Speech by Mr Lim Hng Kiang, Minister for Trade and Industry at the President’s Science and Technology Awards Dinner, Banquet Room, The Istana on Mon, 28 Sep 09, 7.45 pm

President S R Nathan,

Chairman, A*STAR, Mr Lim Chuan Poh,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A very good evening to all of you.

Tonight, we gather to honor 11 individuals with the nation’s highest scientific awards. It gives me great pleasure to join you in celebrating their outstanding contributions in the fields of science and technology.

The National Science and Technology Awards are now formally known as the President’s Science and Technology Awards. This elevation to the Presidential level serves as an appropriate and timely recognition of the state of R&D in Singapore. In addition, we hope that this added significance to the awards will spur our scientists to continue to strive even harder to achieve excellence.

The inaugural President’s Science and Technology Medal is awarded to Professor Miranda Yap. She is a most befitting recipient, being a pioneer in her own right in the field of mammalian cell culture. Under her leadership since 1990, the Bioprocessing Technology Institute has made instrumental contributions to the biologics sector, successfully anchoring leading multi-national biologics manufacturing companies here in Singapore. In addition, Professor Yap has committed herself to grooming the next generation of researchers and scientists to sustain this rapidly growing industry, both in her capacity as Executive Director of the A*STAR Graduate Academy and as a personal mentor to PhD students in various training programmes in her institute.

This year’s President’s Science Award goes to Professor Donald Tan’s team at the Singapore Eye Research Institute for their innovative breakthroughs in ‘bench-to-bedside’ medical research in corneal blindness. Their research has led to new methods of bioengineering for eye tissue transplants, and major advancements in the treatment of eye diseases which will improve the standards of global healthcare.

In a different but equally important field, the team from NUS and SEMICAPS, led by Professor Jacob Phang, has earned the President’s Technology Award for developing a highly-sensitive microscope system to detect bugs in semiconductor integrated circuits. This technology is a welcome boost to the semiconductor industry and is being adopted extensively by integrated device manufacturers, foundries, fab-less companies and failure analysis service providers.

It is not surprising that this year’s PSTA winners all have extensive links with industry. Indeed, S&T has become an integral pillar of our economy as companies move up the value chain to undertake more capital-, tech- and innovation-intensive activities. We have put in place a strong environment for Intellectual Property protection and enforcement, and established a network of public and private sector R&D centers that work together to develop and commercialize new technologies, processes and products. These efforts are underpinned by our long term investment in training skilled science and technology manpower in our schools, universities, and research institutes. The results of our efforts so far have been encouraging.

Our research institutes are constantly forging new partnerships and research collaborations with international and local companies, both large and small. A*STAR’ for example, has numerous partnerships in biotechnology. Just last April, they inked an agreement with Raven Biotechnologies from San Francisco to jointly develop a novel set of monoclonal antibodies that target cancer stem cells, making them suitable for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. This is a global market worth more than USD$30 billion dollars. And earlier this year, GSK Biological committed S$2 million to the development of new vaccines and delivery methods in collaboration with the Bioprocessing Technology Institute. Again, this spells tremendous potential for new industrial growth in Singapore. Worldwide sales of such biologic medications increased by 12.5% in 2007 to USD$75 billion, nearly double the 6.4% increase in sales of traditional pharmaceuticals.

Another stellar example of industry collaboration is A*STAR’s Aerospace R&D Programme, which saw seven companies including BASF and Coherix join the original eight since its inaugural meeting in early 2008.It has also added six new projects involving the development of advanced materials and devices for aircrafts. For its contributions to aerospace R&D, A*STAR won the 2009 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Aerospace & Defense Award for Aerospace R&D Institution of the Year, making it the first local public research agency to receive this award.

Of course, our achievements did not come easily. They involved the commitment of significant amounts of time and resources. Moving forward, we cannot afford to be complacent, especially in the current economic climate. We are in the midst of a review of our economic strategies to better position Singapore for the years ahead. With the anticipated passing of the current economic downturn, innovation will emerge as a key ingredient to create new industries and growth opportunities for Singapore. It is for this reason that the Government has not scaled back on R&D. Rather, we are exercising prudence and steadily building capabilities in a focused and sustainable way that will give us a crucial advantage and drive Singapore’s future growth when the economy recovers.

Nurturing scientific talent is and will be the way forward in R&D. In that regard, Singapore is constantly on the look-out for capable and committed individuals who have a passion for innovation- a key ingredient required for successful R&D.

Tonight we also celebrate our young talents:

a. Loh Yuin Han, Jonathan, who has made significant discoveries on how pluripotent stem cells develop their ability to differentiate into multiple cell types;

b. Yu Haifeng, who has developed practical and highly effective defense mechanisms against computer virus attacks; and

c. Yu Ting, whose studies on graphene and metal oxide nanostructures have opened a new approach to engineering their synthesis with industrial applications.

All three have displayed perseverance and ingenuity beyond their years, which makes them deserving of the Young Science Awards that they are receiving tonight. I hope to see them leading their fields and mentoring others like themselves in the years to come.

To all recipients of this year’s Awards, congratulations once again for your tireless pursuits of excellence in your research. To all the scientists present here tonight, you deserve praise for placing Singapore on the world R&D map and making Singapore an international R&D hub. I wish all of you continued success in your research endeavors as we work together to transform Singapore into a knowledge-based and innovation-driven economy and society. Thank you.