Month: September 2009

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Teaching award recipients 2008/9

28 Sep 2009 – News from Rudolf Meier:

“I am very happy to convey the news about teaching in AY2008/2009. DBS did very well and received the largest number of faculty teaching awards for any FOS [Faculty of Science] department (7). We also topped the list for part-time TA awards.

With best wishes,

Rudolf Meier”

—

Faculty Teaching Excellence Award Winners

  • Dr Chew Fook Tim
  • Prof Chou Loke Ming
  • Dr Lam Siew Hong
  • A/P Loh Chiang Shiong
  • Mr N Sivasothi
  • Dr Seow Teck Keong
  • A/P Yu Hao

Faculty Honour Roll Inductions

  • Prof Ip Yuen Kwong, Alex
  • A/P Rudolf Meier

TA (Part Time) Winners

  • Ang Hui Fang Andie
  • Ang Yuchen
  • Hee Kim Hor Daryl
  • Lim Shimin Gwynne
  • Loong Ai May
  • Jose Christopher E. Mendoza
  • Ng Yi Hui Eunice
  • Laura Yap Yen Ling
  • Tok Chia Yee
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Staff, students and alumni at the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore @ Pandan mangrove

Over three Saturdays in September, some 40 organisations hit the beaches and mangroves around Singapore as part of the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore in an effort to count, categorise and collect marine trash.

This data which is reported to the international coordinator, Ocean Conservancy, to create awareness, effect policy change and provide material for public education. Around the world, 70-100 countries take part annually

The Singapore programme is in its 18th year and I have been national coordinator since 2000 as a result of seeing so much trash in the mangroves! After more than ten years of mangrove cleanups, I finally turned my attention to Sungei Pandan mangrove in 2008. This tiny remnant strip nearby campus has accumulated a heavy load of trash over the years.

Partnering department alumni, staff and students who anchor this cleanup is Wildlife Reserves Singapore (Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and Jurong Bird Park), our co-founding ICC partners at this site – and they count some of our alumni amongst their staff!

Here are some photos from the cleanup featuring some familiar faces – the rest are at the Habitatnews Flickr album and WRS photos are on Fotki. Data results are on the ICCS webpage.

Lots more out there so join us at Lim Chua Kang (Jul/Aug) and Pandan (Sep) next year. Just join the mailing list on the ICCS webpage and I’ll alert you next year.


Pandan mangrove


Getting ready at 7.45am at the Jalan Buroh bus-stop


Getting ready – two of the ‘Indpendents’ and Adrian Loo (alumni)


Weiting (hons) taking a break from her thesis in the mangrove core!


Robert (postgrad) too worked in the depth of the mangrove


Yea Tian (hons) kept up with the mangrove core team to record data


Trina (hons) was determined to be mosquito-proof


Joelle (staff) and Yandi (alumni) removing a mattress


Biswajit (alumni/WRS) wading in


Anne and Trina (hons) and Yandi (alumni) rescuing a volunteer


Anne Devan (hons) in action!


Yea Tian (hons) and Xuiling (2nd year) weighing and recording trash
with the hard working ‘Independents’


DBS Crew with Independents


Sivasothi (staff) with Biswajit and Desmond (alumni/WRS)
and WRS coordinator Charlotte.


Glove cleaning – recycling the welder’s gloves for next year
Alison Wee (postgrad and ICCS Penang liason), N. Sivasothi (ICCS Coordinator)
and Teo Yea Tian (hons) facing camera

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At NIE LT3 today, 6.30pm: World Food Prize laureate MV Gupta on ‘Freshwater Aquaculture and global demand.’

“Freshwater Aquaculture – Prospects and Challenges for meeting the global demand.”

By Dr. M. Vijaya Gupta Ph.D, D.Sc (Hon)
World Food Prize Laureate
Assistant Director General, WorldFish Center (Retd.)
Senior Research Fellow, WorldFish Center, Malaysia

Tue 15 Sep 2009: 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm.
Venue: LT3, Block 7 Science Block, NIE, NTU
Click to see Map

Thanks to Shirley Lim, NIE/NTU, for the invitation.

About the speaker:.

“Through his dedicated and sustained efforts in Bangladesh, Laos and other countries in Southeast Asia , Dr. Gupta made small scale aquaculture a viable means for over one million very poor farmers and women to improve their family’s nutrition and wellbeing,” – Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, 2005.

