Singapore, July 25, 2008: Prof Charles Zukoski, Chairman of the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) of the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), will relocate to Singapore from Aug 7, 2008. He will spend more time in A*STAR while keeping his links with the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where he is the William and Janet Lycan Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, in the School of Chemical Sciences.

Under Prof Zukoski’s leadership of SERC, of which he has been Chairman since Feb 1, 2005, SERC has launched major initiatives such as the Energy Programme, the Aerospace Programme, and established international partnerships with top universities, research centres and the industry.

Prof Zukoski will focus on promoting integration of research areas to catalyse knowledge creation, strengthen research collaboration with industry and identify emerging areas of growth, and build up international linkages with other renowned centres of research in areas of strategic interests.

Prior to his relocation to Singapore, Prof Zukoski was concurrently the Vice-Chancellor for Research at UIUC and the Chairman of SERC. He has been conferred the American Chemistry Society Ralph K. Iler Award in the Chemistry of Colloidal Materials and the Alpha Chi Sigma Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2002.  He is also a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.