Tah Kah Kee Awards ceremony

Attended the 25th anniversary dinner of World Scientific Publishing last night, which also coincided with the Tan Kah Kee Postgraduate Scholarship Award ceremony. Unlike other awards dinners, was quite looking forward to this one, as I knew the recipients are all people who are active in and passionate about community service (it's one of the requirements of the scholarship). I wasn't disappointed. Though we didn't know one another, my dinner companions were genuinely warm and friendly, and we had some interesting conversational topics, ranging from youths in politics, to voluntary social work in London, to...hehe....coastal development in S'pore.

Found out that out of 124 applicants, 9 scholars were selected this year. Wow....I'm extremely honoured to be part of this 'select group', and also extremely gratified that nature conservation is considered a community service! There! It's recognised that taking care of the environment is considered as benefiting society, and not just about a bunch of rabid greenies out to destroy all development and standards of living as we know it. And THAT, is something I'm most proud of...

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