Developing Malaysia's first Nobel prize winner

A cure for cancer, or diabetes or even revolutionising our green technologies - many bright young Malaysians may have thought about achieving something big in their respective fields but how far are we from achieving that coveted Nobel prize?

Malaysia is taking the big first step as Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, on Wednesday, launched a pilot workshop under the Nobelist Mindset programme, aimed to develop the nation's first Nobel laureate by 2020.

The workshop involves 80 high school students, 20 science teachers with the help of 10 international scientists and educationists assembled by the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS).

The students and young scientists are exposed to skills identified by Nobel laureates as essential to success: working across disciplines, learning to communicate the value of one's work to diverse audiences, passion for research and setting an ambitious research agenda that will improve the human condition.

With the aim of injecting the Nobelist ‘mindset’ in these young Malaysians, it is supposed to serve in developing and strengthening the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) skillsets of these participants

"Like many other countries, Malaysia too aspires to produce Nobel laureates, not just for the recognition but more for the far reaching spill-offs that a journey towards one will produce on the education of our young people," said Rosmah at the PERMATApintar centre at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) this morning.

Rosmah is the patron of the centre for gifted students and this Nobel project is said to be her brainchild.

PERMATApintar centre director Prof Dr Noriah Mohd Ishak said that the workshop is part of four phases including the "laureate in residence" programme - where Nobel laureate Sir Richard Roberts will spend the next month in Malaysia.

“What is important is not only getting our first Nobel laureate but to also inject the Nobel mindset into our young students, so that this can be a driving force for our nation,” Noriah added.

Prof Emeritus Datuk Sri Dr Zakri Abdul Hamid, the science advisor to the PM and co-chairman of the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology said the initiative by UKM is part of the bigger education agenda under Cradle to Career (C2C) programme by Najib.

“The government realises the importance of having an elite and competitive workforce for Malaysia to excel in the global arena. Having the Nobelist mindset among our young augurs well for development of research prominence in our country,” he said.

Zakri also said that the end goal was not only to have an elitist group of bright minds but also to disseminate the same attitudes among the masses.

“If you look at the South East Asia, there has never been a Nobel laureate. In Japan there has been quite a number, but for Muslim countries, there has been only one in Pakistan and one in Egypt,” Zakri said, adding that even then the winners were researching in western countries.

Among the international scientists participating in the workshop are Stephen Brodbar, Noah Burg, Dr Hilleary Osheroff, Larry Petcovic, Dr Oscar Pineda-Catalan, Dr Julia Rankin, Dr Randall Ribaudo, Dr Mark Saul, Amber Schau and Stephen Wortel. Their fields of expertise stretches from education and social science to neuroscience, neurobiology and bioyechnology.

In 1998, former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad issued a challenge to the scientific fraternity to produce a Nobel laureate by the year 2020, calling on them to transform Malaysia into a world player in science and technology.

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honouring men and women globally for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and for work in peace. Each prize consists of a medal, personal diploma and a cash award.