent supercomputing, where Refl ecting on what he sees as inevitable for communication, suddenly had a new way to chat. then,” says Professor Tan. “It was the same thing intermediate results can be swiftly communicated societal change, Professor Tan uses the example of for all the diff erent Indian languages, Cyrillic between processors located across global distances. how no one was willing to make data freely available MAKING THE INTERNET and Arabic.” Th is allows participating centres to run more in the early days of the Internet. Similarly, he is GLOBALLY ACCESSIBLE Properly implementing a multilingual DNS complex tasks—such as computational fl uid confi dent that what may seem outrageously daring would require some reconfi guration of the Internet’s dynamics or genomic data analysis—at greater today—locating a data centre next to a seemingly In the 1990s, the Internet was hailed as an underlying infrastructure. Although no one person scales without having to invest heavily in their own volatile LNG plant, for example—will eventually “information superhighway”. But Professor or entity runs the Internet, some of its technical supercomputing resources. come to pass. Tan—who lived in multicultural, multilingual aspects are overseen and standardised by the Internet Professor Tan is also addressing the limiting “It’s only a matter of time, it may be another 10 Singapore—noticed a huge digital divide. Th e Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers factor for computing speed: the energy needed to 15 years before mindsets change,” says Professor Internet’s graphical interface could only display (ICANN), a governing body headquartered in for exascale computing—a billion billion (1018) Tan. “But we want to be 15 years ahead.” ASCII characters (A-Z and 0-9). Entire communities Los Angeles. calculations per second—could power entire Th at mindsets do change, his family must using non-Latin-script languages—Asia’s millions More than a decade after Professor Tan’s team towns. Data centres worldwide use an estimated surely be thankful. After more than 20 years of of Chinese and Tamil speakers, for example—were proposed their solution, ICANN voted in 2009 to 30bn watts of electricity, equivalent to the output NUS campus living, in early 2014 Professor Tan unable to access to a wealth of online information allow domain names in non-Latin scripts, calling of 30 nuclear plants. fi nally moved them into their own home. A hyper- without fi rst learning English. it the biggest change to the coding of the Internet Even with the most effi cient chips, servers connected, energy-effi cient one, no doubt.

100 101 Biomaterials ‘spin’ doctor

Teoh Swee Hin

By Grace Chua

s equipment beeps and whirrs around us in a Nanyang Technological University (NTU) laboratory, Teoh Swee Hin, a bioengineering professor there, shows off a spherical device about the size of a small watermelon, which churns about like the A belly of a cement mixer. Th is is a bioreactor he designed more than a decade ago to mimic the natural rough-and-tumble environment in which cells develop while in the body. For more than three decades, Professor Teoh, 60, has been applying his engineering know-how to the biomedical fi eld, seeking to: understand the forces that make stem cells and bone cells grow; and, with this understanding, develop devices to improve medical treatments.

A BIOMEDICAL CALLING

Measured, soft-spoken and calm, Professor Teoh might have made an excellent doctor. Growing up in Ipoh, Perak, he aspired to be a doctor, but that ambition was thwarted at 14 when his father, a clerk in an ice factory, died. Unable to aff ord medical school, Professor Teoh found an alternative far away. From odd jobs, savings and what little his father had left, he scraped together enough for a one-way ticket to Australia, where he studied materials engineering at Monash University, which was tuition-free at the time. For his PhD there, he studied how the common plastic polyethylene—used in medical and domestic applications—stretches, breaks and tears under diff erent conditions of manufacturing and usage. After that, he followed his wife, a Singaporean accountant, back home, signing on to teach mechanical engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

