StemLife Q&A- Invited Panel Speaker at Biotechnology Asia 2006, PWTC Malaysia

I was invited by Dr. Reezal of KL Biotech to participate on the discussion panel of Biotechnology Asia on Wednesday. It was a panel which consisted of prestigious names and representatives from various institutions comprising scientific higher education, research, drug manufacture, agro-biotechnology and nano-technology from around the world.

It started off with every representative giving a short summary on where they were from and what their company or organization did. As it happened, I was to go first. Datuk Salleh who was the Chair of the panel, invited me to explain what StemLife's mission and define stem cells to the audience which consisted of more than 200 students from local universities. After all the panel members had their turn (some of them had their slide presentation then and there too), questions were invited from the floor.

STUDENTS' JOB CONCERNS: Students took their turns to pose their questions to the panel and many of them were directed to me as a potential employer. The main concern of these biotechnology students were what jobs would be available, how to get them and what career opportunities there are for a science graduate. Some of the students also posed the question: "What is the government going to do to give jobs to science graduates?" to Datuk Salleh and Prof Emeritus Dr. Latiff formerly from the Government.

WHAT DO I LOOK FOR WHEN HIRING: In my answer, I explained the qualities that I would look for in a job applicant, namely intelligence, emotional stability (to get along with others in the workplace) and attitude. All of these qualities are assessed in an interview and hiring or promotion is often based on an equal presence of these 3 qualities in any individual.

PURSUING HIGHER EDUCATION: Prof. Christopher Lowe of Cambridge University and Prof. Tony Cass of Imperial College echoed my sentiments, explaining that students applying for higher education at Cambridge require both the right educational background and technical ability, and self-motivation. An interesting point that Chris mentioned was that many applicants had no idea what they were looking for and why- and that these were pretty much rejected outright. When pressed which of the two qualities would be deemed more important, he said that it would probably be motivation; as this cannot be taught nor gained through school (out of 5000 science post-graduates applicants annually, Cambridge accepts about 30).

FIND YOUR JOB: The panel members around me seemed genuinely surprised that a student would ask what the government would do to give them each a job. Datuk Salleh and Prof. Latiff responded that jobs were out there for students to find and that perhaps they could consider being entrepreneurs if they had good ideas. I wondered if the visiting Professors from the UK had the impression that our local students were lacking in motivation in seeking jobs and were too dependent on government handouts.



The conference continued on yesterday and I was allocated the 3:15-4:00pm slot to deliver my speech. I was delighted that there was an interested audience who were wide awake all throughout my assigned hour (considering that it was the post-lunch and tea break session!). The feedback was generally positive and most of the international and local audience felt that they now knew this biomedical technology exists, is credible and well established in Malaysia.

Depending on what everyone filled in on their feedback form after my talk, perhaps they may invite me back next year.