  • See the World Food Prize laureate webpage.
  • “Challenges in Sustaining and Increasing Fish Production to Combat Hunger and Poverty in Asia,” by MV Gupta. NAGA, WorldFish Center Quarterly Vol. 29 No. 1 & 2 Jan-Jun 2006 – pdf link.
  • “Modadugu Gupta’s Blue Revolution.” Siliconeer, 6(7), 2005.

  • News link: “Indian fish-farm researcher nets World Food Prize,” by James Njoroge. SciDev.Net, 19 Jul 2005. Gupta’s research focussed on improving rural livelihoods by farming freshwater fish.

    Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug [Father of the Green Revolution] set up the World Food Prize in 1986. Each year, it honours individuals who have made “vital contributions to improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food throughout the world”.

    Modadugu V. Gupta, who recently retired from the Malaysia-based WorldFish Centre, spent more than 30 years researching ways of making fish farming a sustainable contributor to rural livelihoods.

    He has won the 2005 World Food Prize for his efforts to introduce fish farming to poor communities across Asia and parts of Africa

    Announcing the US$250,000 award on 13 June, Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, said that thanks to Gupta’s efforts, more than one million Asian farmers had improved their family’s nutrition and well being

    Gupta focused on making it possible for poor farmers to raise fish in freshwater ponds with a minimum of inputs. He showed how farm waste such as weeds or grass could be used in place of costly fish feed and encouraged farmers to alternate agriculture and fish farming on seasonally flooded
    land.

    According to Quinn, Gupta’s efforts brought “the Blue Revolution to those most in need” and led to freshwater fish production increasing by 3-5 times in some developing countries.’

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ICCS Pandan mangroves cleanup: Registration for BioD Crew

Pandan mangroves is a remnant strip mangrove in the south-west of Singapore. As it is not looked after, there is a trash build up that is deterimental to the site. The Raffles Museum Toddycats and the BioD Crew (NUS) and Wildlife Reserve Singapore are conducting a cleanup for the second year under the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore. This year we will be joined by some trainees from the Singapore Police Force.

The deeper parts of the inlet is a tough and dirty site to tackle, with no shelters or toilets but soft mud, lots of mosquitoes in tide pools and some snakes instead! We will work rain or shine and are restricting numbers to reduce impact.

This cleanup is not for the faint-hearted but the Biodiversity Crew and Raffles Museum Toddycats who are up for it are invited to sign up at here:

Saturday, 12th September 2009: 7.20am – 11.00am
International Coastal Cleanup Singapore:
Pandan Mangroves
Register at: http://tinyurl.com/iccspandan2009


Photo by Kelly Ong

Itinerary:

  • 0710 – bus pick up at NUS
  • 0720 – bus pick-up from Dover MRT (one stop west after Buona Vista)
  • 0800 – reach Pandan mangroves bus stop; distribute into sub-groups, apply insect repellent, collect gloves, data cards and trash bags.
  • 0810 – Safety Briefing, identification of the Trash Weighing Point (TWP), wet weather plan (carry on unless lightning threat)
  • 0820 – Cleanup begins.
  • 0845 – Loading teams start moving trash to the TWP
  • 1000 – clean-up ends, data collation beings, weighing completed while participants evaluate the situation at Pandan.
  • 1015 – participants clean themselves up – note no washing point, so bring a bottle of tap water and a change of footwear.
  • 1045 – Pack dirty gloves to bring back wash, dry and return.
  • 1100 – Bus returns to Clementi and then NUS.

What we will provide:

  1. Transport to site.
  2. Gloves.
  3. Trash bags.
  4. Weighing scales.

What you should bring:

  1. Booties or covered shoes with hard soles.
  2. Water bottle (at least one litre of water).
  3. A snack to munch on after the cleanup, especially if you didn’t have time for breakfast!
  4. Hat.
  5. Insect repellent
  6. Raincoat/ponco (we’ll carry on working in the rain)
  7. Towel in a bag – to wipe off any sand and mud off you.
  8. A light pair of long pants will help protect your legs from insect bites if you tend to get bitten, as well as from the debris.
  9. A suggestion – dry fit clothes are suitable. If you prefer cotton, a change of t-shirt will come in handy after a sweaty workout.

Transport:
Registered participants can meet us at either

  1. the NUS bus stop outside Science Drive 1 (7.10am; meet Otterman) or
  2. Dover MRT Station bus stop on side of Singapore Polytechnic (heading west) (7.20am; meet Kelly Ong).
7.10am Pick Up Point – Meet N. Sivasothi a.k.a. Otterman

7.20am Pick up Point – Meet Kelly Ong.

Cleanup location concentration