In the month of October, 2008, I hatched a plan to leave IBN after having served out my four year bond with A*STAR. A brand new university, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, was to be set up near Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, and they were recruiting faculty. In this endeavour, KAUST was collaborating with Imperial College, London, in particular, in setting up the Materials Science and Engineering Department, as the latter was quite an established institution in that area. I sent out my application in early October, and it was not until January that I received a response proper. An administrator named Zoe Whitlaw was arranging for me to interview at Imperial College. I was excited at the prospect. I was also asked to send in 5 publications that I was the most proud of and a statement of Research Interest.
I remember that the trickiest, most challenging aspect of the interview was how to attend it without raising any suspicions. It had been arranged on the 10th of February, 2009 and my team at IBN were due for an appraisal presentation on the morning of the 11th! Fortunately, as it turned out, I was able to execute the `escape plan', thanks to otherwise fortuitous scheduling of the interview. Here, I will describe it as it happened.
I flew to London on a Boeing A380, which was relatively new then. I was impressed especially by the smoothness of the landing. I arrived at the Radisson Edwardian at 5.45 am on the day of the interview itself and checked into the hotel. The room was modest and rather small, but comfortable enough. The hotel itself was located in South Kensington, and as Zoe had mentioned in her email, just a 12 min walk away from Imperial College. The next morning, decked out in coat and tie, I sought out Zoe and reported to her at Imperial.
Imperial College, London. Photo from https://live.staticflickr.com/3505/3966937989_b36087993b.jpg
First up was a 20-minute presentation to the Search Committee, which included a Question Answer session. Following that, I was brought to meet some students, which I believe was part of the evaluation. I vaguely remember one of them asking me how I would guide students in writing academic papers. A young faculty member then brought me for a tour of the department. And to wrap it up, there was a lunch event with faculty members. Here, I recall meeting some scientists who were already KAUST faculty. As the business part was over, I sought out suggestions from some of the Imperial faculty on places of interest in the vicinity of the university. One of the suggestions was to visit the Museum of Natural History, which was just a stone's throw away.
Stepping into the central hall of the museum, I was instantly in awe of the 105-foot (32 m)-long replica of a Diplodocus carnegii skeleton. I found out later how fortunate I was to get a glimpse of the iconic cast of `Dippy', which was on display during the period 1979 to 2017. Then it was time to get some souvenirs for I Chun, and I was happy to learn that there were souvenir shops not too far away, in the area of Piccadilly square. After some 20-30 minutes of walking (and passing Hyde Park along the way), my mission was complete and with my booty of key chains, I found my way back to the hotel.
I would spend just one night at the Radisson, but it was a memorable one. As mentioned, the room was small, but it had a TV set, that was the focus of my attention for the rest of the evening. I remember being rather touched and teary, after watching a movie about a Schizophrenic called Keane, which was also the title of the movie. At the back of my mind, I felt quite happy. I felt that I had done quite well during the interview and the plan to escape IBN was proceeding rather smoothly. When I was at IBN, especially during the earlier years, I would watch the Shawshank redemption regularly, annually almost. It was a tradition that I followed, that made myself feel better, perhaps even giving me hope of escape from what I felt was a rather restrictive work environment. Now, I felt as if I was in the midst of a jailbreak myself!
My flight from Heathrow to Singapore was scheduled to depart at 10:55 am the following morning, on the 11th of February, 2009. Due to the fact that I would be flying from Europe, eastward to Asia, my expected time of arrival at Changi was 0735 that same morning! As it turned out, the flight landed on time, and I was able to take a cab from Changi to my office to arrive on time for work (and the appraisal presentations). And no one would know.
This was not my first attempt to obtain a faculty position. About a year earlier, I had put in an application to the department of Chemistry at NUS, whose head was then my university classmate and some time lab partner, Loh Kian Ping. KP had helped me get an adjunct Asst Prof position in the Department of Chemistry a year or two earlier, which entailed teaching a Biomaterials course. However, the application was short-lived. A meeting of the search committee had been convened shortly after I had submitted my application and apparently, my publication record was not strong enough to warrant further consideration. Ironically, in that same year, I published in the high impact journal, Nature Nanotechnology. That Nature portfolio publication was in time for the Kaust faculty attempt; however, it did not make a difference where the final outcome was concerned. In April 2009, after more than a two month wait, I received an email from KAUST that my application was not successful.
It was not until a few years later, in 2015 (the year of Singapore's 50th anniversary as a nation), that my desire for a faculty position was revived. This time, it was Sing Yian, my friend from Hopkins and `inside person', encouraging me to apply to NTU where she was a professor. I was enthusiastic then, really feeling that I was in for a chance, especially as the Head of Department then was Teoh Swee Hin, with whom both Kam Leong (my postdoc supervisor) and myself were familiar with. I had even sounded out Kam, who had kindly agreed to time my application with a message to Swee Hin, stating my support. Therefore, it came to me as a huge blow when Swee Hin curtly replied that he was glad to hear from me, and that they had some `lecturer' positions available. A lecturer position was not the tenure-track position that I had hoped for. It was a blow, not just to my hopes of landing a faculty position, but also to my self-esteem. Although Kam encouraged me to keep persisting, and even to consider applying for the newest autonomous university in Singapore, SUTD, I saw no point in doing so and simply gave up.
As time passed by, I felt that the opportunity for a faculty job was already behind me. Then there was a period of turbulence and uncertainty at A*STAR and in the midst of all that instability, I neither had the energy nor confidence to entertain the idea anymore. In 2021, not entirely by chance, I transferred to SIFBI, A*STAR's new food institute. I was grateful that I had a job at all, although the following years, up to 2023 were not easy ones, including the year itself.
I had never thought that I would make another effort at a faculty position. But in mid-September of 2023, some of our lives would be touched by the arrow of destiny. The day I found out about my friend's passing was an extremely sad one, but I returned from the wake feeling that he had given me a gift. There I had been informed of an opportunity, which I hope to qualify for on my own merit. My quest for a faculty position is not over yet.
4th February, 2024
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