WThe Agency for Science, Technology and Research is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore.
WAhn Sung-ki is a South Korean actor. One of the country's most respected actors, he has appeared in more than 130 films during his career of over 60 years.
WThe Akshaya Patra Foundation is a non-profit organisation in India that operates a school lunch programme. The organisation was established in 2000. It aims to counter classroom hunger and aid in education of children. It feeds 1,800,907 children every day across India.
WUrvashi Butalia is an Indian feminist writer, publisher and activist. She is known for her work in the women's movement of India, as well as for authoring books such as The Other Side of Silence: Voices from and the Partition of India and Speaking Peace: Women's Voices from Kashmir.
WMorris Chang, is a Taiwanese businessman who built his career in Taiwan. He is the founder, as well as former chairman and CEO, of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's first and largest silicon foundry. He is known as the semiconductor industry founder of Taiwan.
WChina University of Political Science and Law is a national public research university specialized in law, arts, history, philosophy, economics, management and foreign languages established in 1952 in Beijing, China.
WThe Edhi Foundation is a non-profit social welfare organization based in Pakistan. It was founded by Abdul Sattar Edhi in 1951, who served as the head of the organization until his death on 8 July 2016. Bilquis Edhi, a nurse by profession, oversees the maternity and adoption services of the foundation. The Edhi Foundation is headquartered in the city of Karachi.
WAnthony Francis Fernandes is a Malaysian entrepreneur. He is the founder of Tune Air Sdn. Bhd., who introduced the first budget no-frills airline, AirAsia, to Malaysians with the tagline "Now everyone can fly". Fernandes managed to turn AirAsia, a failing government-linked commercial airline, into a highly successful budget airline public-listed company. He has since founded the Tune Group of companies. He is also the majority shareholder of Queens Park Rangers Football Club. He is the owner of Caterham Group, the parent company of British car manufacturer Caterham Cars.
WThe Forest Research Institute Malaysia is a statutory agency of the Government of Malaysia, under the Ministry of Land, Water and Natural Resources (KATS). FRIM promotes sustainable management and optimal use of forest resources in Malaysia by generating knowledge and technology through research, development and application in tropical forestry. FRIM is located in Kepong, near Kuala Lumpur.
WGao Fu, also known as George Fu Gao, is a Chinese virologist and immunologist. He has served as Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention since 2017 and Dean of the Savaid Medical School of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2015.
WHerlina Christine Natalia Hakim is an Indonesian actress, film producer, and activist. Born to a devout Muslim family of a mixed-race background in Jambi, she grew up in Yogyakarta, aspiring to be an architect or psychologist. This changed after she was discovered by Teguh Karya for his 1973 movie Cinta Pertama, a role which garnered her a Citra Award for Best Actress and convinced her to follow a career in acting. Since then, she has starred in numerous films, including 1977's Badai Pasti Berlalu and 1988's Tjoet Nja' Dhien; she also had a minor role in the 2010 Hollywood movie Eat Pray Love. As of 2011, she has won six Citra Awards, received a lifetime achievement award from the Cinemanila International Film Festival, and served as a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival
WMa Jun is a Chinese environmentalist, environmental consultant, and journalist. He is a director of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE).
WJosé Montserrat Maceda was a Filipino composer and ethnomusicologist. He was named a National Artist of the Philippines for Music in 1998.
WNadiem Anwar Makarim is the current minister of education, culture, research, and technology of the Republic of Indonesia. In 2010, he founded Gojek, Indonesia's first startup valued over US$10 billion. In October 2019, he was appointed as Minister of Education and Culture by President Joko Widodo on his second term's cabinet and subsequently resigned from his post at Gojek.
WThe University of Malaya (UM) is a public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest and highest ranking Malaysian institution of higher education according to two international ranking agencies. The university has graduated three prime ministers of Malaysia, and other political, business, and cultural figures of national prominence. The predecessor of the university, King Edward VII College of Medicine, was established on 28 September 1905 in Singapore, then a territory of the British Empire. In October 1949, the merger of the King Edward VII College of Medicine and Raffles College created the university. Rapid growth during its first decade caused the university to organize as two autonomous divisions on 15 January 1959, one located in Singapore and the other in Kuala Lumpur. In 1960, the government of Malaysia indicated that these two divisions should become autonomous and separate national universities. One branch was located in Singapore, later becoming the National University of Singapore after the independence of Singapore from Malaysia, and the other branch was located in Kuala Lumpur, retaining the name University of Malaya. Legislation was passed in 1961 and the University of Malaya was established on 1 January 1962. In 2012, UM was granted autonomy by the Ministry of Higher Education.
WKiran Mazumdar-Shaw is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur. She is the executive chairperson and founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics Limited, a biotechnology company based in Bangalore, India and the former chairperson of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. In 2014, she was awarded the Othmer Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to the progress of science and chemistry. She is on the Financial Times’ top 50 women in business list. In 2019, she was listed as the 68th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. She was named EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2020. She is married to John Shaw.
WNagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the founder of Infosys, and has been the chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president, and chief mentor of the company before retiring and taking the title chairman emeritus.
