 | |
| Editors |
|
|---|---|
| Categories | Science |
| Frequency | Weekly (online) and biannual (print) |
| Founder | Juliana Chan |
| First issue | March 16, 2011 |
| Company | Wildtype Media Group Pte Ltd |
| Country | Singapore |
| Language | English |
| Website | www |
Asian Scientist is an English language science and technology magazine published in Singapore.
Asian Scientist was launched as a blog in March 2011 by Juliana Chan. [1] [2] The blog's popularity eventually led to a partnership with the publishing house World Scientific Publishing, enabling Chan to turn Asian Scientist into a magazine and serve as its editor-in-chief. [3]
Based in Singapore, Asian Scientist is maintained by a team of professional science and medical journalists, with active contributors from the science, technology and medical communities. [4]
The magazine's launch reflects the growing demographic of scientists, engineers and doctors from Asia, and caters to this community with news stories that are both timely and of interest to them. According to the 2010 U.S. National Science Foundation Key Science and Engineering Indicators report, [5] one-quarter of the world's publications are from Asia and one-third of all scientific researchers worldwide are Asian, representing a shift of the world's scientific center of gravity to Asia.
According to the Science and Engineering Indicators 2012 released by the U.S. National Science Board, [6] the largest global science and technology gains in recent years occurred in the "Asia-10″ – China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Between 1999 and 2009, for example, the U.S. share of global R&D dropped from 38 to 31 percent, whereas Asia's share grew from 24 to 35 percent during that period.
On April 16, 2013, the company accepted seed funding from international science publisher World Scientific Publishing Company to expand operations at its Singapore headquarters. [7] In January 2014, it launched its flagship print magazine targeted at scientists, healthcare professionals and students. The magazine's inaugural issue focused on the biomedical sciences and was featured by media outlets in Singapore and Malaysia as Asia's first science magazine. [8] [9]
On April 2, 2015, it launched the inaugural Asian Scientist Writing Prize, [10] co-organized with Science Centre Singapore and with prizes sponsored by World Scientific Publishing Company. The competition received close to 400 entries and gave out SGD$21,000 in cash and prizes. The competition returned for its second installment in 2017, [11] this time with Dr. Jorge Cham of Piled Higher and Deeper as its invited guest speaker. [12]
In August 2015, it published a book called Singapore's Scientific Pioneers, [13] with the goal of highlighting the contributions of 25 pioneering scientists from Singapore. The book was made possible by a Singapore50 Celebration Fund grant from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. [14]
At the start of 2017, the company launched Supercomputing Asia, a new biannual print title dedicated to tracking the latest developments in high performance computing across the region and making supercomputing accessible to the layman.
On May 4, 2018, the company was relaunched as Wildtype Media Group, [15] a STEM-focused media company spanning digital, print, custom publishing and events. It works with academic and industry media partners in Asia on their communication strategies with key stakeholders and the public.
The magazine covers science, medical and technology news updates from the Asia and Australasia regions. It devotes categories to research and development, health, medicine, new media and education. The site has been indexed by Google News since July 22, 2011.
The magazine regularly features peer-reviewed basic and applied research from Asia, and carries out one-on-one interviews with notable Asian scientists. [16] Prominent interviewees include:
On March 30, 2016, Asian Scientist released the inaugural Asian Scientist 100 list. [29] The Asian Scientist 100 list is an annual handpicked selection of 100 prize-winning Asian researchers, academicians, innovators and business leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region. This list of accomplished personalities included Tu Youyou, Kazutoshi Mori, K. Radhakrishnan and Nancy Ip. The list was subsequently mentioned by the Manila Bulletin, [30] Philippine Daily Inquirer, [31] GMA News Online, [32] The Nation (Thailand), [33] and VietNamNet Bridge. [34]
On May 22, 2019, the Philippine Senate adopted a resolution commending eight Filipino scientists on the Asian Scientist 100 list (2018 edition). The resolution was introduced by Senator Bam Aquino, chair of the Senate committee on science and technology, to congratulate the scientists for "bringing pride and prestige to the country". [35] [36]
David Da-i Ho is a Taiwanese American AIDS researcher, physician, and virologist who has made a number of scientific contributions to the understanding and treatment of HIV infection. He championed for combination anti-retroviral therapy instead of single therapy, which turned HIV from an absolute terminal disease into a chronic disease.
Sydney Brenner was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to work on the genetic code, and other areas of molecular biology while working in the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. He established the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism for the investigation of developmental biology, and founded the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley, California, United States.
The University of the Philippines Los Baños, also referred to as UP Los Baños or colloquially as Elbi, is a public research university primarily located in the towns of Los Baños and Bay in the province of Laguna, some 65 kilometers southeast of Manila. It traces its roots to the UP College of Agriculture (UPCA), which was founded in 1909 by the American colonial government to promote agricultural education and research in the Philippines. American botanist Edwin Copeland served as its first dean. UPLB was formally established in 1972 following the union of UPCA with four other Los Baños and Diliman-based University of the Philippines (UP) units.
Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan was an Indian agronomist, agricultural scientist, geneticist, administrator and humanitarian. Swaminathan was a global leader of the green revolution. He has been called the main architect of the green revolution in India for his leadership and role in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice. Swaminathan's collaborative scientific efforts with Norman Borlaug, spearheading a mass movement with farmers and other scientists and backed by public policies, saved India and Pakistan from certain famine-like conditions in the 1960s. His leadership as director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines was instrumental in his being awarded the first World Food Prize in 1987, recognized as one of the highest honours in the field of agriculture. The United Nations Environment Programme has called him "the Father of Economic Ecology". He was recently conferred the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of the Republic of India, in 2024.
