UM sets sights on producing nation’s first Nobel Prize winner

KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Malaya, the country's oldest varsity, wants to produce Malaysia's first Nobel Prize winner.

Vice-chancellor Prof Dr Mohd Amin Jalaludin is confident that this aim is “very achieveable”.

“But we must first dream that one day, UM will produce the first Nobel laureate for the nation given the fact that there has been a steady increase in research findings from the university that are published in the world's top research journals,” he said.

He said such achievements by UM’s researchers was made possible due to the RM590mil High Impact Research (HIR) grant awarded by the Government in 2011, which enabled the university to establish central laboratory research facilities with state-of-the-art technologies.

This has led to an increase in collaborations with international universities, besides having three Nobel laureates attached with UM to work with its own reseachers.

Prof Dr Amin, a former dean of UM’s medical faculty and former director of Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, is a strong believer in transitional medicine – finding new applications for research to improve lives and translating basic science findings into practical solutions and policies.

Thanks to the HIR programme, he said the quality of life and five-year survival rate of children suffering from leukemia had improved.

During the recent floods in the east coast, UM’s geologists helped make available a number of tube wells to produce clean water.

“The membrane-system tube wells have proven to be very handy, especially for schools.

“We are raising funds from donors and targeting to install such facilities in 10 to 15 schools,” he added.

To enhance research transformation, Prof Dr Amin also advocated a shift from the conventional culture of science or medical researchers working in silos to cross-disciplinary teamwork, roping in those from the fields of arts and humanities as well.

“Plans are afoot to provide support for researchers to work with venture capitalists so that spin-off companies can be launched.”

He said UM also planned to engage a few more Nobel laureates to further enhance the quality of the HIR programme. — Bernama