102 Credit: Cyril Ng Meanwhile, Professor Teoh never let his of the material being used to plug the burr-holes in which cultured cells in near-zero gravity, Professor for me to make use of animals for experiments. When medical dreams go. patients’ skulls after brain surgery. Teoh’s was one of the fi rst in the world to rotate on it comes to saving human lives, I’ll do it, but it’s In the early 1980s Victor Chang, a renowned Later, the advent of 3D-printing technologies two axes, and he believes that gravity’s pull this way not for fun. Why use ten rats when fi ve will do?” Australian cardiothoracic surgeon who also operated in the manufacture of scaff olds meant they could be helps bone cells formation and growth. Growing tissue in bioreactors, for instance, decreases at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, was custom-shaped and sculpted to whatever form was the need for grafts from animals. looking for engineers to help him design better needed. “It’s like building a tall building,” Professor “ENTREPRENEURSHIP WAS A mechanical heart valves. Professor Teoh leapt at the Teoh explains. “You have scaff olds which you remove DIRTY WORD” RENAISSANCE AND BEYOND chance. “At that time, to get a $5,000 or $10,000 later. In this case, you can’t remove the scaff olds, so research grant was a very big thing,” he says. we have to design a bioresorbable that dissolves.” When Professor Teoh and his team began to spin- Improving engineering education is another key Dr Chang fully funded the work and became In 2003, Professor Teoh and his team set up off Osteopore International, “entrepreneurship objective for Professor Teoh, who has been director Professor Teoh’s fi rst mentor. Th e latter helped study a fi rm, Osteopore International, to market and sell was a dirty word,” he says. Th e university frowned of NTU’s renaissance engineering programme heart-valve failure for Dr Chang’s multinational the bioresorbable implants. upon it, as though “you were using university since 2012. Th e programme, started in 2011, fi rm, Pacifi c Biomedical Enterprises, which made He continues to study implants and materials facilities for your own profi ts… it was not in your rounds out top engineering students with training mechanical and tissue heart valves to replace those from various angles, including research into: why KPIs [key performance indicators]. Th ey made us in business and the liberal arts; students also get a from organ donors. “He was the fi rst one [who] I implants might fail; and ways by which to improve do all kinds of record-keeping.” year to study abroad at select universities, such as felt had a mission to combine clinical work with cell growth around implants. Today, Professor Teoh’s fi rms are “just making the University of California, Berkeley and Imperial manufacturing, and that caught my attention,” says For instance, a phenomenon called delayed ends meet”, he says. He focuses largely on research and College London, to get a diff erent perspective Professor Teoh. dehiscence—in other words, the breakdown of leaves the running of the businesses to executive teams. on their discipline, career and life. Th e objective But the collaboration came to a tragic end after something weeks or months after it is implanted— His successes have helped turn around is to provide them with a holistic education that just eight years. In 1991, Dr Chang was fatally shot can occur some time after any implant (not just the perceptions of university-based entrepreneurship, combines sound engineering fundamentals with in a failed extortion attempt in Sydney. bioresorbable kind). which Singapore’s research business savvy. “It’s a very strange phenomenon,” Professor institutions now promote. For Professor Teoh, training BONE SCAFFOLDS AND Teoh says. “When we put a jaw implant in, for Professor Teoh describes graduate students at NUS and BIOREACTORS instance, the mucosa might grow over it, the patient how his entrepreneurial instincts now NTU’s school of chemical smiles, we think it’s going to be successful—but were nurtured as a child. To Do you want and biomedical engineering is a Dr Chang’s untimely death defl ated the team’s then six months later, the whole thing falls apart.” support the family, the youngest way of giving back to society. His research ambitions. “All our work on fatigue He and his colleagues are seeking to understand of fi ve children resorted to selling more casinos fi rst PhD