MALAYSIANS share many values, including those which are espoused by the Merdeka Award Trust, in fostering a culture of excellence.
When I was young, I was so fascinated by science that it led me to pursue a career in applying its knowledge to improve health and wellbeing. I read books on scientists to receive inspiration and experimented with mini projects at home. A model airplane that never flew and various attempts to raise fish (which all eventually died) were some of my experiments.
When I first started my academic career in the 1980s, medical physics was just emerging. Very little was known about its potential. The path was full of hurdles that required tremendous patience, hard work and determination. Eventually, after getting my PhD in 1995 and becoming a lecturer in Universiti Malaya (UM), my core research was on medical imaging, particularly in early detection of breast cancer and the role of breast density in predicting cancer risk.
Learning science does not have to be drudgery. Neither does one have to be a genius to solve complex figures and brain-racking calculations.
It is more like 90 per cent effort, 10 per cent talent, and, of course, the opportunity to prove oneself. As scientists, everything requires meticulous planning to achieve an objective. The main factor is to sustain interest by making students realise what they can achieve with the knowledge they gain.
I found a calling in nurturing young ones to apply science in medicine. This motivated me to establish the Master of Medical Physics programme at UM in 1998. After a decade of hard work and struggle, it became the only post-graduate medical physics programme outside the British Isles, accredited by the United Kingdom Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.
This further motivated me to establish the Asean College of Medical Physics and the International Leadership and Mentoring Programme to nurture early-career scientists into inspiring leaders.
It was a joy to mentor aspiring scientists the world over, bringing them together in dialogues, collaborations and research from a diverse geographical and socio-cultural setting. I also had the honour of meeting and inviting international scientists to teach my students about scientific writing, leadership development and conflict resolution.
I have been asked what it means, after all these years, to receive the Marie Sklodowska Curie and Merdeka Awards, the climax of my academic career. Sometimes, I wish I could have achieved more when I was younger but we must remember that Rome was not built in a day.
So my satisfaction comes from the long-term impact of various initiatives in research, teaching and mentoring that I was involved in, which have given wings to many other researchers, and spared women and men from a path of pain and suffering. Some of my research findings have been adopted or translated into clinical practice.
All these take a lifetime to develop and the fruits can be seen if one is patient enough. If there is a quote that I live by, it is by St Thomas Aquinas: "Wonder is the desire for knowledge"; with seeking an answer, expecting that an answer may be found, no matter how difficult. It is the wonder of nature that advances humanity forward.
In this sense, I would like to think that life itself is amazingly wonderful, offering so much to discover. It is for this reason that I truly hope to encourage more young Malaysians to explore the wonders of science, which form the crux of a successful generation — a nation that is imbued with critical thinking, curiosity, hope, integrity, humility and empathy.
Bill Nye, the popular "Science Guy", said: "Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't." I couldn't agree more. In my three decades of research, I have encountered many brilliant minds that have led to fruitful collaborations in exciting fields — medicine, engineering, computer science, social sciences and linguistics. I am very grateful to them as they have taught me humility.
I would like to end by encouraging everyone to continue pursuing your passion. Set our eyes on our aspirations and be courageous even if the path is turbulent, to be agile and to always be a person of integrity. To achieve more, we should imagine together and change.
The writer is a Universiti Malaya honorary professor who won the Marie Sklodowska Curie Award in 2018 and Merdeka Award in 2020 for his work in medical physics