Former NEA chairman among eight lauded at annual President’s Science and Technology Awards

SINGAPORE – Having advised the authorities on various matters over 13 years, engineer Lee Chuan Seng said planning for the Republic’s land, energy, water and infrastructure needs together rather than separately could increase productivity and reap cost savings.

An example of this is Tuas Nexus, a facility that integrates a water reclamation plant with a waste management facility. It is expected to be operational from 2027. Lee was chairman of the National Environment Agency (NEA) when development of Tuas Nexus began.

For his contributions, he was on Aug 28 awarded the President’s Science and Technology Medal, the top honour at the President’s Science and Technology Awards 2026.

The medal recognises the contributions of those who have shaped Singapore’s science and technology ecosystem, instead of just a single discovery or technology.

Co-locating the waste and water treatment facilities in a single plant allows food waste and used water sludge to be processed together, increasing biogas production by 40 per cent and boosting electricity production.

While government ministries and agencies tend to work in silos, combining their efforts could be more productive, Lee said. “You could save a lot of money,” he said.

Lee is currently the chairman of the Committee of Government Scientific Advisors, which is part of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) strategy under the National Research Foundation (NRF). He has held this role since 2023. In that capacity, he provided scientific advice on major research and development initiatives undertaken under RIE2025 and the plans for RIE2030.

He also drove the development of the Urban Solutions and Sustainability (USS) pillar under RIE2025 – which aimed to shape Singapore’s built environment to address challenges in sustainability, liveability and resilience – as chairman of the USS technical advisory work group.

The annual awards, administered by NRF, were presented by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam in a ceremony held at the Nanyang Auditorium on the Nanyang Technological University campus.

NRF chairman Heng Swee Keat noted that Lee, who had also headed engineering consultancy Beca Asia until 2013, has served in various capacities over the years.

These include being founding president of the Singapore Green Building Council, where he led the development of Green Mark standards – turning sustainable building design into standard industry practice – and championed large-scale solar deployment.

In these capacities, Lee “strengthened the bridge between science and policy”, said Heng.

Heng also pointed to Lee’s pioneering work in the adoption of cement-treated mixed materials, where waste residue from the Semakau Landfill is transformed into viable reclamation material, for the third phase of Tuas Port.

“We converted a problem into a solution that works for us,” said Lee, who also described his achievements as being the efforts of hundreds of others he had worked with over the years.

“What I’m doing now is really paying forward, to make sure that Singapore continues to grow and continues to thrive,” said Lee, who also serves as scientific adviser to the Ministry of National Development and NEA.

Another researcher lauded at the event was Wu Jishan, provost’s chair professor at the National University of Singapore’s chemistry department. He received the President’s Science Award, which recognises research of significant and lasting impact within a particular field.

The award was for his work in molecular carbon science, which overturned several long-held assumptions in chemistry. His research showed that molecules with unpaired electrons – also known as open-shell molecules, which previously were considered too unstable to be useful – can in fact be designed, stabilised and controlled.

Electronic devices ranging from computers to communication systems depend on controlling the behaviour of electrons, with chemists largely working where the particles sit in stable pairs.

Clinching the President’s Technology Award was a team comprising members from A*STAR’s National Metrology Centre and the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA), whose work transformed how marine fuel is measured and verified.

The four-man team led a move to mass flow metering – where fuel is weighed as it flows through the pipe instead of estimating it from tank volume. Such a solution ensures accurate measurements under the demanding conditions of ship-to-ship transfer at sea.

This became the scientific foundation of MPA’s mandatory mass flow metering framework, the world’s first such framework, which has cut fuel-related legal disputes by up to 70 per cent. The framework has also been adopted internationally by ports such as Rotterdam and Ningbo in China.

The team consists of principal metrologist Wu Jian, senior principal scientist Yu Shengkai and research engineer Tan Ren Kai from the A*STAR National Metrology Centre, as well as MPA chief digital officer Thomas Ting.

During the ceremony, NRF chairman Heng presented the Young Scientist Award – recognising those aged 40 and below actively engaged in research and development here – to two recipients.

Liu Boxiang, presidential young professor at NUS’ pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences department, won for his efforts to make precision medicine work for Asian populations.

Liu developed the first atlas mapping genetic variations to alternative splicing – a process during gene expression – within individual cell types in human blood from diverse Asian donors. He also developed the first atlas studying how Alzheimer’s disease shapes genetic regulation in the human brain.

Also clinching the Young Scientist Award was Hou Yi, presidential young professor at the chemical and biomolecular engineering department at NUS. He was recognised for his work on next-generation solar technology, where perovskites – materials that can be made into very thin, light films – are layered on top of silicon so that the two together capture more sunlight than either can alone.

Hou is the founder of NUS spin-off company Singfilm Solar, which aims to commercialise this technology for areas such as AI data centres, satellites and drones.

The award recipients’ stories traced “rigorous science, purposeful translation, and teamwork across disciplines, institutions and borders”, said Heng.

“The convergence of AI, quantum, advanced materials and the life sciences is creating possibilities that we are only beginning to understand,” he added. “Singapore aspires to be at the frontier of such work, generating knowledge, building solutions, and doing so in ways that are responsible, inclusive and impactful.”