students, Freddy Boey evaluation, mechanical and materials evaluation, why this occurs. He believes it is likely due to encyclopaedias door-to-door during (see p.14) and Raj Th ampuran, also went with him,” Professor Teoh says of his micro-motion—the implant shifting about almost school holidays. He lugged the or more have now become, respectively, mentor. Starting over again “took a lot of stars to imperceptibly and breaking down. 12-volume set about the city on NTU provost and Agency be aligned”. Meanwhile, the cell bioreactor, which mimics public transport in all weather, had engineers? for Science, Technology and Not till a few years later, after conversations the physiologic conditions of the body under which doors shut in his face, and learned to Research managing director. with surgeons and tissue-engineering experts such cells grow, was a happy accident. A graduate student sell by referral to friends’ relatives. “Part of the joy of being a as Charles Vacanti, a US doctor, did Professor Teoh in Professor Teoh’s laboratory was pregnant with Th e budding entrepreneur professor is this: that our students hit upon his next big breakthrough: plastic scaff olds twins. “She said, ‘Prof, my babies are tumbling,’” he also bred and sold his orchid- are better than us and doing much for bone and other tissue. recalls. “We wondered why... so out of pure curiosity, enthusiast father’s plants on the family’s small plot more in areas that we never dreamed we could do Surgeons trying to repair jaw, skull or other we designed a bioreactor that rotates like a baby in of land in a rundown tin-mining neighbourhood ourselves,” he says. injuries often struggle to get enough bone for the mother’s womb. Suddenly, the cells grew four in Ipoh. Buyers were charmed by the youngster’s Asked about his hopes for science and procedures, either from their patients’ own bodies times faster.” knowledge of Phaelanopsis and Cattleya, Dendrobiums engineering in Singapore, Professor Teoh thinks that or cadaver donations. For larger repairs, titanium “I began to realise that our cells are never and Vandas, and he soon learned how to bargain. despite the successes of the renaissance engineering plates or other synthetic materials can be used, but static,” he says. “If you take cells which are in “I would greet them at the door so I could programme, the engineering profession needs an these may be rejected by the body after surgery. constant motion from the fi rst day in the mother’s see what car they drove—whether it’s a lorry or a image makeover. Instead, Professor Teoh and his colleagues womb, experience tumbling and fl ow, and you put Mercedes,” he says. He knew when to market and “When I set up a company, I employ a CEO, designed a technology that combined the best of both them in a static 2D environment... they grow in that price the plants as potted decorations or as “pieces CFO, accountants, lawyers—but all of them rely worlds. Th ey made scaff olds out of a special plastic unnatural environment and may not like your real of art”. “Marketing is not book-learning alone, it on engineers,” says the father of a robotics graduate material called polycaprolactone, which degrades into body’s conditions when you try to put them back in is looking at the value proposition,” he says. “It’s student, a lawyer, and an investment banker. carbon dioxide and water and is absorbed harmlessly the body.” helped me connect and translate research outside “It’s STEM [science, technology, engineering into the body. Bone grown in the reactor, which rotates on the lab, beyond the hospital.” and mathematics] that brought Singapore through the Th ese scaff olds are fi rst seeded with bone two axes, is stronger than that cultured on a plate and Besides setting up fi rms and licensing fi rst 50 years, and I hope that will remain,” Professor marrow stem cells that eventually grow into sturdy has fewer dead cells. Th e bioreactor technology has technologies to increase their reach, the animal lover Teoh says. He believes that Singapore’s future growth bone, and then implanted into the body. Initial been licensed to Quinxell Technologies, a Singapore also sees a humane mission in some of his work. “I should come from making things that benefi t people: application of this technology involved small discs startup. While NASA studied a similar bioreactor had two dogs,” Professor Teoh says. “It’s very painful “Do you want more casinos or more engineers?”

