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GLOBAL HIGHLIGHTSAlberta Minister of Education visitsAlberta Minister of Education HonourableDave Hancock called on NUS on 8 July 2009 togain insights into the NUS educational system.Accompanying Mr Hancock on this visit areMr Spence Nichol, Strategic Policy Advisorfrom the Office of the Minister, Education,Alberta, Canada, and Ms Fumiko Kitano, SecondSecretary(Commercial) and Trade Commissionerat the High Commission of Canada to Singapore.During the visit, the team from Canada met withNUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan, DeputyPresident (Academic Affairs) and Provost Prof TanEng Chye, Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professorand Deputy President (Research and Technology)Prof Barry Halliwell and Director, InternationalRelations Office, Assoc Prof Anne Pakir.Mr Hancock was in Singapore as part of theinaugural International Education Roundtableheld jointly by the Singapore Ministry ofEducation and McKinsey & Company. Theroundtable, which was held from 6 to 8 July,looked into how education systems couldcontinuously improve so as to better equipstudents for the future. Other ministers andsenior government officials hailing fromAustralia, China, Hong Kong, Sweden and theUnited States also attended the roundtable.CANADIAN VISIT: Honourable Dave Hancock,Minister of Education, Alberta, Canada (left)with NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan.Saluted at National Medical Excellence Awards 2009Three doctors from the National University HealthSystem (NUHS) and one from Duke-NUS GraduateMedical School Singapore (Duke-NUS), have donevery well at the National Medical Excellence Awards2009, clinching most of the honours granted by theSingapore Ministry of Health. Graced by Minister forHealth Mr Khaw Boon Wan, the award ceremony washeld on 22 July 2009.On the recipients, Mr Khaw said: “They epitomisethe very best clinical, scientific and academic talentthat Singapore hopes to see more and more of.Through years of unwavering commitment, they havehelped build up core capabilities in their respectivespecialities.”care. The award also recognised Prof Wong as amaster clinician who has supported and facilitatedresearch, and introduced novel/effective treatmentin his clinical practice. Prof Wong is also Dean of theYong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Director andSenior Consultant of the National University CancerInstitute.Profs Chew Chong Lin and Low Poh Sim, both fromNUHS, were among the three recipients to receivethe National Outstanding Clinician Mentor Awardfor their mentorship of young clinicians and clinicianscientists in Dentistry and Paediatric Neurology,respectively.KNOWLEDGE ENTERPRISEThe National OutstandingClinician Scientist Awardwent to Prof Michael CheeWei Liang of the Duke-NUS.He received the accolade forhis remarkable contributionsto clinical and translationalresearch in neuroscience.NUHS Deputy Chief ExecutiveProf John Wong Eu Li receivedthe National OutstandingClinician Award. He washonoured for his outstandingcontributions to clinical workthrough advances in thesafety and quality of patientMEDICAL EXCELLENCE: (From left) Prof John Wong Eu Li, Prof Low Poh Sim,Minister for Health Mr Khaw Boon Wan, Prof Chew Chong Lin, Prof Ng HanSeong and Prof Michael Chee.4

Understanding brain tumoursvia stem cell researchResearchers at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School(Duke-NUS) have found a tumour-suppressingprotein which may provide insights into certaintypes of human brain tumours, as well as possibly awide variety of cancers. Led by Assistant Professorof neuroscience and behavioural disorders at Duke-NUS Dr Wang Hongyan, the team’s findings werepublished in the scientific journal Development.“Our study on the fruit fly’s developing brainshows that the fruit fly protein PP2A (proteinphosphatase 2A) suppresses brain tumourformation and controls the balance of self-renewaland differentiation of neural stem cells,” said DrWang.She explained that a normal neural stem cellreplicates and produces two daughter cells. Oneof the daughter cells resembles the mother cell forrenewal purposes, while the other produces maturecells with some functionality. This process of amother cell dividing into two different daughtercells is called asymmetric cell division.