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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Interview with Lim Chuan Poh, AStar Boss</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
Subscribe </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>kojakbt22 <NOBR>
</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>2:58 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 3) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>18367.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>On bond-breakers, law-breakers, creativity
Your predecessor Mr Philip Yeo had very strong views on scholars who broke their bonds. What is your stand on this?
A lot depends on circumstance. The important thing is to really talk to the individual. Once your approach is to look for fit, you'll reduce mismatched expectations. If I realise the applicant is just looking to go overseas, then I'll say try some other scholarship. Don't jump into this. If your passion is in research, then by all means go ahead.
If the person clearly wants to have a free ride, and use the money from taxpayers, and does not want to honour the commitment, that's a different thing. That's abuse.
But if the individual really wants to honour his or her commitment, but feels that research is not how they can contribute in the most effective way, then the more sensible thing for us, as an organisation and for Singapore, is to find a pathway to allow their contribution to be maximised. It's only sensible. We are creating more porosity.
A*Star has launched many new schemes to get young scientists from all over the world. Are its scholars still the core to developing local PhD research talent?
What we want is a core group of Singaporeans, trained to the highest level possible, who can compete with the best in the world, all on an entirely meritocratic basis. This will give us a certain rooting, certain ballast. And I think this will be Singapore's strength. It will not work if this core is only within the agency, we also need this core in the universities and in the corporate labs we are establishing.
The synergy from the linkages is more important than hoarding all the scientists in one location. So we will do as much as we can for the Singaporeans, but on an overall basis what is most important for all of Singapore is the world- class talent, and within that context we always want to make sure that there is a Singaporean core.
One of A*Star's young female scholars recently made headlines when she was arrested for walking around naked in Holland Village. What are your views on this incident?
As long as you have a certain size of the population there will be people doing different things. The fact that she was an A*Star scholar was incidental. She could have been a judge, a teacher, could have been anyone. So we shouldn't see too much into the fact that she was an A*Star scholar.
What is more important is that, as a society, when young people in society do things like this, what is our attitude towards them?
I don't think anyone is going to say we should encourage this. Singaporeans aren't saying this. On the other hand, it is sensible to really send a clear signal to the individual and this is what the court has done, to say that this is not something that Singapore condones. It is an offence and she was fined. Many Singaporeans did not know that she was fined. Many blogs thought she was acquitted.
But having done that, you then take a look at her situation and help her to recover from the situation, and pursue a path, a career where you believe she can make an impact, instead of taking everything away from her, which is what some groups were suggesting.
Mr Philip Yeo once said that his job was to kidnap the whales and the guppies, referring to luring over top senior scientists to mentor the younger ones. Do you still call it that?
I don't group them that way because they are all talent, there are the young ones, there are the senior ones, everyone is judged based on their contribution, on merit.
A few years ago Dr Lee Wei Ling had a public debate with Mr Philip Yeo about the biomedical sciences (BMS) strategy. She said that biomedical resources were being spread too thinly and that Singapore should concentrate on niche areas and not compete in big-name research. What is your view on this now?
Go back to the analysis and editorials that just came out in The Straits Times and The Business Times in the last two months. The media are saying themselves that things have worked.
Actually the numbers speak for themselves. If you look at the BMS sector in 2000, it contributed around 10 per cent to value-added. Seven years later, it contributed 23 per cent to value-added creating a huge number of jobs. I don't think this is an issue that people discuss now.
What people are discussing is what else can we do to grow the space? We are constantly looking at the issue and have found some new spaces we think we have a good way of growing.
As we do this, we have to recognise that the other cities around the world are doing exactly the same thing, competing with us. Which is why you never settle for a state of complacency. You constantly watch where you are, where your people are, then you innovate, build new capabilities.
Is creativity born or can you build it?
We have to realise that a large part of creativity is very intrinsic. On the other hand, there are things that the top level can do, at the organisational level - facilitation, environment. These are things that we can work on.
By just allowing for different disciplines to be near to each other, you have already increased the opportunities for people to encounter each other in the lift, to engage in interesting conversation as opposed to keeping them apart and they never see each other.
But we have to recognise that a lot of the most interesting work happens because the individual researcher is passionate about it. So we have to create pockets within the organisation where a young researcher can have a lot more independence, and is encouraged to be more independent.
The last thing you want is for people who do world-class research to come to you and say: 'Can you tell me what to do?' That's not doing research, that's like being a soldier. A researcher will come to you and say: 'I have this very interesting idea, this is what I think I can do, and the impact is going to be this and so on and so forth.'
