Speakers

Professor Joan B. Rose holds the Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research at Michigan State University, where she has worked for the last 22 years. She is Director of the university’s Water Alliance, leading interdisciplinary efforts to solve global water problems. She is also a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, the Royal Institution of Singapore and the EU Academy of Sciences, as well as a Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona, Spain.

Prof Rose is an international expert in water microbiology, water quality and public health safety with over 300 publications. She is the recipient of the 2016 Stockholm Water Prize and more recently the 2024 IWA Global Water Award. Her research focuses on the application of new molecular methods, pathogen surveillance, microbial source tracking, removal of pathogens by water and wastewater treatment, and quantitative microbial risk assessment. She is currently Chair of the International Joint Commission’s Health Professionals Advisory Board. She has also been collaborating with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy on the state-wide programme to use advanced technology for beach water testing and with the Michigan Department of Human Health Services on wastewater surveillance.

WANG Rong (Nanyang Water Research Institute)

Prof. Rong Wang is a Full Professor and President’s Chair at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. She also holds the position of Executive Director, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute (NEWRI), NTU. She is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Engineering Singapore.

Prof. Wang has over 30 years of experience in Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Water and Energy related research and innovation. She serves as an Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Membrane Science (JMS), a flagship journal in the global membrane community. She was featured among the top 25 leading water researchers globally by Lux Research in 2013, and received a prestigious “Alternative Water Prize” from Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW), Saudi Arabia in 2016. She was also awarded the Nanyang Research Award in 2018, and the prestigious “President’s Technology Award” 2022, which is the highest honor bestowed on exceptional research scientists and engineers in Singapore for their excellent achievements in science and technology.

Lisa NG (A*STAR Infectious Disease Labs)

Prof Lisa Ng is currently Executive Director at the A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs (A*IDL). She also holds a joint appointment at the Biomedical Research Council, A*STAR as Executive Director. Lisa has been in the area of infectious diseases more over 25 years, where she has provided major contributions in the containment, prevention and treatment of epidemic viral infections including SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and avian influenza H5N1 (bird flu). The current research interest of her group focuses on the immune responses of viruses that are epidemic or highly endemic in the tropical region. Over the years, these include chikungunya virus, dengue virus, Zika virus and other related alpha- and flavi-viruses, and more recently SARS-CoV-2. Her team has published in top tier scientific journals and made several key important findings to move the human immunology field forward in controlling viral infections. For her contributions, she was voted “Most Inspiring Woman” at the Great Women of Our Time Awards for Science and Technology in 2005, and was conferred the Junior Chamber International (JCI) “Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World” Singapore 2013 Scientific and/or Technological Development Award. For her meritorious research and development efforts on Asia’s infectious diseases, she was conferred the highly prestigious ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) “International Young Scientist and Technologist Award” in 2008. In recognition of her mentoring work for graduate students and scientists, Dr Ng received the A*STAR “Most Inspiring Mentor Award” in 2013. She was a recipient of the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 2016: the National COVID-19 Award (Silver) in 2022; and the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2023. She is a SNAS (Singapore National Academy of Sciences) 2022 fellow, and an elected member of the Henry Kunkel society for immunologists of human diseases.

Hortense LE FERRAND (NTU Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Hortense Le Ferrand is a faculty at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU), in joint appointment with the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Her research group combines sustainable manufacturing with biomimetic/bioinspired designs to develop high performance materials. Specifically, the processing methods use additive manufacturing, abundant building blocks, and water as a solvent. These technologies permit the fabrication of composites with complex bioinspired microstructural designs leading to unusual combinations of properties. These composites can be used in a variety of applications: thermal management in electronics or architecture, biomedical implants, protective ceramics, sustainable composites, etc.

Hortense received her Ingénieur Degree from the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielle de la ville de Paris (ESPCI Paris, France) and her MSc and PhD in Materials Science from ETH Zürich (Switzerland). She was a visiting scholar at the school of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University (USA) and postdoctoral visiting scholar at the Center for Biomimetic Sensor Science at NTU before joining the faculty of NTU in 2019.

