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NUSNNI Director receives prestigious
George E Pake Prize
Professor Thirumalai Venkatesan,
Director of the NUS Nanoscience
and Nanotechnology Initiative and
NanoCore, has been awarded the 2012
George E Pake Prize from the American
Physical Society (APS). He received this
prize at the APS March 2012 meeting
in Boston, Massachusetts, US, in
recognition of his exemplary scientific
career in research, industrial leadership,
and guidance of new generations of
physicist in the creation of new ventures
by innovation.
ACCOLADES
Among the world’s top 100 most
cited physicists, Prof Venkatesan has
published over 500 papers in the field
of oxide films and hetero structures. He
is well-known as a pioneer in oxide electronics and
inventor of the pulsed laser deposition process.
Neocera, a company he founded in 1989, is now
recognised globally for PLD systems and magnetic
field imaging magma systems. He has also helped
many of his students and researchers to set up
companies.
Prof Venkatesan (left) receiving the prize certificate from Stanford
University Professor Robert Byer, Chairman of the APS Prize Committee
Endowed by the Xerox Corporation in 1983, the
George E Pake Prize was established to recognise
and encourage outstanding physicists for their
research accomplishments and leadership in
developing the industry. Among its recipients were
many highly acclaimed physicists, including Nobel
Laureate and former Bell Labs President Arno Allan
Penzias.
• Provost’s Chair Professor Deng Yongheng, also
NUS Institute of Real Estate Studies Director,
was elected the Second Vice President of the
American Real Estate and Urban Economics
Association (AREUEA). AREUEA is the world’s
leading academic association in the field of real
estate finance and
urban economics.
Prof Deng is the first Asian
Second Vice President of
AREUEA
Prof Deng is the first
person outside of
North America to
assume this position
in the 48 years of
AREUEA’s history.
This election
reflected growing
awareness of Asia
as a new global
economic centre as
well as a recognition
of NUS’ leading
role in real estate
education, finance and urban economics
research.
Said Prof Deng: “This is a challenging period
for the global economy and real estate
markets, and I look forward to raising greater
international interest on vital issues relating to
real estate and urban development in Asia and
around the world. The next few years will be
a time of major paradigm shifts as the world
explores new models of growth, development
and sustainability. I hope a multidisciplinary
approach, which NUS excels in, would offer
distinctive insights into matters of such great
complexity.”
• Mechanobiology Institute Director Michael
Sheetz, Distinguished Professor at the NUS
Department of Biological Sciences and William R
Kenan Junior Professor at Columbia University,
will be presented with the 11th annual Wiley
Prize in Biomedical Sciences at Rockefeller
University, New York, in April 2012. He will be
sharing the award with Professor James Spudich
from Stanford University
and Professor Ronald
Vale from University of
California, San Francisco.
The threesome were
recognised for explaining
how cargo is moved by
molecular motors along
two different systems of
tracks within cells.
The Wiley Prize in
Biomedical Sciences
Prof Sheetz received the
recognises contributions prestigious Wiley Prize in
that have opened new Biomedical Sciences
fields of research or advanced novel concepts
or their applications in a particular biomedical
discipline. Five Nobel Prize winners for Physiology
or Medicine are among its distinguished list of
past recipients.
• NUS Associate Provost for Undergraduate
Education and Professor of Information Systems
Bernard Tan received the coveted Fellow Award
from the Association for Information Systems
based in Georgia, US. He was honoured for his
high professional and personal integrity. Prof
Tan is also a Distinguished Honorary Professor at
Fudan University and guest professor at Renmin
University in China.
MARCH 2012
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