Nikkei Asia Award 2006
2006/05/23
A*STAR burns brightly thanks to active leader
With a background in engineering and business administration, Philip Yeo admits he is no scientist. But the chairman of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is much more than simply a bureaucrat.
Yeo says he holds discussions with scientists frequently as part of his work, and some of that knowledge sticks.
These are humble words from the 59-year-old man who has helped build the foundations for science and technology in Singapore.
Yeo served as the first chairman of Singapore's National Computer Board from 1981 to 1987, where he worked to nurture the nation's industries for hard-disk drives and other equipment.
In 2001, Yeo took over the leadership of A*STAR, at which he has simply been "building, reading and recruiting."
Biopolis attracts talent
This is more plain talk from a man who has managed to attract top scientists to Singapore by building the kinds of facilities and other infrastructure that serve as fertile ground for cutting-edge research in the life sciences. An example of that infrastructure is Biopolis, a complex home to six research institutes.
Yeo has gone around the world looking for excellent scientists to bring the Biopolis to life. He reads scientific articles every day in search of researchers who he thinks would be a good fit. Of the several hundred researchers at the Biopolis, more than half are from places other than Singapore, including around 10 from Japan.
Recruiting efforts have begun to bear fruit, with groups from Biopolis reporting globally significant results in fields like genome research and the extraction of stem cells from human embryos.
Yeo said his hope is that the research results will help improve people's lives. By way of example, Yeo noted the burden that falls on a family when they must take care of a breadwinner who has fallen ill and can no longer earn a living.
Bioscience and pharmaceuticals that can solve those kinds of problems will become the next big industry, Yeo predicted. In this regard, the nurturing of a drug industry in Singapore is now on the chairman's radar.
back