Senior Scientists To Attend Singapore Youth Summit
More than 300 young scientists from all over the world will gather in Singapore to hear from and engage with world class researchers at the Global Young Scientist Summit (GYSS), held from January 18-23, 2015.
This year’s star-studded line up sees new faces such as 2010 Field’s Medalist Ngô Bảo Châu and 2014 Millennium Technology Prize winner Stuart Parkin.
Launched in 2013 to inspire talented graduate students and post-doctoral fellows below the age of 35 to apply themselves to the interdisciplinary challenges of tomorrow, the five day program addresses key areas in science, research and technology innovation.
Ten finalists will also compete for a cash prize of US$100,000 and the Singapore Challenge Medal with their research proposals on the topic of Ageing-in-Place. They will propose solutions that help seniors stay close to their communities even as diseases and frailty set in.
Japan Leads Asia In Asia-Pac University Rankings
The University of Tokyo and Kyoto University have retained their top positions in the 2014 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), coming in 21st and 26th respectively.
The ARWU ranks universities according to six parameters: whether the staff or alumni of the institution has won a Nobel prize or Fields medal, number of papers published in the journals Nature and Science, number of article citations, number of researchers on the Thomson Reuters highly cited list and per capita performance of the institution.
Peking University, Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiaotong University were China’s leading institutions, ranked within the top 150 in the world.
Seoul National University was the only Korean institution among the top 150; likewise, the National University of Singapore was the only Singapore institution in the top 150.
Small Asian Countries Surge In QS Rankings
Five out of the nine Asian universities to make it to the 2014/2015 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Ranking top 50 are based in the small island economies of Singapore and Hong Kong, with the highest ranked National University of Singapore and University of Hong Kong coming in at 22nd and 28th respectively.
The other four Asian universities to make the top 50 are the University of Tokyo and Seoul National University, which jointly hold 31st position; University of Kyoto at 36th position; and China’s Tsinghua University at 47th position. Indian universities, however, remain unable to crack the top 200.
Unlike other rankings which are more publication focused, the QS rankings also analyze soft data such as surveys of academics and employers.
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