Hian Kee Lee
The Power List 2015
Hian Kee Lee
Professor, Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore.
Most important lesson A few lessons, actually: Not to be deterred by setbacks, have a sense of humour, cherish the support of the family and the friendship of colleagues, be grateful for the opportunity, and to students, and never stop learning (see next item).
Funniest moment When our son was in his first year of primary school, he was asked by his teacher to write something about his family. Of his father, he wrote: “Daddy is a professor in the university, he’s learning to be a scientist.” Which basically sums it up.
Eye on the horizon New ingenious sample preparation approaches continue to be developed, but we must do something with those have worked very well so far, and see how we can make them more accessible to the community for real-world, practical applications, perhaps by way of incorporating greater automation.
I believe there will be more focus on automation and onsite applications (my favorite catchphrase is: “The environment is your laboratory”). Environmental and bio-analysis will continue to be important, so I believe sample preparation remain an important topic in this respect.
