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NTU and NUS host renowned nanoscience expert and Lee Kuan Yew Distinguished Visitor, Chad Mirkin
(Nanowerk News) Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) are hosting world renowned chemist and nanoscience expert Professor Chad Mirkin, who is in Singapore from 22 to 28 July 2012 as an invited guest of the Lee Kuan Yew Distinguished Visitor Programme.
Professor Mirkin, who is Rathmann Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University in the United States, is listed by Thomson Reuters as the most cited chemist in the world. He is also a member of United States President Barack Obama's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, an eminent group of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers who directly advise the President. As a member of this advisory council, Professor Mirkin has helped to formulate policy recommendations in multiple areas where understanding of science, technology and innovation is key to strengthening the US economy.
Professor Mirkin is also Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University, and is well-known for his development of nanoparticle-based biodetection schemes, the invention of Dip-Pen Nanolithography, and contributions to supramolecular chemistry, nanoelectronics and nanooptics.
Professor Mirkin will deliver two major public lectures in Singapore this week. He will speak on the topic "Revolutionising the field of medicine through advances in nanotechnology" during a public lecture tomorrow, 24 July 2012 at NTU. On 26 July 2012, Professor Mirkin will discuss the subject "Nanotechnology: Learning to think big in a field focused on the small" at NUS. Professor Mirkin will also meet the senior management, as well as the science and engineering faculties of both NTU and NUS.
“We are entering into an exciting time where we see advances in technology that will transform the world. The area of nanotechnology is one such revolutionary area, changing the world that up until now was built on thinking big, to be looking at the very small,” said Professor Barry Halliwell, NUS Deputy President (Research and Technology). “We are pleased to have Professor Mirkin, who is at the forefront of it all, to address how small materials can lead to big advances. His talk at NUS will be one that is very insightful and enlightening to our staff, faculty and students.”
NTU Provost, Professor Freddy Boey said, "Professor Mirkin is a foremost scientist and one of the most highly cited in nanotechnology in the world. It is an honour to have him come to Singapore as the LKY Distinguished Visitor. For many years, NTU has been enjoying a special research relationship with Professor Mirkin. With his research breakthroughs and success at commercialising his research, he is an incredible inspiration to our faculty and students. NTU will be conferring on him an honorary doctorate at our annual convocation this month and I am very excited to have him connecting with the scientific community at NTU.”
NTU will confer an honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering (honoris causa) on Professor Chad Mirkin at the university's Convocation ceremony on 25 July 2012, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the university.
NTU has much benefitted from its interactions with Professor Mirkin over the years. He has worked closely with the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) in NTU since late 2007 and is now Visiting Professor at the School. In addition, Professor Mirkin has helped to establish a joint laboratory with MSE in nanomaterials and nanostructures and NTU has hired several of Professor Mirkin’s post-doctorals and postgraduate students as faculty.
In 2009, Professor Mirkin invited NTU to join Northwestern University, University of Illinois and the University of California at Los Angeles for a US$25 million (S$31.65 million) Centre for Science and Technology under the auspices of the US National Science Foundation (NSF). The consortium was shortlisted for a NSF site visit at Northwestern in September 2009, during which NTU also presented.
Professor Chad Mirkin will be the 66th Distinguished Visitor to come to Singapore under the Lee Kuan Yew Distinguished Visitors Programme. The programme is funded by an endowment fund established in 1983 by friends and well-wishers of Singapore's former Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
The Distinguished Visitors Programme invites internationally eminent and outstanding academics and scholars to Singapore as Lee Kuan Yew Distinguished Visitors to make high level contributions to NTU, NUS and Singapore. The programme commenced in January 1985 when Dr Sydney Brenner, Director of the Medical Research Council Centre in Cambridge, United Kingdom, was appointed as the first Lee Kuan Yew Distinguished Visitor.
Source: Nanyang Technological University