“Asymmetric cell division provides onefundamental mechanism by which stem cellself-renewal and differentiation are balanced.Perturbation of asymmetric division can leadto tumour formation due to uncontrolledproliferation and abnormal differentiation. Afailure of such balance could lead to diseases suchas cancer,” she noted.The discovery of the PP2A adds on to the workof Dr Wang who had earlier identified a proteinkinase – Polo – as a tumour suppressor as well. Shewas able to make a connection between PP2A andPolo. “This is an interesting link. Previously, nobodyknew that PP2A and Polo were working in thesame pathway.”There are plans to collaborate with otherresearchers to find out whether the tumoursuppressors found is applicable to otherstem cells. This would prove fundamentalto the understanding of all other stemcells and corresponding types of cancers.The research was made possible from a US$1.5million funding from the National ResearchFoundation which supports all studies on neuralstem cells as well as a S$630,000 Ministry ofEducation tier-2 main funding for the PP2A project.Additionally, the team received funding from theDuke-NUS and Wang Cheng, the lead author ofthis paper, received a fellowship from SingaporeMillennium Foundation.Other researchers in the team include Kai ChenChang and Fengwei Yu (both from Temasek LifeSciences Laboratory), Gregory Somers (Universityof Melbourne), David Virshup (Programme Directorof Cancer and Stem Cell Biology, Duke-NUS), BengTi Ang and Carol Tang (both from the NationalNeuroscience Institute) .While Dr Wang’s research mainly delves into neuralstem cell division, she looks forward to expandingher research scope. Other than brain tumours,she hopes to study stem cell divisions in diseaseswhich include other types of cancer and otherneurological diseases.CANCER RESEARCH: Dr Wang Hongyan, Assistant Professor of neuroscience and behavioural disorders at Duke-NUS.5

MARK OF EXCELLENCEWe proudly celebrate the following recent achievements:• NUS student team “Solaire Voyager”emerged second in the Airbus’ Fly Your Ideascompetition, which challenges universitystudents worldwide to come up with novelideas to shape the future of aviation. Theresults were announced at the InternationalParis Air Show on 19 June 2009, where the teamtook home the prize of 15,000, beating over200 teams to the runner-up spot.• The inaugural Springer’s ComputationalScience and Engineering (CSE) Prize 2009was awarded to the team comprising NUSengineering alumnus Phuong Huynh and twoother scientists – Ngoc-Cuong Nguyen from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)and Gianluigi Rozza of the Ecole PolytechniqueFédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. Theteam received a cash prize of US$10,000 at theprize-giving ceremony held in Munich on 15June 2009. The rbMIT software they developedprovides a rapid and reliable solution ofparametrized partial differential equationsusing the reduced basis method. This methodis better than classical numerical ones forreal-time or many-query contexts, translatingto low-cost yet accurate reliable numericalsolutions. The CSE Prize, awarded bi-annuallyby Springer, recognises the importance of thecross-disciplinary, teamwork-oriented nature ofcomputational science and engineering.ACCOLADESSOLAIRE VOYAGER: The NUS team receivingthe prize cheque from Airbus President &Chief Executive Officer Mr Thomas Enders.Team leader Louis Lee, a first-year Mastersstudent in Materials Science and Engineering,and team members Muhammad Adil andVignesh Subramaniam, both second-yearEngineering students, won with their proposalto apply solar energy in civil aircraft bygenerating supplementary electricity to poweronboard systems and reduce overall fuel burn.The team was supervised by Solar EnergyResearch Institute of Singapore (SERIS) CEOProf Joachim Luther and SERIS Deputy CEOProf Armin Aberle.WINNERS OF THE CSE PRIZE 2009: (From right) NUSengineering alumnus Mr Phuong Huynh togetherwith Ecole Polytechnique Federale de LausanneMr Gianluigi Rozza, and Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology Mr Ngoc-Cuong Nguyen.AT A GLANCE• Three Nobel Laureates recently spoke at theUniversity Cultural Centre at NUS in discussionwith 1,800 representatives from aroundthe world on issues in the field of science,engineering and technology of materials.Hosted by the Materials Research Society ofSingapore, the 5 th International Conferenceon Materials for Advanced Technologies(ICMAT) and the International Union ofMaterials Research Societies’ InternationalConference in Asia (IUMRS-ICA) were heldin Singapore from 28 June to 3 July 2009.Professors Peter Gruenberg (Nobel Laureatein Physics), Peter Doherty (Nobel Laureate inPhysiology or Medicine) and Hartmut Michel(Nobel Laureate in Chemistry) also deliveredpublic lectures at the UCC. NUS Departmentof Physics Prof B V R Chowdari was thePresident and Organising Chair of the event.• NUS and the Singapore Botanic Gardens-National Parks Board jointly hosted theHennig XXVIII Conference for evolutionarybiologists, from 22 to 26 June 2009. Held forthe first time in Asia, the conference wasthemed “Darwin, Wallace and Evolution”.The opening event of the conferencecelebrated the contributions of CharlesDarwin and renowned scientist AlfredRussel Wallace in the field of evolutionarybiology. A symposium on the phylogeneticapproaches to public and environmentalhealth, with a focus on Influenza A (H1N1)was also held. Named after German biologistWilli Hennig, best known for his works in thedevelopment of phylogenetic systematics,the conference has been held annually since1980 around the world.AUGUST 20097

