This month we have the distinct pleasure to welcome on board two eminent persons, one an engineer and the other an architect, as our Honorary Fellows. It marks a significant milestone in our short history.

Professor Torgeir Moan spoke at our Wold Conference on Floating Solutions 2019. He a Professor of Marine Technology, and former Director of a Norwegian centre of research excellence CeSOS. Dr. Moan has served on the Royal Inquiry Commission of the Alexander L. Kielland accident and other accident inquiries and on various committees for the industry and standardization organisations for offshore structures (e.g. ISO, NORSOK); wind turbines (IEC) and floating bridges (NPRA). He has served as the inaugural adjunct Keppel professor at the National University of Singapore and has honorary academic positions at several leading Chinese universities.  

Professor Moan’s main disciplines are structural analysis and design and, with a focus on stochastic dynamic analysis and safety assessment. He has carried out research as well as engineering design and analyses of innovative concepts of ships, oil and gas platforms, floating bridges and offshore wind turbines.   He authored or co-authored more than 700 journal and peer-reviewed conference papers, and a book entitled “Stochastic dynamic analysis of marine structures. “and has supervised more than 400 and 80 graduated candidates in their MSc and PhD thesis work, respectively.   

Professor Moan has delivered more than 40 keynote lectures at major conferences and  received several international awards, e.g. including the (first) Bruce Wallace award at MIT; Statoil Research Prize; the James W. Rice award of ASME; the Offshore Energy Center  Hall of Fame Award, Houston; Petroleum Safety Authority Award and several best paper awards.  He has been elected Fellow of four Academies, including the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, dr. Honoris Causa of Aalto University and fellow of several professional societies.   

Mr Tan Cheng Siong is the doyen of the Singapore architecture scene. Like good old Johnny Walker he “Keeps Walking.” For him its new tag line applies just as well: “Joy will take you further.” Although in his eighties, he travels frequently to China where he has several iconic projects.

Mr Tan is noted for his vision and courage. Back when Singapore was a Third World Country, he designed the Pearl’s Hill Apartments.  The Straits reported that “When Pearl Bank Apartments was completed in 1976, the 37-storey development became the tallest residential building in Singapore at the time at 113m tall. With 280 units, it had the highest density of apartments for a private residential development.”

When this building was recently bought over for re-development of the site, there was great disappointment all round. Back in 1976, no one ever thought of floating islands. If this iconic building had been built on a floating island, it would remain physically and emotionally in the hearts of Singapore.

Mr Tan was very excited about the potential of this innovation when I acquaint him about floating islands when we met at the Collaborative Alliance Conference for architects and engineers recently. In spite of his seniority or perhaps because of it, he is quick to see this is something worthy of his attention.

The many accolades, Mr Tan received include The Distinguished Alumni Award, NUS (1999); The President’s Design Award – Designer of the Year (2012); The SIA Gold Medal Award (2013); SIA Pioneer Architect Award (2015); Singapore Design Golden Jubilee Award (20150.

Our two Honorary Fellows I feel confident, will be an inspiration for our members to push boundaries with cutting edge technologies. With floating solutions Singapore can embrace another 700 sq.km of space for living, playing and working. 

Members of the society can demonstrate the same vision, one that is particularly appropriate with global warming, climate change and the insidious degradation of marine eco-systems.

President

Lim Soon Heng

11 October 2019