WNandan Nilekani is an Indian entrepreneur. He co-founded Infosys and is the non-executive chairman of Infosys replacing R Seshasayee and Ravi Venkatesan, who were the co-chairs of the board, on 24 August 2017. After the exit of Vishal Sikka, Nilekani was appointed as non-executive chairman of the board effective 24 August 2017. He was the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). After a successful career at Infosys, he headed the Government of India's technology committee, TAGUP. He is a member of Indian National Congress but not active in politics as of 2019.
WWidjojo Nitisastro was an Indonesian economist. He was one of Indonesia's best-known and most respected economic policy-makers, both within Indonesia and overseas. Widjojo was born in Malang in East Java, and died in Jakarta, Indonesia, aged 84.
WSupachai Panitchpakdi is a Thai politician and professor. He was Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 1 September 2005 to 31 August 2013. Prior to this, he was the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 1 September 2002 to 1 September 2005. He was succeeded by Pascal Lamy.
WBindeshwar Pathak is an Indian sociologist and social entrepreneur. He is the founder of Sulabh International, an India-based social service organisation which works to promote human rights, environmental sanitation, non-conventional sources of energy, waste management and social reforms through education. He is the Brand Ambassador for Swachh Rail Mission of Indian Railways. His work is considered pioneering in social reform, especially in the field of sanitation and hygiene. He received various national and international awards for his work with this organisation. He was presented with the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academics and Management for the year 2017. He was conferred with Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award in 1991.
WThalappil Pradeep is an institute professor and professor of chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He is also the Deepak Parekh Chair Professor. In 2020 he received the Padma Shri award for his distinguished work in the field of Science and Technology. He has received the Nikkei Asia Prize (2020), The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) prize (2018), and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in 2008 by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
WChintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao FRS, also known as C. N. R. Rao, is an Indian chemist who has worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry. He has honorary doctorates from 83 universities from around the world, and has authored around 1,770 research publications and 53 books. He is described as a scientist who had won all possible awards in his field except the Nobel Prize.
WSophiline Cheam Shapiro is a Cambodian dancer and choreographer.
WDevi Prasad Shetty, MS, FRCS, is an Indian cardiac surgeon and entrepreneur. He is the chairman and founder of Narayana Health, a chain of 21 medical centers in India. He has performed more than 15,000 heart operations. In 2004 he was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, followed by the Padma Bhushan in 2012, the third highest civilian award by the Government of India for his contribution to the field of affordable healthcare. There is an episode about his life and work on the Netflix TV series "The Surgeon's cut”.
WShi Wen-long or Hsu Wen-lung is a Taiwanese businessman and the founder of Chi Mei Corporation, the largest maker of ABS resin in the world. He has been ranked among Forbes' World's Richest People. He was chairman of Chi Mei until his resignation 2004, though he still holds significant stakes in the company and sits on its board.
WManmohan Singh is an Indian economist, academic, and politician who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. A member of the Indian National Congress, Singh was the first Sikh Prime minister of India. Singh was also the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term.
WTrương Gia Bình is a Vietnamese businessman. He is best known as the co-founder, chairman and CEO of the Vietnamese technology company FPT Corporation. Bình is also the vice president of The Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO), Chairman of Vietnam Software Association (VINASA).
WMechai Viravaidya is a former politician and activist in Thailand who promoted condoms, family planning and AIDS awareness in Thailand. Since the 1970s, Mechai has been affectionately known as "Mr. Condom", and condoms are often referred as "mechais" in Thailand. From the time that he began his work, the average number of children in Thai families has decreased from 7 to 1.5.
WAlbert Tuaopepe Wendt is a Samoan poet and writer who lives in New Zealand. Among his works is Leaves of the Banyan Tree, published in 1979.
WChi-Huey Wong is a Taiwanese-American biochemist. He is currently the Scripps Family Chair Professor at the Scripps Research Institute, California in the Department of Chemistry. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, won the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the RSC Robert Robinson Award. and has published more than 700 papers and holds more than 100 patents.
WYang Huanming, also known as Henry Yang, is a Chinese biologist, businessman and one of China's leading genetics researchers. He is Chairman and co-founder of the Beijing Genomics Institute, formerly of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was elected as member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2007, a foreign academician of Indian National Science Academy in 2009, a member of the German National Academy of Sciences in 2012, and foreign associate of the US National Academy of Science in 2014.
WNoel Philip Yeo Liat Kok, DUNU , is the Chairman of Economic Development Innovations Singapore, Advanced MedTech Holdings and Accuron Technologies. From April 2007 to March 2018, Yeo was Chairman of Standards Productivity and Innovation for Growth, a government development agency with the mission to grow small and medium enterprises and startups.
WYuan Longping was a Chinese agronomist, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, known for developing the first hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s, part of the Green Revolution in agriculture. For his contributions, Yuan is known as the "Father of Hybrid Rice".
WMuhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist, and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below". The Norwegian Nobel Committee said that "lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty" and that "across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development". Yunus has received several other national and international honours. He received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.