By the time the person has finished, you get so excited you say: 'Let me see how I can help you.' That is the kind of researcher we want.
[email protected]
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Your predecessor Mr Philip Yeo had very strong views on scholars who broke their bonds. What is your stand on this?
A lot depends on circumstance. The important thing is to really talk to the individual. Once your approach is to look for fit, you'll reduce mismatched expectations. If I realise the applicant is just looking to go overseas, then I'll say try some other scholarship. Don't jump into this. If your passion is in research, then by all means go ahead.
If the person clearly wants to have a free ride, and use the money from taxpayers, and does not want to honour the commitment, that's a different thing. That's abuse.
But if the individual really wants to honour his or her commitment, but feels that research is not how they can contribute in the most effective way, then the more sensible thing for us, as an organisation and for Singapore, is to find a pathway to allow their contribution to be maximised. It's only sensible. We are creating more porosity.
A*Star has launched many new schemes to get young scientists from all over the world. Are its scholars still the core to developing local PhD research talent?
What we want is a core group of Singaporeans, trained to the highest level possible, who can compete with the best in the world, all on an entirely meritocratic basis. This will give us a certain rooting, certain ballast. And I think this will be Singapore's strength. It will not work if this core is only within the agency, we also need this core in the universities and in the corporate labs we are establishing.
The synergy from the linkages is more important than hoarding all the scientists in one location. So we will do as much as we can for the Singaporeans, but on an overall basis what is most important for all of Singapore is the world- class talent, and within that context we always want to make sure that there is a Singaporean core.
One of A*Star's young female scholars recently made headlines when she was arrested for walking around naked in Holland Village. What are your views on this incident?
As long as you have a certain size of the population there will be people doing different things. The fact that she was an A*Star scholar was incidental. She could have been a judge, a teacher, could have been anyone. So we shouldn't see too much into the fact that she was an A*Star scholar.
What is more important is that, as a society, when young people in society do things like this, what is our attitude towards them?
I don't think anyone is going to say we should encourage this. Singaporeans aren't saying this. On the other hand, it is sensible to really send a clear signal to the individual and this is what the court has done, to say that this is not something that Singapore condones. It is an offence and she was fined. Many Singaporeans did not know that she was fined. Many blogs thought she was acquitted.
But having done that, you then take a look at her situation and help her to recover from the situation, and pursue a path, a career where you believe she can make an impact, instead of taking everything away from her, which is what some groups were suggesting.
Mr Philip Yeo once said that his job was to kidnap the whales and the guppies, referring to luring over top senior scientists to mentor the younger ones. Do you still call it that?
I don't group them that way because they are all talent, there are the young ones, there are the senior ones, everyone is judged based on their contribution, on merit.
A few years ago Dr Lee Wei Ling had a public debate with Mr Philip Yeo about the biomedical sciences (BMS) strategy. She said that biomedical resources were being spread too thinly and that Singapore should concentrate on niche areas and not compete in big-name research. What is your view on this now?
Go back to the analysis and editorials that just came out in The Straits Times and The Business Times in the last two months. The media are saying themselves that things have worked.
Actually the numbers speak for themselves. If you look at the BMS sector in 2000, it contributed around 10 per cent to value-added. Seven years later, it contributed 23 per cent to value-added creating a huge number of jobs. I don't think this is an issue that people discuss now.
What people are discussing is what else can we do to grow the space? We are constantly looking at the issue and have found some new spaces we think we have a good way of growing.
As we do this, we have to recognise that the other cities around the world are doing exactly the same thing, competing with us. Which is why you never settle for a state of complacency. You constantly watch where you are, where your people are, then you innovate, build new capabilities.
Is creativity born or can you build it?
We have to realise that a large part of creativity is very intrinsic. On the other hand, there are things that the top level can do, at the organisational level - facilitation, environment. These are things that we can work on.
By just allowing for different disciplines to be near to each other, you have already increased the opportunities for people to encounter each other in the lift, to engage in interesting conversation as opposed to keeping them apart and they never see each other.
But we have to recognise that a lot of the most interesting work happens because the individual researcher is passionate about it. So we have to create pockets within the organisation where a young researcher can have a lot more independence, and is encouraged to be more independent.
The last thing you want is for people who do world-class research to come to you and say: 'Can you tell me what to do?' That's not doing research, that's like being a soldier. A researcher will come to you and say: 'I have this very interesting idea, this is what I think I can do, and the impact is going to be this and so on and so forth.'
By the time the person has finished, you get so excited you say: 'Let me see how I can help you.' That is the kind of researcher we want.
[email protected]
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