Robert Samuel Langer Jr. FREng is an American biotechnologist, businessman, chemical engineer, chemist, and inventor. He is one of the nine Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Eureka Prizes are awarded annually by the Australian Museum, Sydney, to recognise individuals and organizations who have contributed to science and the understanding of science in Australia. They were founded in 1990 following a suggestion by science journalist Robyn Williams.
Florence Muringi Wambugu is a Kenyan plant pathologist and virologist. She is known for her advocacy of using biotechnology to increase food production in Africa.
Atta-ur-Rahman, h-index 75, with 36,000 citations is a Pakistani organic chemist and is currently serving as Professor Emeritus at the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Karachi and as Chairman of PM Task Force on Science and Technology. He has twice served as the President of Pakistan Academy of Sciences. He was the Federal Minister of Science and Technology (2000-2002), Federal Minister of Education (2002) and Chairman Higher Education Commission with status of Federal Minister (2002-2008) He is also the President of the Network of Academies of Sciences in Countries of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (NASIC). After returning to Pakistan from Cambridge after completing his tenure as Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge University, he contributed to the development of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Karachi, and transforming the landscape of higher education, science and technology of Pakistan. He is Fellow of Royal Society (London), Life Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge University, UK.,, Academician Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor Emeritus at University of Karachi
Caesar Aya-ay Saloma is a professor of the National Institute of Physics (NIP) at the University of the Philippines College of Science and a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology.
Subra Suresh is an Indian-born American engineer, materials scientist, and academic leader. He is currently Professor at Large at Brown University and Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was Dean of the School of Engineering at MIT from 2007 to 2010 before being appointed as Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) by Barack Obama, where he served from 2010 to 2013. He was the president of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) from 2013 to 2017. Between 2018 and 2022, he was the fourth President of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where he was also the inaugural Distinguished University Professor.
Iran has made considerable advances in science and technology through education and training, despite international sanctions in almost all aspects of research during the past 30 years. Iran's university population swelled from 100,000 in 1979 to 2 million in 2006. In recent years, the growth in Iran's scientific output is reported to be the fastest in the world.
Sir Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov is a Russian–British physicist. His work on graphene with Andre Geim earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. Novoselov is a professor at the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials, National University of Singapore and is also the Langworthy Professor of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester.
Pamela Christine Ronald is an American plant pathologist and geneticist. She is a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center at the University of California, Davis and a member of the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. She also serves as Director of Grass Genetics at the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville, California. In 2018 she served as a visiting professor at Stanford University in the Center on Food Security and the Environment.
Maharaj Kishan Bhan was an Indian pediatrician and clinical scientist. He received M.B.B.S. Degree (1969) from Armed Forces Medical College, Pune and M.D. Degree from Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh. He carried out extensive post doctoral research at All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the areas of diarrheal diseases and child nutrition with an emphasis on public health issues. He served as the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER).
Manju Sharma is an Indian biotechnologist and administrator of several scientific research and policy-making bodies in India. She was most recently the president and executive director at the Indian Institute of Advanced Research in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. She earlier served as the secretary, Department of Biotechnology, in the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology, and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2007.
Shahid Jameel is an Indian virologist and academic. Dr. Jameel is the Sultan Qaboos bin Said Fellow at Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and Research Fellow, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. He serves as the Principal Investigator for the Centre's project on Public Health, Science and Technology in Muslim societies. Previously he was the director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences since its inception in the year 2020 at Ashoka University. He was formerly head of the scientific advisory group to the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortia (INSACOG) established in December 2020, and the chief executive officer of Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance. Known for his research in hepatitis E virus, Jameel is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies viz. National Academy of Sciences, India, Indian Academy of Sciences, and Indian National Science Academy. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Medical Sciences in 2000.
India and China are the two largest producers of genetically modified products in Asia. India currently only grows GM cotton, while China produces GM varieties of cotton, poplar, petunia, tomato, papaya and sweet pepper. Cost of enforcement of regulations in India are generally higher, possibly due to the greater influence farmers and small seed firms have on policy makers, while the enforcement of regulations was more effective in China. Other Asian countries that grew GM crops in 2011 were Pakistan, the Philippines and Myanmar. GM crops were approved for commercialisation in Bangladesh in 2013 and in Vietnam and Indonesia in 2014.
Margaret Gathoni Karembu is a Kenyan science educator and science management specialist in the fields of technology transfer and the applications of biotechnology in Africa. She is the Director of the AfriCenter division of the ISAAA, a non-profit international organization that shares agricultural biotechnology, focusing on genetic engineering. She is the chair of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology Programming Committee, Kenya Chapter.
Dishant Mayurbhai Pancholi is a professor in the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai with research interests in contact and symplectic topology. Before taking up the position in The Institute Of Mathematical Sciences in 2016, Pancholi was an assistant professor at Chennai Mathematical Institute. He is also a von Newmann Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. The Singapore based magazine Asian Scientist selected Pancholi as the top ranking Asian Scientist of the year 2020 in a list of 100 Asia’s most outstanding researchers. Pancholi was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in Mathematical Sciences in the year 2019.
Juliana Chan is a biologist, a science communicator, the founder of Asian Scientist, and the founder and CEO of Wildtype Media Group.