SG50 SINGAPORE’S SCIENTIFIC PIONEERS 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.