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Discover the Groundbreaking Work of 8 Female Scientists in Singapore
By SGN | 7 Mar 2024
Consistently ranked as one of the world’s most innovative and business-friendly nations, Singapore is where you’ll find seasoned polymaths and young researchers alike on the verge of scientific breakthroughs.
Here are 8 brilliant female scientists that you should keep your eye on as we celebrate International Women’s Day!
NANOTECHNOLOGY
A luminary in the field of biomedical science and engineering, Jackie is one of Singapore’s most prolific scientists.
At the age of 35, she was the youngest full professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
She currently has more than 200 primary patents and patent applications under her belt, 42 of which have been licensed to multinational and start-up companies. Their applications range from nano medicine and drug delivery to cell and tissue engineering.
Some of these innovations are from spin-off companies that she has founded while leading Singapore’s top biological research facilities.
TEP@RT, the first Made-in-Singapore COVID-19 Rapid Test Kit, is fully developed by her team at one of her spin-offs, Cellbae, which is also working on other rapid test kits for diabetes, mosquito-borne diseases, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Jackie was most recently awarded the prestigious King Faisal Prize in Chemistry (2023), adding to her already impressive list of accolades, which include the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Allan P. Colburn Award.
She is an elected Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and German National Academy of Sciences – Leopoldina, TÜBA.
AI & DATA SCIENCE
Ayesha is a leading AI and data science expert in Asia who has advised leading corporations and governments around the world.
In 2017, she co-founded ADDO, a global AI solutions firm headquartered in Singapore and San Francisco, and was subsequently named one of Southeast Asia’s groundbreaking female entrepreneurs by Forbes in 2018.
Prior to Addo, Ayesha spent over a decade on Wall Street developing large-scale trading, risk management and data analytics systems for leading financial institutions like JP Morgan, UBS, and Bank of America Securities.
She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils, and the Scientific Advisory Board of L’Oreal. She is also the founder of 21st Century Girls, a charity that provides free coding and artificial intelligence classes to girls in Singapore.
FOOD SCIENCE
Combining expertise across food science, biotech and engineering, Iris is a researcher pioneering new solutions for circular agriculture and food security.
She currently leads a team at the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC), leveraging microalgae to upcycle massive food waste streams into alternative proteins.
Their focus is on converting by-products of tofu production – each factory discards up to 200 tonnes of soy whey a day – into nutrient-dense algal biomass.
The social appeal and economic integration of new food products being developed is also key to the project’s success. Her team has already begun working on incorporating the microalgae into a mung bean protein paste that can be processed by a 3D printer into curated food products.
A recipient of the Young Scientist Award from the International Union of Food Science and Technology in 2022 and the George F. Steward Award from the Institute of Food Technologists in 2020, Iris is a scientist to watch at the forefront of future food.
MARINE ECOLOGY
Unlike typical marine biologists who take to dolphins, whales, and squids, Siti specialises in an overlooked group of species with immense climate impact – seagrass.
The only flowering plants which grow in marine environments, seagrass meadows can capture and store carbon dioxide twice as efficiently as forests – a process known as blue carbon sequestration.
Siti’s appointment as Senior Director at the International Blue Carbon Institute (IBCI), a new organisation launched by nonprofit Conservation International, will see her identifying research gaps in blue carbon science across APAC, Latin America and Africa.
In collaboration with partnering governments, NGOs, scientists, and coastal communities, Siti and her team at IBCI also work to integrate blue carbon science into climate mitigation policies worldwide.
Outside of her official role, Siti is also the co-founder of citizen science group TeamSeagrass, established in 2007 to monitor Singapore’s seagrass health while raising awareness for its conservation.
QUANTUM PHYSICS
Yvonne’s passion for engineering began as a schoolgirl soldering circuit boards in her father’s workshop.
More than 20 years later, she is now a quantum physicist whose innovations in superconducting circuitry are recognised as crucial for scalable quantum computation.
