Dr Shirley Lim,

President, 31^st Council, Singapore Institute of Biology

Dr Lim Tit Meng,

Vice-President, 31^st Council, Singapore Institute of Biology

Ladies and Gentlemen

INTRODUCTION

1                    It gives me great pleasure to be here this morning at the opening of the Biology in Asia conference.  I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all participants, and especially to our foreign friends.

2                    The conference brings together the two big themes for coming decades:  Biology  -  the root discipline in the explosion of knowledge in the Life Sciences around the world; and Asia  -  a region that is growing and opening up faster than any other in the world.  And it is not surprising that the conference is being held in Singapore, a city nation that is harnessing scientific knowledge to secure its own future.

HARNESSING THE LIFE SCIENCES

3                    The Life Sciences are indeed a major investment in our future.  It is a key thrust in Singapore�s strategy to move upstream, in other words, to evolve from being an efficient, highly-skilled and reliable location for global manufacturing and service industries, to being a centre for knowledge creation and management.  The opportunities are tremendous, with the frontiers of knowledge being redefined and pushed out dramatically every year.

4                    Already, we are seeing positive yields, in the rapid growth of industries built around the biomedical sciences.  But we are not in this as a short term play.  The investments we are making will yield full reward over the next 20-30 years, not 5 years.  That�s also why we are going about this comprehensively.  We are investing in infrastructure and human capital.  We are building on our reputation in high value manufacturing, and attracting leading pharmaceutical, biotech and medical technology companies to use Singapore as a centre for research.  We are ensuring high standards of intellectual property protection, which give us a real edge in Asia, and developing a coherent and credible bioethics framework.  We are building on a good public health system, and seeking to establish deeper capabilities in clinical science and translational medicine.

5                    And we are creating an integrated and collaborative environment, across scientific disciplines as well as between research institutions, universities, hospitals and industry.  A*Star and our Singapore universities are charting new frontiers in interdisciplinary research.  A good example is bio-imaging, an advanced and increasingly vital tool in non-invasive diagnosis of disease, which entails collaboration between biologists, engineers, physicists and doctors.  A*STAR is establishing a Bioimaging Consortium in Singapore, that will pool and coordinate the bioimaging work in our research institutes, universities, hospitals and disease centres.  Singapore is well-placed for collaborative research of this nature, given our compact scientific community and the good track record we have already accumulated in integrative work.

GROWING TALENT

6                    The key to succeeding in all this of course, is human talent.  We have to remain the most open city in Asia  -  open to the cross-currents of global talent, beckoning scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs from all over the world.  Many of them have come to regard Singapore as a second home, some a permanent home.  We have to keep the factors that bring them in and make them want to stay  -  good science, a cosmopolitan environment, and a culture that respects talent regardless of nationality.  This ability to pool together global talent is an absolute prerequisite for us to succeed as a hub for research and innovation.

7          Equally critical is to grow Singapore�s own human capital, and a culture of research.  We will not succeed in securing a future in the life sciences, or any other area of knowledge-based innovation, without nurturing Singaporeans, in each generation, who are not only good at executing tasks well and reliably, but who have the appetite and knack for creating new ideas and exploring new applications, or venturing into new markets.

8          We have some advantages.  Our students have a strong foundation in the sciences and mathematics.  They rank amongst the top in international competitions like the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).  And unlike most other countries in this position, in Singapore it is not just our boys but our girls who do very well in maths and science.

9          We are building on these strengths.  We are retaining the fundamental advantages of a competitive, national system of education, while seeking to create new strengths.  We are creating a more flexible system and providing more choice to the individual student, so as to encourage him or her to find their own talents and interests and to develop them to the fullest.  The NUS High School for Mathematics and Science will open in January, to provide a new pathway for nurturing the potential of students with a passion for these subjects.  Our A*STAR research institutions and universities have other outreach programmes to develop young talents.  Just last Friday, I met several secondary school and Junior College students who were doing 3 week attachments at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, for instance.  They were completely enthused in what they were doing, and the fact that they were being exposed to developments at the cutting edge of science.  A few of them had spent a good part of the previous night working with their mentor in the lab.  As one of them put it to me �I didn�t realise how hard researchers worked!�  Hard work, but the excitement was palpable.

10        At the core of what we are doing is a shift towards new methods of learning.  We want to develop a zest for enquiry and experimentation among our young.  We want to nurture students who are not just good at recalling the right answer, but are keen to discover a new answer, or suss out for themselves workable alternatives in situations where there is no right answer.  We are moving in steps towards these new methods of learning, from young.  And as we do so, we grow the skills and habits of mind that will gradually transform our society and create new economic opportunities.

11        We have to try every way of nurturing these new skills and habits.  It means giving our students opportunities to engage in experiments and hands-on activities, as most of our schools are now doing.  It also means giving our budding scientists enough of a dose of the humanities when they are in school, because it is often in the humanities like History, Literature and Social Studies that you have to deal with ambiguities and think hard about situations which are not given to any single, correct answer.

12        And it means creating for our students an environment that spurs them to seek new knowledge tenaciously, not just for its economic benefits but because it helps to advance society and better the human condition.  Finding new treatments and cures for previously fatal diseases, for instance.  Or thinking hard about what has to be done to conserve nature and preserve biodiversity, and to go out there and do something about it.

13        Our teachers and educators are key to helping our students acquire these habits.  So I am glad that one of the sub-themes of the conference is Biology Education in Asia.  It is a challenging theme, given how rapidly the field is developing.  But the basics of what makes a good teacher have not changed.  The best teachers have always been those who model the interest and passion for knowledge, and the desire to keep learning, that they hope their students will catch.  And they inspire their students to use knowledge to go beyond themselves.

CONCLUSION

14        The other themes in the conference, on Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation, and Biotechnology are also of great relevance for us in Singapore and Asia.  I look forward like everyone else I am sure to listening to the keynote address by Dr Jane Goodall, world-acclaimed both as a scientist and conservationist.

15        I take this opportunity to congratulate the Singapore Institute of Biology on the occasion of its 30^th anniversary, and commend it for its efforts in promoting Biology in Singapore.  I now have the pleasure of declaring the conference open.

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