Globally impactful science

NUS Chemistry Provost’s Chair Professor Loh Kian Ping and NUS Life Sciences alumna Dr Li Jingmei have been highlighted by Nature as East Asian researchers making waves internationally. Prof Loh was featured as a science star for his innovative method of growing graphene on silicon wafers. Taking inspiration from the way amphibians latch onto leaves, Prof Loh’s specially treated silicon wafers contain capillary bridges — the same microstructures that let frogs adhere to leaves — to hold the graphene to the surface of the wafers. Considered a “master grower” of super-thin nanomaterials, Prof Loh shared his hopes of translating his research into useful products that will be able to help Singapore.

Dr Li, who is a human geneticist at the Genome Institute of Singapore, is making an impact worldwide with her genetic studies of breast cancer. Sieving through information collected from women with breast cancer, Dr Li detects the risk factors that make them more susceptible to the disease. While she acknowledges that genetics do not solve everything, Dr Li believes her work will help to identify the high-risk population, allowing physicians to focus on screening. The purpose of her work is to improve women’s lives, she shared, adding that she also hopes to study breast infections of older women.

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