104 105 What’s different about Asia?

John Wong

By Shuzhen Sim

n 1985, a young Singaporean doctor sat outside the offi ce of the chairman of the department of medicine at Cornell University. After graduating from the National University of Singapore (NUS), John Wong badly wanted to train with the best I minds in the US. But nobody there had heard of NUS; few even knew where Singapore is. Without confi dence in his medical training, every programme he applied to had summarily rejected him. Cornell seemed like his last chance. “I went in and gave this fi fteen-minute sell,” he says. “Th e only diff erence was I off ered to work for free.” Th e strategy worked. Cornell took him on as an intern, making it clear that he would be on the next fl ight home if he did not measure up. He went on to become chief resident in medicine at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Now a professor in medical sciences at NUS and chief executive of the National University Health System (NUHS), Professor Wong is a highly-regarded oncologist who has led signifi cant eff orts to understand and treat cancers that predominantly aff ect Asian populations. As an administrator, he has also been instrumental in shaping Singapore’s biomedical sciences and academic medicine initiatives from their very beginnings.

A TREMENDOUS NEED AT HOME

“I never worked so hard in my life,” says Professor Wong, of those fi rst years at Cornell. All his colleagues— from the medical student who visited a patient at home just to make sure she was okay, to the resident who for every case would go to the library and fi nd three relevant references to share with the team—made a big impact on him. “It was illuminating to see that people could work so hard and love their work so much,” says Professor Wong. “Th eir degree of professionalism was so intense. Th at was one of the biggest eye-openers for me.” Professor Wong returned to Singapore in 1992, when only a handful of cancer specialists were practicing in the country. Singaporeans of means, he recalls, would sometimes seek treatment halfway across the world.