Named one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 (Asia Pacific) in 2019, Yvonne has also been awarded Singapore’s Young Scientist Award, and a National Research Fellowship to establish her own research initiative.
As a principal investigator at the Centre of Quantum Technologies, she leads and mentors an international team of researchers, nicknamed QCrew, whose day to day includes setting up experimental infrastructure from scratch.
Outside the lab, Yvonne engages in outreach activities to broaden public knowledge of quantum physics, and to promote greater diversity in science.
Yvonne is also a NUS Presidential Young Professor, a highly regarded professorship awarded to up-and-coming academics with exceptional track records in research.
INTERNAL MEDICINE, CARDIOLOGY
Dr Judith Swain is a visionary molecular cardiologist and physician scientist whose storied career has spanned five decades at the apex of medical research and clinical practice.
By the age of 45, she was the only woman to direct a cardiology department at a major medical centre in America. She was also, up to that point, the only woman to achieve the rank of president-elect (and eventually president) at the American Society for Clinical Investigation, which was founded in 1909.
Since then, she has gone on to hold various leadership positions in America’s and Singapore’s most prestigious institutes, hospitals and associations, such as:
President of the American Association of Physicians, elected member of the Council of the National Academy of Medicine, and Founding Executive Director of Singapore’s Institute for Clinical Sciences, where she focused on bridging basic and clinical research while mentoring generations of physician-scientists.
Judith has also served on international advisory committees including those of the Wellcome Trust, the British Heart Association and the UK Medical Research Council.
Currently, Judith lends her expertise as Chief Medical Officer of medical device startup Physiowave and as Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore. She also sits on the boards of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, and Upstream Medical Technologies.
A leading figure in raising Singapore’s international reputation in biomedical research, Dr. Swain’s accolades are numerous and a testament to her reputation as one of the world’s most accomplished molecular cardiologists.
SPACE TECHNOLOGY
Lynette Tan is a pioneering leader in Singapore’s nascent space industry. In 2007, she co-founded Singapore Space & Technology Limited (SSTL), catalysing the nation’s space sector development.
She has developed initiatives that support early-stage deep tech and space startups like Project Cyclotron; and SSTL’s Space Accelerator Programme. The latter, launched in 2020, has nurtured 40 companies from 18 countries, with a combined valuation of over $850 million.
SSTL is also known for its annual Global Space and Technology Convention (GSTC). Launched in 2007, today it sees over 1,000 international delegates in attendance from governments and space organisations.
To bridge the resulting talent gap from this rapid growth, Lynette has more recently established Space Faculty, a spin-off that focuses on developing career pathways and educational resources at the tertiary level.
The organisation helms The International Space Challenge (ISC), a global space design competition for students that has seen past participants enter the industry.
For her accomplishments and contributions, Lynette has been awarded a Karman Fellowship and was recognised as an Inspiring Business Leader in 2022 by the Economic Times.
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Madhavi is a leading materials scientist and chemical engineer who has contributed significantly to establishing Singapore’s batteries research and innovation ecosystem.
She has been credited with setting up the first e-waste recycling R&D lab in the region, and her research on improving electrochemical storage through nanoscale synthesis and fabrication has yielded over 30 patents.
These advances are supporting the development of circular economy solutions by making it possible for scarce metals to be recovered and reused. One notable project optimises a process called biobleaching – the use of metal-eating microbes to recycle lithium-ion batteries.
While producing one tonne of lithium via mining uses 250 tonnes of ore and 750 tonnes of brine, her team’s bioleaching process needs just 28 tonnes of spent lithium-ion batteries to do so.
Another project of hers uses a biochemical solvent made from citrus fruit peels to achieve similiar battery recycling purposes to scale, and is on its way to being commercialised with battery recycling facility Se-cure Waste Management (SWM).
Recognised for her efforts towards sustainability impact, Madhavi has been named one of Asia’s Top Sustainability Superwomen. She has also won the L’Oreal for Women in Science Fellowship and the National Research Foundation Investigatorship for top scientists in Singapore.
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