NUS-GE Singapore Water TechnologyCentre officially opensThe NUS-GE Singapore Water Technology Centre isset to extensively lead Singapore’s water quality andresource management and spearhead its strategy ofbecoming a global water technology hub.At its official launch on 22 June 2009, Chairman ofSingapore’s National Research Foundation Dr Tony Tansaid: “Singapore is known internationally for its strongTAKING NEW WATER TECHNOLOGIES TO GREATERHEIGHTS: Chairman of Singapore’s National ResearchFoundation Dr Tony Tan (left) marking the official openingof the NUS-GE Water Technology Centre, as CEO of GEWater & Process Technologies Mr Heiner Markoff (middle)and NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan (right) look on.capabilities in water management and is recognisedas a leading adopter of new water technologies,especially in the area of membrane applications.”Singapore, he said, is the world’s largest user ofmembranes per capita and a pioneer and leader inlarge-scale water reclamation.The S$150 million Centre aims to support Singapore’smulti-year strategy of becoming a global watertechnology hub. It will tap on GE’s expertise inwater purification and conservation technologiesand solutions. The Centre will help commercialiseinnovations from its R&D, serving as a test-bed for newgenerationwater technologies, according to CEO ofGE Water & Process Technologies Mr Heiner Markoff.While there are currently more than 30 GE scientistsand engineers at the Centre, there are plans to hirean additional 40 scientists and engineers over the nextthree years.NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan said: “This uniqueIndustry-University Alliance will provide outstandingopportunities for NUS faculty and students to workclosely with a global leader in water science andtechnology. It will help enhance and expand R&Dcapabilities in NUS and the rest of Singapore.”Besides research, the Centre also aims to strengthencollaboration between government and industry inSingapore and beyond.Gift from Temasek Foundation enables NUS to hold first-everAsian Law Deans forumWhat would persuade more than 45 of the region’s toplaw deans and leaders to converge at NUS’ Bukit TimahCampus for three days in July? Answer: The chance todiscuss how law schools can best prepare their students toface an increasingly globalised market for legal services.The inaugural Asian Law Deans’ Forum on LegalEducation, made possible by a $500,000 gift fromTemasek Foundation, was held between 6 and 8 July 2009.Initiated by NUS Faculty of Law (FoL), the forum was wasjointly hosted by FoL and Temasek Foundation with thesupport of the Asian Law Institute. It drew distinguishedparticipants from over 30 institutions from the East Asiannon-OECD countries.Apart from funding the forum, the gift from theFoundation will also be made available to FoL for furthercollaborations with regional law schools committed toupgrading their teaching policy and pedagogy overthe next two years. The Foundation’s Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Mr Benedict Cheong, noted: “Beyond theforum, this programme will hopefully create an Asiannetwork of leaders and institutions in legal education,where knowledge in educational leadership, curriculumdevelopment and best practices in the teaching of lawcan be shared for long-term institutional development.”KNOWLEDGE ENTERPRISE8Dean of Law and Senior Counsel Prof Tan Cheng Handescribed the forum as “an important development inAsian legal education, as it marks the first time thatDeans from leading Asian law schools are gatheringto discuss issues of importance relating to legaleducation, particularly at a time when many schools arefundamentally re-examining their existing models.”“This forum would not have been possible withoutTemasek Foundation’s generous funding and, perhapsmore importantly, Temasek Foundation’s vision in seekingout opportunities for contributing to regional capacitybuilding,”he added.SHAPING LEGAL EDUCATION: Participantsat the inaugural Asian Law Deans Forum.KNOWLEDGE ENTERPRISE n AUGUST 2009 VOLUME 09 NO. 02Editor: Jinny Claire Sim n Writer: Veronique Y W Ah Sen n Distribution Manager: Matthew SeahOffice of Corporate Relations, National University of SingaporeUniversity Hall, Lee Kong Chian Wing UHL#05-03, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119077Tel: (65) 6516 6822 Fax: (65) 6775 6386 E-mail: Knowledge_Enterprise@nus.edu.sg Website: newshub.nus.edu.sgISSN 0219-614X Company Registration Number: 200604346E