Recent article in today paper

Look elsewhere, doc

Contrary to popular belief, having a PhD won't guarantee work in life science research

Letter from Peter Song

I REFER to your report, "The life sciences conundrum" (Oct 9).

I studied civil engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Then, with so much hype being created about the future of life sciences, and with the civil engineering industry in the sunset stage, I took a shot at being retrained for the life sciences. I got a scholarship to do an NUS PhD programme in bioengineering.

I stopped after three years on my own accord, deciding to graduate with a Masters degree instead. Contrary to what some have said, a PhD will not get you a research position in Singapore.

I learnt this the hard way.

Firstly, a PhD is very specialised and most students learn only within a small sub-field governed by their thesis' area of research. So, when the student graduates, he is considered experienced only in that small area of science.

He thus loses all chance of working in any life science research position — even a junior post, as he is over-qualified. He will likely have to find a post-doctoral position in the department from which he obtained his PhD. But his supervisor may not have the grant money to employ him.

This lack, despite the Government's generous funding, has to do with the research environment at the university, which views students as the main source of manpower.

When PhD students graduate, the professor simply gets another group of students to continue the research. The students are paid a stipend from another department in charge of scholarships; effectively, the students come free to the professor because the grant money isn't used to pay them.

For grant approval, the professor competes on quality of ideas, commercial potential of ideas and estimated cost of research. All things being equal, the professor who quotes the least amount is given priority.

So, the PhD holder has one last option for employment: A*Star's research institutes and private sector research firms. But A*Star seeks out researchers who are experienced and have good track records. The private sector also requires people with a specific set of experience. And, unless their thesis is related, fresh PhD graduates do not have a chance.

Finally, A*Star scholars, due to their bonds, can start as fresh PhD graduates in its research institutes. The moral of the story? If you want to work in life science research, you must be an A*Star scholar; a PhD from elsewhere in Singapore would be useless.

Vivo vivo

I went to Vivocity yesterday. It wasn't really planned but F and her husband were visiting from the US and M and I were gonna meet up with them but rather late at night, so we had to eat and do something first. Vivocity has a direct bus from my office, so we decided to check it out.

The first thing that hits you when you get out of the harbourfront mrt underpass is that there are 2 gigantic foodcourts right in front of you! One kopitiam and one banquet. They are right next to each other but there are some barriers to keep people from moving between them, which we thought was quite weird. Until I realised that one is Halal and the other is not, make a guess which is which....

The rest of vivocity is really a bummer. More than half the shops aren't open yet, so much for the grand opening. Outside, the concrete for the sidewalks have not been cast, and my visitors who passed by the place earlier in the day thought it was a construction site. There was all this hype about new stores that you cant find anywhere else in Singapore, and the management said they didn't want to reveal what these were before opening day except that the first ever Gap store is here. Guess what? You guessed it, Gap is the ONLY new store in this mall! Everything else is "been there, seen that". And the Gap store is half the size of the one in Berkeley (not as if Berkeley is a very big town)!

Probably the only consolation is there is a Esprit (edc) outlet which has menswear. There are only 2 others that I know of (Raffles city and orchard). The designs at each one of the outlets are completely different. I suspect from different countries since the Espirit label is designed all over the world? The price tag was pretty steep though, 80 bucks for a short sleeve shirt. Shouldn't they have opening sales? I didn't see anyone in the store.

Really the only place which seems to be generating revenue is the foodcourt. Theres another food court on the top floor too but we didn't have time to go up there. Alongside the largest GV I suppose. Everywhere else there are people walking around, but not really purchasing anything. I suppose that's because there's nothing really new in Vivocity.

Overall: Thumbs down, been there, seen that......

trillian

I'm on Trillian now. I must say it took me quite a while to convert away from my regular combination of ICQ and MSN. I guess I got too tired of looking at 2 windows at the same time, plus those 2 have too many silly ads and pictures that get in the way of the screen. Trillian is just lean and nice, totally no ads at all, wonder how the make money huh? Still trying to get used to it though. The sounds they play aren't that nice. And once you close the window you don't see the history anymore if you know what I mean. MSN is much better, you can chat a while, and when yr screen is too cluttered you can close some windows first but if it pops up later the history is still there....

Somehow I feel that something is missing in my life. Everythings starting to become a routine perhaps, and the stupid haze is killing me..... What would I like to do? Don't know really. Guess it would be nice to be really rich and not have to work? Maybe play golf as well as Tiger?

Okay, there's really one thing that would make my day. To be able to step outside my house and ski down an alpine mountain haha. Give me Squaw valley or whistler/blackcomb anyday. Alta/snowbird would do just fine too. Boy I would love to catch some part of the upcoming ski season if I could! Dream on.....