LEADERSHIP TEAM AT ISCE2

Dr Peter Nagler
Chief Innovation Officer, A*STAR
Advisor, ISCE²

Dr Peter Nagler is the Advisor of the Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE²) and he was Executive Director of A*STAR's former Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (now known as ISCE²) from January 2018 to October 2021. He was appointed as A*STAR’s Chief Innovation Officer from November 2019.

Dr Nagler has more than 30 years of leadership experience in the chemical industry, comprising global operational (P+L) responsibilities and worldwide innovation management functions. He served as the Head of International Innovation at Evonik Industries AG from 2015 to 2016, after he held the position of Chief Innovation Officer from 2011 to 2015.

In his career at Evonik, Dr Nagler has held several positions such as Regional President South America in Sao Paulo, Brazil (2005-2007), and Head of the Fine Chemicals and Exclusive Synthesis & Catalysts Business Units (2000-2005). From 1993 to 1997, he worked in Paris at Evonik´s subsidiary Rexim - first as Marketing Director and later as Managing Director. He joined Degussa AG in 1986 as a research chemist after studying chemistry at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt and Biochemistry at the University of Nice.

He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Goethe-University, in 1985. Dr Nagler serves on the Supervisory Board of Fraunhofer ISC (Würzburg) and the advisory board of C&EN. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore.

Prof Yeoh Lean Weng
Chief Sustainability Officer, A*STAR
Executive Committee Member, ISCE²
Senior Director, Urban Solutions and Sustainability, National Research Foundation

Prof Yeoh Lean Weng is Chief Sustainability Officer at A*STAR, Executive Committee member of the Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE²) and Senior Director of Urban Solutions and Sustainability at the National Research Foundation (NRF). As Senior Director, Prof Yeoh is responsible for developing R&D strategy and managing Singapore’s national R&D programmes in urban systems to meet national needs in areas such as energy, water, and land & livability. As Chief Sustainability Officer, Prof Yeoh directs the R&D in energy and environmental sustainability focusing on decarbonisation and sustainable green materials and processes.

Prof Yeoh received his Bachelor of Science (with Honours) and Master of Science degrees from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1983 and 1987 respectively. He further obtained two Masters (with distinction) in 1990 and a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering in 1997 from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). He attended the Program for Management Development at Harvard University in 2003.

Prof Yeoh is active in the Singapore engineering professional and academic circles. He is Immediate Past President of the Institution of Engineers(IES), Chairman of IES Awards Committee, President of IES from 2018 to 2020, President of the INCOSE Singapore Chapter from 2009 to 2011, Deputy President of IES from 2017 to 2018 and Vice President of IES from 2014 to 2017. He has co-authored numerous professional publications. He is a Fellow of INCOSE, the first fellow in Singapore. He is concurrently an adjunct professor with NUS. He is a member of the PUB Water Technology Advisory Panel (WTAP), and Energy Studies Institute.

Prof Yeoh was a recipient of the Singapore Public Administration Medal in 2001 (Bronze) and 2008 (Silver). He was conferred the Defence Technology Prize in 1992, 2004 and 2007, the last of which was an individual award for C4I development, large scale systems engineering and technology leadership.

Dr Ng Wai Kiong
Deputy Executive Director, ISCE²

Dr Ng Wai Kiong is the Deputy Executive Director at A*STAR's Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE²) where he also leads the Strategy & Development division. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the National University of Singapore and Diplom Ingenieur (Chemical Engineering) from the Technical University of Clausthal in Germany supported by the GlaxoSmithKline-Economic Development Board (EDB) scholarship. Upon graduation, he joined the Chemicals group of EDB Industry Development Division. During the formative years of A*STAR's former Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (re-organised as ISCE² in April 2022), he was assigned to the institute and subsequently headed the Industrial Programme Development group. He has also previously managed the Applied Process Technology group of Sulzer Chemtech.

Research Interests and Areas

• Novel formulations: amorphous solid technologies via mesoporous materials, co-extrusion, co-milling, and co-precipitation using supercritical fluids
• Particle technology: micronisation, granulation, powder flow, fluidisation, advanced characterisation, process analytical technologies
• Mass transfer technologies in oil & gas industry

Dr Calum MacBeath
Director, Formulation Technologies, ISCE²

Dr Calum MacBeath is a technologist with almost 20 years of global experience in the consumer products industry. He received his D.Phil in Chemistry from the University of Sussex in the UK. After completing a Marie Curie Research Fellowship at the University of Murcia in Spain, he joined Procter & Gamble in its research centre in Pescara, Italy, and relocated to Singapore in 2011. During his time in P&G, Calum managed technology development programmes across the company's business units, bringing new technologies from the lab to the market.