106 Credit: Bryan van der Beek “I came back to Singapore because I thought complex combination of such little data on non-Caucasians, were also keen to BRIDGING THE GAP there was a tremendous need. Th ere’s no reason why genetic and environmental collaborate on clinical trials. Singapore can’t have the same quality of medicine,” risk factors—consider that In 1997, capitalising on this interest, Professor Medical innovations in areas such as vaccine he says, referring to treatments for cancer. not every smoker will develop Wong founded the Cancer Th erapeutics Research development or organ transplantation often arise In the US, he had seen how top hospitals, lung cancer, while some non- I think the Group (CTRG), a consortium of researchers from through close partnerships between medical by working with pharmaceutical companies to smokers may. And, as the around the Asia-Pacifi c region. Still active today, schools and hospitals. In Singapore, however, for run clinical trials, obtained good drugs for their amonafi de trial demonstrated, quality of our the CTRG carries out clinical trials of treatments years administrative structures did not support patients years before their commercial release. genetic factors can also aff ect for cancers that predominantly affect Asian this integration of clinical care, research, and One example in particular sticks with how patients respond to cancer own talent, populations, including nasopharyngeal, gastric, education—termed academic medicine. him. In the late 1980s, a drug called amonafi de treatments. and liver cancers. For decades, the NUS School of Medicine was found to be ineff ective against breast cancer, Poring over data our students and the National University Hospital (NUH) except in the small number of Chinese-Americans from the Singapore Cancer BUILDING PROGRAMMES AND had been administered separately. “If you wanted enrolled in the trial (90% of patients in clinical Registry, Professor Wong and and our young RECRUITING WHALES to translate [apply] anything from NUS into a trials at the time were Caucasian). his colleagues noticed that patient, you needed to make a case fi rstly to NUS It turned out that amonafi de needed to be Singaporean women were being faculty—they’re In the late 1990s, Professor Wong, by then vice- and then to NUH,” says Professor Wong. acetylated (a chemical reaction that adds an acetyl affl icted with lung cancer at easily as good as dean of the NUS School of Medicine, was a key Professor Wong played a major role in linking group to the molecule) by the body in order to almost the same incidence as in member of the team that strategised Singapore’s NUH and the NUS schools of medicine, dentistry become active; this happens more quickly in the West. However most of the anywhere else in biomedical science initiative. and public health under a unifi ed governance Chinese than in Caucasians. cases in the West were associated Th e study of diseases that disproportionately structure. NUHS—Singapore’s fi rst academic Th e drug’s selective effi cacy undermined its with cigarette smoking, whereas the world. But aff ect Asians, they knew, would be an important medical centre—was established in 2008. market potential in the West; the pharmaceutical most of the cases in Singaporean niche for Singapore. Its three major ethnic Th e challenge, he says, is that the link fi rm decided not to pursue its development. “But women were in non-smokers, what our talent groups—Chinese, Malay and Indian—are between clinical care, research and education is just imagine if they did that trial in Singapore,” suggesting that doctors here representative of much of Asia. Rather than often not intuitive. Singapore needs to integrate Professor Wong says, noting that the drug might may be dealing with a diff erent needs to do is to competing directly with much more established the three in order to develop solutions to its own have been developed as an eff ective treatment for disease. Western medical centres, Singapore could instead particular set of health problems. Convincing Asian patients. In 1996, Professor Wong’s be hungry. work with them on comparative studies. the public of this is a constant uphill battle, but How could patients in Singapore enjoy the team collaborated with James Professor Wong recalls helping write the an important one. “You can’t expect Western same level of access to experimental drugs? While Bishop, an oncologist at the concept paper for what was then termed the taxpayers to develop solutions for dengue or the governments and philanthropic organisations Sydney Cancer Centre, to Singapore Genomics Programme (SGP)—aimed diseases we face,” Professor Wong says. are the main funders of initial research in drug run head-to-head trials of a at understanding Asian and Caucasian genomics— “It’s been very rewarding to see the quality discovery, venture capitalists and pharmaceutical docetaxel and carboplatin regimen—common in one caff eine- and junk-food-fuelled night, holed of science and the opportunities in science now companies typically bear the cost of late-stage chemotherapy medication—for non-small-cell up in someone’s kitchen. completely transformed from what it was ten or drug development. lung cancer in Singapore and Australia. Th e SGP needed a leader. At a CTRG fi fteen years ago,” says Professor Wong. Th is is also Given the high costs and risks involved— Th e results were striking—the response meeting in Hong Kong in 2000, Professor Wong true for clinical care—it is now rare for Singaporeans an estimated US$2.6bn is needed to bring a drug rate in the predominantly Chinese Singaporean mooted the idea to Edison Liu, then director of the to seek second opinions overseas, he adds. to market, with a success rate of about 10%— population was double that in the largely Caucasian division of clinical sciences at the US NCI. His biggest concern, however, is drive: “I pharmaceutical companies would need compelling Australian. It was one of the fi rst studies to show “We were staying at such a cheap hotel that think the quality of our own talent, our students reasons to shift R&D away from experienced US an eff ect of ethnicity on response to chemotherapy. there was no place to sit—we had to sit on the fl oor and our young faculty—they’re easily as good as medical centres to Singapore, a country with little It turned out that the drugs were metabolised more near the elevators,” says Professor Wong. “We talked anywhere else in the world. But what our talent experience in clinical trials. slowly in Chinese patients, giving them more time all night about Ed moving to Singapore.” needs to do is to be hungry.” to work their eff ect. In 2001, in a recruiting coup for Singapore, He encourages mentees to visit top medical and UNDERSTANDING ASIAN Importantly, the data allowed doctors to Professor Liu became the founding executive research centres in other countries, such as the US, CANCERS make ethno-specifi c dose recommendations. But director of the SGP, later renamed the Genome to experience their level of intense professionalism. it also caused disgruntlement. “I remember when Institute of Singapore (GIS). He would go on to Professor Wong now devotes the majority of Cancer is caused by genetic changes that aff ect I presented this data in Boston; this lady in the head GIS until 2011, building it from a skeleton his time to running NUHS. He also sees patients, how cells grow and divide. Th ese changes may be audience got up and called me a racist,” Professor crew of three people into a thriving institute some of whom have been with him for twenty years. inherited, or may be acquired over one’s lifetime, Wong recalls. of nearly 300. GIS researchers now study the His packed schedule leaves him with little either as a result of errors that accumulate as cells Th ese studies also drew the attention of genetic basis of diverse human diseases, including time for outside pursuits. But a good doctor divide, or through exposure to carcinogens such pharmaceutical companies eager to tap into the cancers, infectious diseases, eye diseases, and practices what he preaches—Professor Wong at as cigarette smoke or ultraviolet radiation from growing Asian markets for therapeutic drugs. neurological disorders, and have identifi ed genes least attempts to get enough exercise and sleep, just the sun. Th e US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) associated with susceptibility in both Asian and as he asks of his patients. Th e development of cancer involves a and National Cancer Institute (NCI), which had Caucasian populations.

108 109 Beach- comber, wave- watcher

Wong Poh Poh

By Grace Chua

turdy in his Bermuda shorts and rubber clogs, Wong Poh Poh, retired associate professor of geography at the National University of Singapore (NUS), emerges from around a corner in the garden of his rambling Hougang home holding a potted S plant: Avicennia marina, a robust, common species that, belying its name, thrives even inland. Professor Wong admires the versatility of the grey mangrove, as it is more commonly known. It provides animals with food; humans with burning fuel; and coastlines with shelter from high-energy waves. “You want some mangroves in your garden, you just come and collect them,” he says. “Th e day I’m no longer around, these seedlings will be my standing testimony that mangroves can grow in my garden.” Like the grey mangrove, the 70-year-old has thrived across a range of roles. He is most noted for being a coordinating lead author of the seminal work by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international body of scientists that reviews and reports on the latest climate-change data for policymakers. In 2007, IPCC and Al Gore, former US vice president, shared a Nobel Peace Prize for disseminating knowledge on man-made climate change. It was the highlight of a four-decade career studying coasts—specifi cally, how human activity such as tourism reshapes the coastline, and how the coastline itself infl uences human activity.

110 Credit: Cyril Ng THE ACCIDENTAL GEOGRAPHER lead author. He reprised his role as a coordinating “In other countries they share information YOUTH OUT OF TOUCH WITH lead author for the fi fth report published in 2014. openly,” he says. “Coastal vulnerability studies are NATURE Coastal geomorphology is a fi eld that chose Success has cemented his faith in paid for by the taxpayer and should not be restricted Professor Wong. As a student at the University unconventional pursuits. “Don’t pick areas which to press releases or announcements in parliament.” Unfortunately, he says, most young Singaporeans of Singapore, he did so well in geography classes too many people are working on,” Professor Wong Such information would be useful to do not share his familiarity with nature. His three and so enjoyed the subject that the department, advises budding researchers. “Pick areas that are insurance fi rms, developers and, most importantly, sons are lucky enough to have grown up in a house short of Singaporean lecturers, sent him to McGill new and interesting, where you can contribute.” ordinary people who live near the sea. Singapore with a large garden, hibiscus plants, one chiku tree University in Canada for a PhD. needs to prepare for climate change, and not just and many banana trees, but most young people are But what exactly would he study? “Singapore DISAPPEARING BEACHES by raising land reclamation levels and building not—and in the process an intrinsic geographic has no big rivers, no forests, no deserts, no glaciers, seawalls. For example, it will have to decide what identity has seeped away. and no mountains,” Professor Wong laughs. “Th e Singapore, of course, became a fascinating case space should be given over to coastal ecosystems as “Few Singaporeans call themselves islanders only thing left was beaches.” study in coastal development. From 1965 till sea levels rise and they retreat further inland. when our country is small and is indeed an island,” But by the 1970s, when he returned, most of today, the country’s land area has grown by almost And it needs laws to govern so-called laments Professor Wong. “I have been to many Singapore’s natural beaches had vanished beneath 25% from 580 sq km to 720 sq km. “managed retreat”, he adds. “Th ere’s a lot of island nations, some bigger than Singapore, and reclamation, so Professor Wong Singapore has only a interest from lawyers. If you have a piece of land their people are proud to be islanders. We’re proud looked to other fi eld sites, for few natural coasts remaining, which is under water in 10 or 20 years, what are to be a world port but forget that it is based on the example studying how monsoons such as on Pulau Ubin and a your property rights—are they on land or in the coastline and water.” aff ected beaches on Malaysia’s rocky shore at Labrador Park. sea? Who will compensate you?” To resuscitate our island consciousness and east coast. “Th e government wanted it general nature awareness, Professor Wong has Shortly thereafter, he Few [reclamation], so we had no TALES FROM THE FIELD many suggestions. Th ese include maintaining was inspired to apply his hard- choice,” he says, without rancour. Pulau Ubin’s rural environment; introducing science skills to coastal tourism. Singaporeans What’s more important Professor Wong, of course, knows a thing or two compulsory gardening and gardens in schools; Th e Association