Natural Sciences

 

 

Theme: Sustainability Research

Keynote Speaker

Professor Yeoh Lean Weng Chief Sustainability Officer, A*STAR Executive Committee Member, Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE²)  Senior Director, Urban Solutions and Sustainability, National Research Foundation (NRF)
Prof Yeoh Lean Weng is Chief Sustainability Officer at A*STAR, Executive Committee Member of the Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE²) and Senior Director of Urban Solutions and Sustainability at the National Research Foundation (NRF). As Senior Director, Prof Yeoh is responsible for developing R&D strategy and managing Singapore’s national R&D programmes in urban systems to meet national needs in areas such as energy, water, and land & livability. As Chief Sustainability Officer, Prof Yeoh directs the R&D in energy and environmental sustainability focusing on decarbonisation and sustainable green materials and processes. Prof Yeoh received his Bachelor of Science (with Honours) and Master of Science degrees from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1983 and 1987 respectively. He further obtained two Masters (with distinction) in 1990 and a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering in 1997 from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). He attended the Program for Management Development at Harvard University in 2003. Prof Yeoh is active in the Singapore engineering professional and academic circles. He is Immediate Past President of the Institution of Engineers(IES), Chairman of IES Awards Committee, President of IES from 2018 to 2020, President of the INCOSE Singapore Chapter from 2009 to 2011, Deputy President of IES from 2017 to 2018 and Vice President of IES from 2014 to 2017. He has co-authored numerous professional publications. He is a Fellow of INCOSE, the first fellow in Singapore. He is concurrently an adjunct professor with NUS. He is a member of the PUB Water Technology Advisory Panel (WTAP), and Energy Studies Institute. Prof Yeoh was a recipient of the Singapore Public Administration Medal in 2001 (Bronze) and 2008 (Silver). He was conferred the Defence Technology Prize in 1992, 2004 and 2007, the last of which was an individual award for C4I development, large scale systems engineering and technology leadership.

Super Seniors’ Talk

AVANTHIKA SIVAKUMAR
Avanthika was first introduced into the intricacies of research work during the Youth Research Programme at A*STAR NanoBio Lab, where she was involved in optimising lateral flow chromatographic immunoassays for detecting food borne pathogens. This sparked a deep interest in applied research, spurring her to seek out opportunities to gain greater exposure in the field. To this end, she participated in a research attachment at A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, where she evaluated the biological performance of synthetic bone grafts, delving into tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. This project was awarded Gold at SSEF 2022, and she went on to present her work at various local and international research competitions including ICYS and GYSTB. Her paper was accepted for publication in the proceedings of the 2022 IRC-SET Conference as well. Research has helped her broaden her worldview, and she hopes to share the insights she has gained with other students and encourage them to venture into the world of research themselves.

SHRIMAY BIKASH SAIKIA
Shrimay’s passion for STEM was sparked by a sense of wonder at the things he saw in the sky: in the day, majestic gravity-defying aircraft; and in the night, the intoxicatingly beautiful moon, stars and planets. Shrimay was grateful to receive structured mentorship opportunities in RI to further pursue his scientific curiosity, such as the MOE School-Based Science Mentorship Programme in Year 2 where he examined the synergistic antibacterial efficacy of copper and silver nanoparticles. In Year 3-4, having built a grounding in quantitative modelling and reasoning through the Physics and Mathematics Raffles Academy programmes, Shrimay further pursued his nascent interest in research by taking part in the Singapore Young Physicists Tournament, where he achieved a Gold award and was eventually able to qualify for the IYPT Singapore national training team; as well as ventured into interdisciplinary translational research by designing a virtual-reality visual field test for glaucoma patients. In Year 5-6, inspired to explore the interface of the quantitative and biological sciences, Shrimay pursued the Biology and Chemistry Raffles Academy programmes. Under the MOE Overseas Student Attachment Programme, Shrimay also had the opportunity to attend the CEE-RSI Summer Research Program in the US where he conducted interdisciplinary research into the development of a novel primate Bioluminescence Imaging system at the MIT Department of Biological Engineering. 

CHAN SOONG-LIN KEITH 
Keith began his journey into research at a work attachment with DSTA, where he investigated stall-based landing procedures for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Delving further into Physics research, he joined the school’s Physics Tournament (SYPT) team, where his team came in overall first in 2021. He was later selected as one of five scholars from Singapore to take part in the CEE-RSI research summer camp hosted at MIT, where he would work at the MSEAS MechE lab, investigating ocean instabilities using cutting-edge simulation technology. Currently, he is continuing his interest in this fluids work, while also working on Quantum Computing Resources under Dr Yeo Ye from NUS.