KUALA LUMPUR: The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah today announced the name of two candidates chosen to receive the 2014 Merdeka Award Grant For International Attachment.
Sultan Nazrin, who is the Royal Patron of the Merdeka Award Trust, said the two individuals would receive a short-term grant designed to make it possible for qualified Malaysians to engage in collaborative projects or programmes at selected, internationally-recognised host institutions.
"The grant creates opportunity for recipients to establish contact and working relationships with other experts in their fields.
Sultan Nazrin added that the chosen candidates would be able to give back to the community after coming back from their attachments.
"Upon their return, they will be able to share their knowledge and use these relationships and expertise to build on the body of work in his or her area of research," he said in his speech today.
He added that the two grants were offered annually to successful candidates in selected disciplines consist of Education and Community, Environment as well as Health, Science and Technology.
The two recipients who received the grants were Royal College of Surgeons Ireland-Perdana University head of physiology, Dr Kamalan Jeevaratnam, and Universiti Putra Malaysia Senior Lecturer Dr Lim Hong Ngee.
Kamalan said having received the grant, he aimed to glean deeper mechanical insights into cardiac cellular therapy using stem cells and aspired to share his new-found knowledge of expertise with Malaysians upon the completion of his attachment.
Meanwhile, Lim planned to develop a smart nanotechnology-based breast cancer testing scheme using an autonomous analyser that would simplify the method of detection and provide fast diognosis of the disease.
The event also saw Sultan Nazrin announcing the names of six distinguished individual who were awarded the prestigious 2014 Merdeka Award.
"The Merdeka Award is conferred on individuals and organisations whose excellent work and achievements make an outstanding impact on the nation and its people."
Sultan Nazrin said each recipient would receive a trophy, a work a of art by Malaysian artist Latiff Mohidin and a cash award of RM500,000 under five fields of expertise which were; Education and Community, Environment, Health, Science and Technology, Outstanding Scholastic Achievement and Outstanding Contribution to the People of Malaysia.
The six winners who were announced as recipients of the Merdeka Award were Datuk Mohd Nor Khalid (Lat), Mohd Khan Momin Khan, Datuk Dr Choo Yuen May, Professor Dr Abdul Latif Ahmad, Professor Dr Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, the Earl of Cranbrook Datuk Dr Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy.