Globally-recognised science institute

IN 2014, the Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES) at Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, was awarded the Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE) status, under the National Priority Area of Environment and Climate Change by the Higher Education Ministry.

“The most important thing with our HICoE status is that we have received recognition from the global community. The first programme (that our institute works on) is on air pollution,” said Prof Dr Phang Siew Moi, director of IOES.

“The second programme is on floods because everything is connected – the air, ocean and land. When we keep polluting the land, (which will then flow down to the ocean), we will get harmful algal blooms and fish death. So everything is affected, our health, food and environment.

“Our niche is looking at all these interactions and how they affect one another, which is a very new approach,” she said.

The Atmospheric Science Centre at the IOES Bachok Marine Research Station (BMRS) in Kelantan was recognised as a Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) centre last June by the World Meteorological Organisation. Its data is available to global researchers working on climate change.

Prof Phang explained that Bachok is in a very special location because that part of the east coast is where the warm air comes in. That area is also where pollutants from the north (mainly China) and the south (from the burning of land) can be detected.

“The tropics are very hot and high temperature forces everything, including pollutants, up to the upper atmosphere and then it gets distributed all over the world,” she explained.

IOES also collaborates with established universities like Cambridge and East Anglia in various projects. They are also working with China’s First and Third Institutes of Oceanography for atmospheric and ocean work respectively.