Dr Armando Borgna
Director, Special Projects, ISCE²
 
Dr Armando Borgna is Director, Special Projects at the Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE²). He also holds an Adjunct Associate Professorship from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at the Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina (1983) and his Ph.D. from the same University (1987). From 1987 until 1990 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse (IRC- CNRS), Villeurbanne, France. In 1991 he was appointed Professor and Researcher of CONICET (National Research Council of Argentina) at the Institute of Research on Catalysis and Petrochemistry (INCAPE), Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina. From 2001 to 2004 he worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), The Netherlands. He was Visiting Professor in the School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering at the University of Oklahoma (USA) and in the Department of Chemical & Environmental Engineering at the Universidad of Zaragoza (Spain). He was awarded an ACS fellow (1997) and Fulbright Fellow (1999). He has been involved in research on Catalysis and Materials Science for more than 15 years. His research interest is in the area of heterogeneous catalysis and the goal of his research is to understand the relationship between the catalytic performance and the microscopic structure and composition of the catalytic materials.

Research Interests and Areas

The goal of Dr Borgna's research is to understand the structural/electronic characteristics of catalytic active sites and the structure-catalytic performance relationships. Achieving this goal requires multidisciplinary studies involving materials synthesis, materials characterisation under reaction conditions, and precise measurement of the catalytic performance.

Research interests in the area of heterogeneous catalysis:

• Gas-to-Liquids (GTL), Fischer-Tropsch, C1 chemistry
• Biomass to Chemicals and Fuels
• Catalysts for Clean Fuels
• Molecular sieves
• Metal Catalysts, Catalyst Deactivation and Regeneration
• Nanostructured Materials: Advanced Mesoporous Materials Nanoalloy Clusters, Carbon Nanotubes
• Catalyst characterisation: Characterisation under working conditions, X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy: EXAFS and XANES, X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)
• Kinetic Modeling

Dr Brendan Burkett
Director, Scientific Infrastructure & Analytics, ISCE²

Dr Brendan Burkett leads the Scientific Infrastructure & Analysis division at the Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE²). He is a PhD graduate in Chemistry from the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University and has held postdoctoral appointments at the University of Southampton's Combinatorial Centre of Excellence, and in the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. After a brief stint in academia at the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, he joined A*STAR's former Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences in 2008 where he has been involved in the development of antifouling additives for marine coatings and establishing capabilities in the area of stimulus responsive molecular systems.

Research Interests and Areas

• Thermally promoted molecular fragmentation reactions
• Programmable molecular architecture
• Multifunctional additives for care chemicals
• Mechanistic organic chemistry
• R&D Strategic Planning

Personal Affiliations

• Member of the American Chemical Society (ACS)

Mrs Eleanor Ng
Director, Corporate Services, ISCE²

Eleanor joined A*STAR in August 2007 as Head (Finance) at the former Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences. In that capacity, she was responsible for the company’s finance and procurement functions. In 2009, she joined Science and Engineering Institutes (SCEI) SERC Shared Services and had undertaken a number of key roles in shared services finance. During her tenure, she was involved in improving systems and processes in a number of Research Institutes as well as growing the capabilities of finance and procurement within SCEI.

Eleanor is a Chartered Accountant of Singapore. She has more than 20 years of working experience in the private and public sectors.

Mr Norhazry Johari
Director, Business Development, ISCE²

Norhazry is an Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, industry professional, with over 20 years’ experience in the private sector, holding various positions and leadership responsibilities in Technology Licensing, Mass Transfer Technologies and Plant Operations. He has resourcefully guided Multinational company start-ups in Singapore to successfully build regional Asia Pacific presence. This has allowed him to cultivate a unique ability to manage multi-disciplinary initiatives and projects. 

Before joining A*STAR's former Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (now known as ISCE²), Norhazry plied his expertise for equally established companies such as Honeywell UOP, Koch Glitsch, GTC Technology, Sulzer Chemtech and Shell Chemicals. Apart from his core passion for sales, Norhazry is similarly adept in the areas of Commercial Excellence, Business Development and Mass Transfer Technologies. He holds a Bachelor of Business Degree from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and majored in Economics and Finance.