of American call themselves is to make sure the reclamation about nature’s ferocity. He was once caught in the extending gardening schemes in housing precincts; Geographers had just published does not have adverse impacts, middle of the US’s worst pre-Katrina hurricane. and encouraging nurseries to stock seeds and a path-breaking paper on the islanders when he thinks. For example, In 1969, as a graduate student, he spent a potted seedlings of vegetables and fruits (and not geography of tourism. “Tourism sediment moves through few months at a fi eld site called Santa Rosa Island, just fl owers). used to be at the fringe of serious our country Singapore waters roughly from a sandy island with dunes off the Florida coast. At a larger level, he believes Singapore needs studies,” Professor Wong says. east to west; a large reclamation When Hurricane Camille hurtled through Florida more “non-hype” outreach by the likes of the “Nobody studied it except at is small and is project at Changi, such as for at more than 200 kph, he and his colleagues Botanic Gardens and the Zoo. “We spend one business school.” the airport terminals, blocks the hunkered down in a local hotel. “You could see billion dollars on the Gardens by the Bay and His interest was in the indeed an natural movement of sediment pebbles being blown horizontally,” he says. “In the yet it cannot teach the average Singaporean kid interplay between resorts and and results in erosion at East hotel, we had to tape down the glass doors with about our nature,” he says. “Something is seriously coasts—how the geomorphology island. Coast, of which he despairs. sticky tape to make sure that they wouldn’t shatter wrong here.” of a coast aff ects the layout, nature Singapore’s coasts are into small pieces if they broke.” For his part, Professor Wong has recently and management of a resort; certainly vulnerable to long- Th e hurricane deposited shells and marine introduced mangrove planting to local schools. and subsequently how resort term environmental shifts. For animals along the beach. Professor Wong, a He has also recently initiated a project to set up development aff ects the coast. one, some of the reclaimed “kampung boy” who had grown up fi shing and mangrove restoration sites in South-east Asian As one of the fi rst geographers to carve out a land has subsided and the breakwaters have to be swimming at Changi and Pasir Ris, was loath to countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia and niche in coastal tourism, Professor Wong surveyed raised. Meanwhile, to safeguard against the threat waste a perfectly good source of food. “So I looked the Philippines. Th ese sites would serve as fi sh resorts around Asia, including beach resorts on of rising sea levels, Singapore has drawn up new for things that were closed, and found a lot of nurseries, storm surge buff ers, and help stem rocky shores that had hauled sand in to create coastal regulations. For instance, some of the pen shells,” he says. “I took a knife and opened coastal erosion. Th ey would also become a source artifi cial beaches; resorts which had installed their existing reclaimed land on which Changi Airport’s them up and cut off the muscles, boiled them and of livelihood for villagers, who could manufacture own corals; and resorts with manmade freshwater Terminal 5 will be built must be heightened to at ate them.” mangrove-planting modules from coir or jute, and and marine swimming pools along the coast. In least 2.25-metres above the highest recorded tide. Th at hardiness came in handy when he was benefi t from eco-tourism. 1992, he wrote a research article on the impact of In order to properly guard against climate stranded in Bintan while doing some surveying in Th e self-described “professional beach sea level rise on coasts. change, says Professor Wong, Singapore needs to the 1990s, before it had developed. “We were in a bum” has made a career out of going to the beach. In 1997, the Singapore government asked share more of its coastal-vulnerability information place called the Pasir Panjang coast, towards the Now, it is time to give back, he says. “Th e more him to review IPCC’s Regional Impacts of Climate with citizens to properly guard against climate eastern side of Bintan,” he says. “It was dark, and satisfying thing is contributing something back Change special report. He was invited to be a change. Th is includes data obtained by LiDAR we didn’t have water or food. But I had a penknife, to the coastal community.” lead author for IPCC’s third assessment report in (light detection and ranging) systems, which and we managed to scrounge and fi nd two old 2001, and for the fourth report in 2007—which use remote laser measurements to make detailed coconuts which we opened up and shared.” ultimately won the Nobel —he was a coordinating topographic maps.

