Winners to represent Singapore at the 40th International Chemistry Olympiad from 12 to 21 July 2008 in Hungary

Four top students of the Singapore Chemistry Olympiad (SChO) competition have been selected to represent Singapore at the 40th International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO), which will be held from 12 to 21 July this year in Hungary. The winners also received the LANXESS Young Talent Chemistry Prize, sponsored by German specialty chemicals group LANXESS Pte Ltd.

Two of the SChO winners, Foo Mei Hua Fiona and Lau Kang Ruey Gregory, are from the NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, while the other two, Wang Yong Jin and Yeong Li Qian, are students of Raffles Junior College.

The Singapore Chemistry Olympiad (SChO) is jointly organised by the Singapore National Institute of Chemistry (SNIC), the Chemistry Department of the National University of Singapore (NUS), and the Ministry of Education. The SChO acts as the first selection round to identify top young minds to compete at the yearly International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO). Started in 1989, the SChO provides a platform for talented chemistry students from various schools to engage in a two-day competition. Students undergo a grueling theory test and a practical test, which could last up to five hours each. This year, a total of 209 participants from 21 schools participated in the SChO.

To prepare for the international competition, the SChO winners made use of the laboratories at the Department of Chemistry at NUS, and were mentored by the lecturers at the university. So far, between 1988 and 2007, Singapore has won a total of 71 medals at the IChO, putting it on the top two spot for most medals received at the competition.

“As these students of Singapore are of exceptional quality and promise, I am confident that they will excel in the International Chemistry Olympiad in Hungary,” said Prof Andy Hor, Head of the Department of Chemistry at NUS and President of the Singapore National Institute of Chemistry.
NUS has named LANXESS the Exclusive Official Sponsor of this year’s Singapore Chemistry Olympiad, which will be held in November/December 2008.

“LANXESS views people as the driving force for our industry. For this reason, we constantly seek ways to engage the curiosity of our younger generation in the dynamic world of specialty chemicals as well as nurture the best minds in chemistry for the country,” said Mr. Ian Wood, Managing Director, LANXESS Pte Ltd.

“There’s an urgent need to better profile the chemical industry to the students as well as the public at large and more can be done to ensure the students are better informed about the industry,” Dr. Hor added. “We are very pleased to have LANXESS as our corporate sponsor. Besides the Chemistry Olympiad, LANXESS has also supported our department by hosting a visit by our students to their headquarters in Leverkusen, Germany recently. Such academia-industry collaboration enables our students to see chemistry in action.”

 

About LANXESS

LANXESS is a leader in specialty chemicals with sales in 2007 of EUR 6.61 billion and currently around 15,200 employees in 21 countries. The company is represented at 50 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacture and sale of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals. More at www.lanxess.com


About National University of Singapore (NUS)

The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a multi-campus university of global standing, with distinctive strengths in education and research and an entrepreneurial dimension. Its diverse and cosmopolitan community of 23,500 undergraduate and 9,000 graduate students from 100 countries contribute to a rich learning and living environment across three state-of-the-art campuses - its principal 150-hectare Kent Ridge campus, Bukit Timah campus and its Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore in Outram.
 
NUS offers a broad-based curriculum underscored by multi-disciplinary courses and cross-faculty enrichment. There are 14 faculties offering courses from architecture to medicine to music. A special feature of NUS education is the global dimension of its courses in partnership with some of the world’s best institutions. NUS also enjoys a close teaching-research association with 14 national-level, 18 university-level and 80 faculty-based research institutes and centres. Research activities are strategic and robust, and a ‘no walls’ collaborative culture forms the bedrock of NUS’ research-intensive vibrancy. A spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation promotes creative enterprise university-wide. This is aided by a venture support eco-system that helps students, staff and alumni nurture the development of start-ups into regional and global companies. 

NUS plays an active role in international academic networks such as the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) and Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU). It is ranked amongst the best universities in the world, and is well-regarded for disciplines such as Technology, Biomedicine and the Social Sciences.

For more information, please visit: www.nus.edu.sg


 

 

 

back