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THE 2015 ASPIRE NOMINEES
The APEC Science Prize for Innovation, Research and Education (“ASPIRE”) is an annual award co-sponsored by Wiley and Elsevier that recognizes young scientists who have demonstrated a commitment to both excellence in scientific research and cooperation with scientists from other APEC member economies.
This year ASPIRE received 12 young scientists as nominees, a record number of nominees since the prize was launched in 2011. The young scientists nominated by the 12 economies have impressive backgrounds and research in a wide range of disciplines that contribute to the 2015 theme “Disaster Risk Reduction: Understanding the Role of Climate Change and Variability.” Here is an overview of this year’s 12 nominees.
AUSTRALIA Dr Katharine Haynes Field of Research: Community and child-centered disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation Dr Haynes is a Senior Social Scientist of Risk Frontiers at Macquarie University. She earned her master’s in Environmental Geoscience from University College London (2001) and her PhD in Environmental Science from University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom (2005). |
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PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Dr Qiuhong Tang Field of Research: Hydrometeorology disasters and climate change Dr Tang is the Director of the “Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes” and a professor at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his bachelor’s degree in hydraulic engineering (2001) and his master’s in hydrology and water resources (2003) from Tsinghua University. He received his PhD in civil engineering from the University of Tokyo (2006). |
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INDONESIA Dr Anuraga Jayanegara Field of Research: Animal science and environmental studies Dr Jayanegara is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Animal Science at the Bogor Agricultural University. He received his bachelor’s in animal nutrition and feed science from Bogor Agricultural University (2003), his master’s in agricultural sciences in the tropics and subtropics from the University of Hohenheim in Germany (2008), and PhD in animal nutrition from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (2011). |
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JAPAN Dr Takeshi Tsuji Field of Research: Carbon capture and storage, disaster management, land subsidence Dr Tsuji is an Associate Professor and lead principal investigator of CO2 storage research division at Kyushu University’s International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research. He received his bachelor’s in resources and environmental engineering from Waseda University (2002) and both his master’s and PhD from the Ocean Research Institute at the University of Tokyo (2004 & 2007). |
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REPUBLIC OF KOREA Dr Jong-Seong Kug Field of Research: Climate change, seasonal prediction systems Dr Kug is an Associate Professor at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at the Pohang University of Science and Technology. He received both his bachelor’s and master’s in atmospheric sciences from Seoul Nation University (1998 & 2000) and his PhD in earth and environmental studies from Seoul Nation University (2003). |
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MALAYSIA Dr Mohd Zainal Abidin Ab Kadir Field of Research: Lightning, high voltage, electromagnetic interference, electromagnetic compatibility, disaster management Dr Zainal is the Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Engineering and the co-founder and Director of the Centre for Electromagnetic and Lightning Protection Research at the Universiti Putra Malaysia. He received a degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the Universiti Putra Malaysia (2001), and his PhD in high voltage engineering from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom (2006). |
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PERU Dr Jhan Carlo Espinoza Field of Research: Climate variability and change, hydrology, extreme events, Amazon/Andes climate Dr Espinoza is a Doctor in Environmental Sciences at the Peruvian Geophysical Institute (IGP); prior to this position he was the principal researcher at IGP specializing in climate and hydrology of the Amazon River basin and tropical South America. He received his bachelor’s in agricultural engineering (2002) and his master’s in water resources engineering (2005) from the National Agrarian University of Peru. He received his PhD in environmental sciences from Pierre and Marie Curie University (University of Paris VI) in 2009. |
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THE PHILIPPINES Dr Gay Jane Perez Field of Research: Physics instrumentation, environmental science, meteorology, space technology applications Dr Perez is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. She received her bachelor’s in applied physics (2003), master’s in physics (2005) and PhD in physics (2009) from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. |
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CHINESE TAIPEI Dr Tsun-hua Yang Field of Research: Flood modeling, disaster risk analysis, flood damage evaluation Dr Yang is a Research Fellow at the Taiwan Typhoon and Flood Research Institute. He received both his bachelor’s (1999) and master’s (2001) in civil engineering from National Taiwan University, and his PhD in civil engineering from the University of California, Davis (2008). |
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THAILAND Dr Chinnawat Surussavadee Field of Research: Satellite passive millimeter-wave retrieval of global precipitation, weather and wind power forecasting and simulation, climate change and impact assessment, natural disaster monitoring and forecasting Dr Surussavadee is an Assistant Professor at the Prince of Songkla University (PSU), as well as a Director for the PSU Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Earth System Science and Andaman Natural Disaster Management and the PSU Andaman Environment and Natural Disaster Research Center. He received his bachelor’s in electrical engineering from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology (1999), his master’s in electrical power engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2001), and his PhD in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2007). |
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THE UNITED STATES Dr Radina Soebiyanto Field of Research: Environmental and climate data model, infectious disease transmission Dr Soebiyanto is a Scientist at the Universities Space Research Association. She received her bachelor’s in systems and control engineering (2002), her master’s in engineering and management (2003), and her PhD in systems and control engineering (2007) from Case Western Reserve University. |
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VIET NAM Dr Duong Du Bui Field of Research: Water-related risk reduction, hydrological climate change impacts and adaptation Dr Bui is the Deputy Director of the Department of Water Monitoring at the National Center for Water Resources Planning and Investigation, which is under Vietnam’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Dr Bui received his bachelor’s degree from the Water Resources University in Vietnam (2005) and his PhD in engineering from Tokyo Metropolitan University (2011). |