112 113 1965 1968 1977 1980 1981 1985 1986 1991

Singapore separates from Th e Ministry of Science Th e Science Centre, Th e National University Th e Ministry of Science Singapore suff ers its fi rst Th e Institute of Molecular Nanyang Technological University Malaysia and becomes and Technology fi rst mooted in 1969, of Singapore (NUS) is and Technology is closed, recession, which lasts for and Cell Biology (IMCB), (NTU) is formed from the merger of an independent and is established to is offi cially opened. formed from the merger of with its various functions one year. one of the fi rst research Nanyang Technological Institute and sovereign state. develop science and the University of Singapore re-assigned to the institutes in Singapore, is the National Institute of Education. technology policies, and Nanyang University. Ministries of Education, established at NUS. build up manpower Trade and Industry, and Th e National Science and Technology and infrastructure, and Health. Board (NSTB) is established. promote economic growth. It launches its fi rst five-year National Science and Technology plan, which Th e Science Council has been renewed every fi ve years of Singapore is since then. formed to oversee the implementation of science-related policies and programmes.

A severe drought leads to a ten-month water rationing period across Singapore. TIMELINE

2015 2009 2008 2006 2003 2001 2000 1997

Th e Lee Kong Chian Th e Singapore University Th e National University Th e National Research Th e Public Utilities Board NSTB is restructured into Th e Defence Science DSO National Natural History Museum, of Technology and Design Health System (NUHS) Foundation of Singapore (PUB) launches NEWater, the Agency for Science, and Technology Agency Laboratories, established which traces its origins as (SUTD) is established. is established to unite (NRF), a department Singapore’s brand of Technology and Research (DSTA) is formed as a in 1972, is incorporated as the former Raffl es Museum It is a collaboration the National University within the Prime Minister’s ultra-clean, high-grade (A*STAR), overseeing statutory board under the a non-for-profi t company of Biodiversity Research between Singapore and the Hospital and the NUS Offi ce, is established to set reclaimed water. biomedical sciences and Ministry of Defence. limited by guarantee. (RMBR), is opened. Massachusetts Institute of schools of medicine, the national direction of physical sciences and Technology in the United dentistry and public health. research and development An outbreak of severe engineering research Th e Biomedical Sciences Singapore celebrates States. in Singapore. acute respiratory syndrome entities. (BMS) initiative is its 50th anniversary of (SARS) in Singapore leads launched. independence. Th e book to the closure of Tan Tock Singapore’s Scientifi c Seng Hospital and 33 Pioneers is published to deaths. celebrate the eff orts of the scientifi c community over fi ve decades.

114 115 CO-SPONSOR OF THE SINGAPORE’S SCIENTIFIC PIONEERS PROJECT

anyang Technological University Hub of research and (NTU Singapore) has been a key pillar innovation NANYANG N of Singapore’s research and development NTU’s research is interdisciplinary and covers activities, and is today ranked amongst high-impact areas such as sustainability, the world’s top universities. In the Nature Index 2015 healthcare, new media and future learning. NTU hosts two national research centres of excellence, TECHNOLOGICAL Global, a ranking of the science output of 20,000 research the Singapore Centre on Environmental Life institutions around the world, NTU is placed 40th Sciences Engineering and Earth Observatory of globally and 8th in Asia for research excellence. It is also Singapore. It is also home to world-class institutes UNIVERSITY such as the National Institute of Education, S the highest-ranked Singapore institution on the list. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Young and research-intensive, NTU off ers engineering, Nanyang Environment & Water Research science, business, humanities, arts and social sciences, Institute, Energy Research Institute @ NTU, and Institute on Asian Consumer Insight. education, and medicine. Its medical school is set up A leader in sustainability research, the jointly with Imperial College London. university has won signifi cant competitive research funding in this area since 2005.

NTU’s scientifi c pioneers A globally-connected Led by Professor Bertil Andersson, a world- university renowned biochemist and recipient of Austria’s NTU has more than 400 international prestigious Wilhelm Exner Medal, NTU has partnerships. Its joint medical school is set up built on its strong foundations in engineering and with Imperial College London and is addressing technology laid by some of Singapore’s pioneer critical health challenges in Singapore and beyond scientists. Th ese include NTU Provost Professor through innovative medical education and Freddy Boey, Chief of Staff and Vice President cutting-edge clinical and translational research. (Research) Professor Lam Khin Yong and former Th e university’s premier Renaissance Engineering NTU Presidents Professor Su Guaning and Programme for top students off ers a global Cham Tao Soon. curriculum that includes studies at University of Among the internationally acclaimed California, Berkeley, or Imperial College London, scientists at NTU today are eminent geologist and internships at Silicon Valley or in Europe. Professor Kerry Sieh, leading molecular In electromobility research, NTU has biologist Professor Stephan Schuster, renowned partnered Germany’s Technical University of microbiologist Professor Staff an Kjelleberg, top Munich (TUM) to set up the TUM-CREATE structural biologist Professor Daniela Rhodes Centre for Electromobility and has also FRS, global immunology expert Professor Philip established the Future Mobility Research Lab Ingham FRS and materials science specialist with the BMW Group. Professor Zhang Hua, ranked by Th omson Th rough tie-ups with industry giants Reuters among the top 17 most impactful such as Rolls-Royce, Lockheed Martin and ST scientists in the world. Engineering, NTU translates the latest research NTU continues to attract some of the breakthroughs into useful applications. Its joint best and brightest young researchers through laboratories with major industry players on the National Research Foundation’s elite young campus move high-tech solutions out of the lab investigator scheme and NTU’s own premier and into the real world, to create real economic young faculty recruitment scheme, the Nanyang and social impact. Assistant Professorship.

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SG50 SINGAPORE’S SCIENTIFIC PIONEERS SCIENTIFIC SINGAPORE’S

SINGAPORE’S SCIENTIFIC PIONEERS

BY JULIANA CHAN, GRACE CHUA, SHUZHEN SIM AND REBECCA TAN