Malika Meghjani (SUTD Information Systems Technology and Design)

Dr. Malika Meghjani is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Design Pillar at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). She directs the Multi-Agent Robot Vision and Learning (MARVL) Lab, with the focus on algorithm design for efficient, reliable and scalable robots that can work independently and collaboratively with humans. Her research interests are in planning under uncertainty, reinforcement learning, computer vision, deep learning, and game theory. The applications of her work are in field robotics ranging from marine robots specifically, underwater and surface vehicles to self-driving cars and other ground vehicles in unstructured environments.

Malika has been cited by Analytics Insight in 2020 as one of the World's 50 Most Renowned Women in Robotics. She is also 2017 SMART Postdoctoral Scholar, 2015 McGill Scarlet Key recipient, 2013 IEEE Canada Women in Engineering Prize awardee and 2013 Google Anita Borg Scholar.

Yvonne GAO (NUS Physics & Centre for Quantum Technologies)

Yvonne is a Presidential Young Professor in the Department of Physics and a Principal Investigator in the Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore. Her team develops bespoke bosonic circuit quantum electrodynamic systems to probe fundamental features of quantum physics and practical applications in quantum information science. In addition to her scientific achievements, Yvonne is also a passionate community-builder, spearheading several initiatives to inspire and empower the next generation of young scientists. Her contributions to advancing quantum computing technologies and bringing positive changes in the community have brought her many prestigious accolades, such as the Young Scientist Award, the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) Fellowship and MIT Tech Review’s Innovator’s Under 35 (Asia-Pacific) award.

Wynthia GOH (NCS)

Wynthia Goh leads NCS NEXT globally, driving the growth of NCS’ digital, AI, and cloud capabilities, offerings, and services to help clients transform their businesses. She leads specialist teams delivering experience-led, intelligence-driven, and cloud-forward solutions, collaborating with clients and the NCS ecosystem to co-innovate and implement emerging technologies.

With extensive experience across Asia Pacific, Wynthia has built digital businesses in strategy consulting, product management, innovation, data analytics, venture investment, customer experience, and digital platforms. She has held leadership roles at Aviva, SAP, eBay, and Nokia. As Chief Digital Officer for Aviva Asia, she established their regional digital centre of excellence.

Wynthia holds a Bachelor of Business from Nanyang Technological University and as a Fulbright scholar, she completed her Masters in Public Policy with a major in Systems Thinking at the State University of New York. Beyond work, she mentors start-ups focused on AI-led innovation.

Ayesha KHANNA (Addo AI)

Ayesha Khanna is the Co-Founder and CEO of Addo, a global artificial intelligence (AI) solutions firm. Ayesha was recognized as a trailblazing female entrepreneur in Southeast Asia by Forbes. She provides strategic advisory to corporates and governments on artificial intelligence, smart cities, and the metaverse.

Christina MARINI (Micron)

Cristina Marini is Senior Member of Technical Staff (SMTS) in Global EHS&Sustainability. She joined Micron in 2001 as EHS Engineer at the former wafer fab in Italy and later joined the Global EHS team in 2009. Cristina built the global greenhouse gas reporting program and the overall global environmental data collection and validation program, as foundation of environmental sustainability reporting program. She leads the waste sustainability pillar and supports water, energy and emissions pillars.

Cristina works with site EHS and global function in Manufacturing, Facilities, Procurement and Legal to develop solutions in support of Micron’s sustainability targets, and assess environmental impact of new technologies and products, while continuing to provide global support to environmental compliance.

Cristina graduated from University of L’Aquila, Master Environmental Chemistry and Science.

When not at work Cristina enjoys hiking, dancing, singing and cooking.

Lynette TAN (Space Faculty) - Moderator

Lynette Tan is the Chief Executive of Space Faculty, where she champions the growth of the Asia space ecosystem by nurturing talent and advancing technologies for the future economy. Through her organisation, she fosters a dedicated learning pathway, helping young people chart their passion to profession in space and related deep-tech sectors.

A strong advocate for STEM, especially among youth and women, Lynette has received multiple accolades, including the Lancôme Visionary Award in 2018. She was recognised for "Outstanding Contributions to the Science & Technology Industry" by a leading women’s publication, and named a Trailblazer in the 2020 “Singapore 100 Women in Tech List” for her leadership in advancing Singapore’s space sector.

Lynette also mentors young leaders through the Singapore Business Federation, Women in Aviation – Singapore, and with the US Embassy, supporting the next generation of pioneers in science and technology.