President's International Advisory Council

Nam-Hai Chua

Andrew W. Mellon Professor and Head, Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology
Rockefeller University, United States

Nam-Hai Chua is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Professor and Head of Plant Molecular Biology at Rockefeller University. He is world renowned for his important and significant contributions to Plant Biology and Biotechnology. Professor Chua has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, United Kingdom (1988), an Academician of the Academia Sinica, Taiwan (1988) and a Foreign Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (2006).

He is an honorary member of the Japan Biochemical Society and the Japan Society of Plant Physiologists. In recognition of his important contributions to plant development and molecular biology, he received the Lawrence Bogorad Award for Excellence in Plant Biology Research in 2010 and the International Prize in Biology in 2005.

Professor Chua has served and continues to serve on advisory boards of governmental organizations, academic institutions and multinational companies in 16 countries. In 2007, he was awarded Einstein Professorship of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 1983 to 1990, he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board, Biotechnology Development Center of the China State Commission of Science and Technology. Professor Chua was appointed as an Honorary Research Professor of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1987), and an Honorary Professor of Peking University and several research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In recognition of his contributions to biotechnology development in Singapore, Professor Chua was awarded the Public Administration Gold Medal (2002) and the National Science and Technology Medal (1998) by the Singapore Government. He was conferred a Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) degree by the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2008.

Currently, he is Chairman of the Strategic Research Program Management Committee of The Temasek Life Science Laboratories Dr Chua also serves on the Management Board of this research institute. Professor Chua is also the Chief Scientific Advisor of Wilmar International Limited (Singapore) which is among the top 5 agribusinesses in the world.