"This volume begins with a great overview of the history and choices made by Singapore over the last decades to bring the country to the forefront of science, technology and innovation. The contents truly demonstrate the tremendous growth in cutting edge materials science and technologies research using case studies taken from Singapore's finest contributions. Combining science history and science politics with research reports of great intellectual depth, it is also a very pleasant read. This volume is useful and highly recommended for scientists, science decision makers, technologists, and managers alike."
Prof G. Julius Vancso, FRSC, MHUS
University of Twente, The Netherlands
"An intriguing history of what a nation can do if they pick a technical area to emphasize. Singapore's change from a low-cost manufacturing hub 40 years ago, when I first visited, to first class standing in the materials area has been dramatic. Most leaders in the field have participated in the bi-annual Materials conference (ICMAT) that is now probably the world's leading international meeting in the area. This book describes step by step how this transition took place."
M Stanley Whittingham
Binghamton University, USA
"This is a "MUST READ" book for those who are curious to learn the "how-to secret" of Singapore as it catapulted itself into world prominence based on focused efforts in advanced materials research during the past decades. With a growing population on a fixed land mass and no natural resource, the government continues to improve the quality of lives of it citizens. This is a model to emulate."
R P H Chang
Northwestern University, USA
"Overall, I recommend this book to science-oriented business people and to persons interested in a case example of how properly planned and supported scientific research can boost a modern economy. For crystallographers, it can be rewarding to explore the quoted references and discover how their tools can usefully support applied research."
Acta Crystallographica Section B
Prof Freddy Boey is Deputy President and Provost of Nanyang Technological University (NTU). A Professor of Materials Engineering, he has distinguished himself internationally with a strong track record of breakthrough commercial applications in the global arena.
Before becoming Provost, he was Chair of NTU's School of Materials Science and Engineering, 2004-2010, during which he led its transformation into one of the world's largest materials engineering institutions with a solid reputation for generating industry-relevant technologies that can be commercialized.
Prof Boey is a pioneer in the use of functional biomaterials for medical devices. He has developed 110 patents and founded several companies to commercialize his cardiovascular, ocular and surgical implants. Among his inventions is a surgical tissue retractor that has been sold in the US, Europe, Japan, Middle East and India. His customizable hernia mesh is the first such surgical mesh approved for sale by the US FDA and his company Amaranth Medical which develops full biodegradable heart stents, has recently received a buy in by Boston Scientific. His most recent company, Peregrine, is based on a nano based drug delivery system to treat glaucoma, which has been successfully deployed in human trials.
Apart from serving as Director on the boards of the Health Science Authority Singapore and Defense Science Organization National Laboratories, Prof Boey also contributes on the boards of several nationally-funded research centres. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials in the UK, a founding Fellow of the Singapore Academy of Engineers, a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Singapore, and a member of the National Cybersecurity R&D Laboratory (NCL).
Prof Boey has received several highly prestigious awards, including the highly prestigious Imperial College London Fellowship Award at their Medical College; the 2013 Singapore President's Science and Technology Medal, the highest National honor for lifetime achievement that can be given to top research scientists and engineers in Singapore; the 2014 President Technology Award, the Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award from Monash University; honorary doctorates from Loughborough University, Nanjing University of Technology and Honorary Professorships from University of Indonesia & Nanjing Postal & Telecoms University.
Prof. B V R Chowdari has obtained his PhD degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa) from the Mangalore University, India. He has worked at the University of Zurich, Switzerland; University of Pennsylvania, USA; University of Stuttgart, Germany; and Nagoya University, Japan, in different capacities at different times. Currently he is a Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering and also Senior Executive Director in the President's Office, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and Visiting Professor at the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, China. Prior to joining NTU, he was a Professor of Physics and Executive Director at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Prof. Chowdari was awarded "Officer in the Order of Academic Palms" title by French Government, "Business Event Ambassador" title by Government of Singapore, and "Outstanding Science Entrepreneur" award by NUS. He is the elected member of the "ICSU Regional Committee for Asia and the Pacific" and also the Academician and Vice-President of the "Asia Pacific Academy of Materials". He is appointed as the Honorary Advisor to the Government of Andhra Pradesh, India.
He has served as the President of the International Union of Materials Research Societies (IUMRS), President of the Asian Society for Solid State Ionics, Chairman of the International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies (ICMAT) series, and the 15th Asian Physics Olympiad (APhO 2014). Currently he is the President of the Materials Research Society of Singapore.
His current research interests lie in developing electrode and electrolyte materials for energy storage applications including Lithium Ion Batteries. He has published more than 280 papers and trained more than 20 students for PhD degrees. He is on the Editorial Board of a number of international journals. He has more than 13,500 citations with an h-index of 56.
Prof Subbu Venkatraman has a PhD in Polymer Chemistry from Carnegie-Mellon University. He is the Chair of Materials Science and Engineering at NTU, which is currently ranked #2 world-wide by US News & World Report. He has spent about 15 years in biomedical R&D in the USA, working with various applications of polymeric biomaterials. He held a senior position in R&D at Alza Corporation prior to joining NTU as Associate Professor in 2000. Since then he has published extensively in the field of biomaterials, with a total of 200 publications, and a citation count of 3600+ and an h-index of 30. He also holds 20 issued US patents in biomaterials/drug delivery, and 5 of these have been translated into products. He is concurrently the Director of the Ocular Therapeutic Engineering Centre, and the Director of the NTU-Northwestern Institute for Nanomedicine, and works closely with clinicians from Singapore and world-wide.
