image: The new Wallenberg-NTU postdoctoral fellowship will enable some of Sweden's most outstanding young scientists to spend two years at NTU Singapore to conduct postdoctoral research. view more
Credit: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the largest private financier of research in Sweden, is making a S$9 million cash gift to Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) to establish a new postdoctoral fellowship programme to support up to 40 fellows over the next six years.
Through this Wallenberg-NTU postdoctoral fellowship, some of Sweden's most outstanding young scientists will spend two years at NTU Singapore to conduct postdoctoral research.
NTU President, Professor Subra Suresh, believes that the partnership will leverage the strengths of NTU Singapore and Swedish universities to nurture talent and build intellectual capacity in many disciplines critical to the economy and society.
Professor Suresh said, "We are deeply grateful to the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, whose new generous gift comes after their S$12.6 million donation to NTU just three months ago. The Wallenberg family is known for their passion for cutting-edge research and technologies, and NTU is privileged to be one of only three international universities to benefit from the Wallenberg Foundation's recognition and support."
In July this year, NTU received a S$7.6 million gift from the Foundation to set up a postdoctoral fellowship to nurture early-career scientists and an additional S$5 million over five years in support of the postdoctoral fellows. With this latest S$9 million gift, the university has raised, with government matching, almost $30 million to date arising from the generous gifts by the Wallenberg Foundation to NTU in support of a new university-wide post-doctoral fellowship programme established by President Suresh. (See annex)
"This new gift by the Foundation to NTU will benefit not just the two countries, but the rest of the world. It will allow some of Sweden's most promising young scientists to carry out their research over a two-year period at NTU Singapore in many different disciplines across all our colleges and schools. It will support a cohort of young researchers working in many areas of importance and benefit to society," said Prof Suresh.
Mr Peter Wallenberg, chairman of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, said, "We are pleased to extend our post-doctoral programme for young Swedish scientists to NTU, in addition to our present collaboration with Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)."
Under this new Wallenberg-NTU postdoctoral fellowship, 40 new Fellows will be appointed over the next several years. The fellowship support will enable them to carry out their research at NTU, over a two-year period, in any discipline offered by Colleges and Schools across the entire university. Fellows who decide to return to a Swedish University after the two-year period may receive further support from the Foundation.
The Fellowship comes after the university's town hall meeting last month where Prof Suresh announced ambitious plans to create 350 new two-year post-doctoral positions, over 5 years, to attract the best and the brightest young researchers from around the world to perform research at NTU Singapore.
###
Media contact:
Mr Feisal Abdul Rahman
Senior Assistant Director
Corporate Communications Office
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Tel: (65) 6790 6687
Email: feisalar@ntu.edu.sg
About Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has 33,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Engineering, Business, Science, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, and Graduate colleges. It also has a medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, set up jointly with Imperial College London.
NTU is also home to world-class autonomous institutes - the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering - and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N).
Ranked 12th in the world, NTU has been placed the world's top young university for the past five years. The University's main campus is frequently listed among the Top 15 most beautiful university campuses in the world and it has 57 Green Mark-certified (equivalent to LEED-certified) building projects comprising more than 230 buildings, of which 95% are certified Green Mark Platinum.
Apart from its main campus, NTU also has a campus in Singapore's healthcare district.
For more information, visit http://www.ntu.edu.sg.
About Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation was established in 1917. The Foundation's aim is to benefit Sweden by supporting Swedish basic research and education, mainly in medicine, technology and the natural sciences. The Foundation achieves this by awarding grants to excellent researchers and for projects.
Since 1917, the Foundation has awarded SEK 25 billion in grants for research and education, of which SEK 1.8 billion has been awarded annually in recent years, making the Foundation the largest private funder of scientific research in Sweden and one of the largest in Europe.
ANNEX
Gifts from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation to NTU Singapore
To date, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has raised almost S$30 million arising from the generous gifts by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
In July, the Foundation made a 50 million Swedish kronor (S$7.6 million) endowed gift to NTU Singapore to establish a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship. With matching by the Singapore government, the total endowment raised for the programme is S$11.4 million.
An additional S$5 million has been set aside by the Wallenberg Foundation, through its Artificial Intelligence (AI), Autonomous Systems and Software Programme, in support of the Postdoctoral Fellows, thus bringing the total donation to S$16.4 million.
The gift will go towards supporting the Wallenberg-NTU Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship, which will enable some of the world's most promising postdoctoral candidates to carry out their research at NTU. They will spend one year in Sweden affiliated with the Wallenberg Artificial Intelligence (AI), Autonomous Systems and Software Programme, Sweden's largest research programme.
Two months later, the Foundation committed another S$9 million to NTU to set up a post-doctoral fellowship programme for Swedish scientists to conduct postdoctoral studies and research at NTU.