Speaker Profiles

Professor Asit K. Biswas

Prof. Asit K. Biswas is universally acknowledged as one of the world’s leading authorities on water, food, environment and development-related issues. He has a very distinguished career as an academic; senior public official in Canada; advisor and confidant to Presidents, Prime Ministers and Ministers in 23 countries, six Heads of United Nations Agencies, two Secretary-Generals of OECD, several Heads of bilateral aid agencies, and four CEOs or Chairmen of MNCs in Fortune 500 list.

He has worked and lived in all continents except Australia. He was a member of the World Commission on Water, and co-founder of International Water Resources Association and World Water Council.

He was a member of the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum and is currently member of the International Advisory Board, Pictet Asset Management, Geneva; member of the Advisory Board, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur; and Strategic Advisor, Singapore International Water Week.

Among his numerous awards are Crystal Drop and Millennium Prizes of the International Water Resources Association; Walter Huber Prize of the American Society of Civil Engineering; Stockholm Water Prize, considered to be the Nobel Prize for water, for “his outstanding and multi-faceted contributions to global water resource issues;” “Person of the Year” award from Prime Minister Harper of Canada; Aragon Environment Prize ofSpain. Reuters named him as a “one of the top 10 water trailblazers of the world.” Impeller magazine selected him as “true global water hero.”

Because of his manifold research contributions, he has received seven Honorary Doctorates of Technology or Engineering from leading global universities, including from both University of Glasgow and University of Strathclyde. He was elected an Academician over 20 years ago. He currently has an h-index of 46. Google Scholar lists 950 of his publications and over 10,400 citations of his work. He has a Research Gate score of 42.1, which puts him into the top 2.5% of all scientists from all disciplines from the entire world.

He is the author or editor of 89 books. His work has been translated into 42 languages. Prof. Biswas is the founder of the International Journal of Water Resources Development and was its Editor-in-Chief for its first 29 years. He is a regular media contributor to BBC, 2 CNN, CNBC, TRT, Project Syndicate, The Conversation, Channel News Asia, MediaCorp and China Daily on issues related to natural resources management, climate change, environment, geopolitics, international relations, business strategies and innovations. His opinion pieces in various international media are now read by some 1.74 million readers annually all over the world.

Ms Hazel Khoo

Ms Hazel Khoo is the Director of Coastal Protection Department in PUB, The National Water Agency. She currently leads the Department to drive and coordinate whole-of-government efforts to develop long-term strategies to protect Singapore from the threats of rising sea levels and to address both coastal and inland flood risks holistically. One of her immediate key tasks is to oversee site-specific studies for City-East Coast and northwestern coast of Singapore to develop coastal adaptation pathways and measures that are adaptive to climate uncertainties and integrate with the land use/master plan of the coastal areas. She will also lead her team to develop a Coastal-Inland Flood Model to better equip the organisation for coastal protection planning and operations amidst climate change.

Previously, as the Deputy Director of the Policy and Planning Department, Hazel developed strategies for the Water Master Plan to ensure resilient, sustainable, and holistic management of the water supply and used water systems to meet the long term needs of Singapore. As part of her work, Hazel collaborates closely with various planning and economic agencies to support PUB’s planning objectives. Prior to that, Hazel also headed the Western Catchment Planning Division in PUB’s Catchment and Waterways Department, responsible for the planning of drainage systems.

Hazel holds a Masters of Science (Environmental Science and Engineering), a Masters in Public Administration, and Bachelor of Engineering (Civil Engineering).

Mr Nicholas Lee

Nicholas Lee is the regional Product Marketing Manager for Water Infrastructure in Xylem. In his role, he is responsible for strategising and accelerating business growth in Southeast Asia through our Transport, Treatment and Dewatering portfolio. He is also involved in key localisation projects.

Prior to Xylem, Nicholas has led the steam portfolio product marketing in Emerson and launched the localisation in Japan. He has also accumulated very diverse career experience in Sales and technical roles in his previous attachment with a Japanese company, Tyco Flow Control and Flowserve. He holds a Mechanical Engineering degree with honours from Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Dr Aurel Moise

Dr Aurel Moise is a Senior Principal Research Scientist and Deputy Director of the Centre for Climate Research Singapore (CCRS, which is part of the Meteorological Service Singapore). Within CCRS, Dr Moise is the Head of the Department of Climate Research, providing leadership and guidance to several areas of research undertaken at CCRS. This includes the production of the new set of regional climate change projections for Singapore, sub-seasonal to seasonal prediction, analysis of tropical processes and oversight of the National Sea Level Programme (NSLP). In this role, he is strongly involved in stakeholder engagements across various sectors of government locally as well as with international partners and collaborators.

Previously, he worked at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s research division from 2004 until 2019, focusing on regional monsoons, climate change, general tropical climate as well as climate change projections science. In addition, he conducted and published research in the field of climate extremes, climate variability and climate teleconnections.

Dr Moise holds a PhD in atmospheric science and published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers in the last 10 years, including a recent book chapter on the Australian monsoon in current and future climate. Since 2018, he is the co-chair of the GEWEX/CLIVAR Global Monsoons Panel (which is one of the core activities of the World Climate Research Program, WCRP) as well as co-leading the regional Asian-Australian Monsoon Working Group.