Lian Pin Koh is a Singaporean conservation scientist. He is Professor of Conservation Science, Technology and Policy in the , and Director of the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions at the National University of Singapore. Koh is the Founding Director of ConservationDrones.org, a non-profit organisation that seeks to introduce drone technology to conservation scientists and practitioners worldwide. He was formerly at the University of Adelaide, and Vice President of Science Partnerships and Innovation at Conservation International, a non-profit environmental organisation. Throughout his career, Koh has received multiple awards including the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship in 2014, the Swiss National Science Foundation Professorship in 2011, the ETH Fellowship in 2008, and was also named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2013. In 2020, Koh received a prestigious award from the under its . Established in 2013, the Scheme seeks to attract outstanding overseas-based Singaporean research leaders back to Singapore to take up leadership positions in Singapore's autonomous universities and publicly funded research institutes. Koh is the sixth recipient of this award.
Education and Career
Koh studied at Hwa Chong Institution for his pre-tertiary education in Singapore. He completed his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees at the National University of Singapore in 2001 and 2003, respectively. Koh obtained a PhD from the in the United States in 2008. Following that, he received postdoctoral training at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland, and in 2011 he was appointed an Assistant Professor by the Swiss National Science Foundation. In 2014, he accepted a position at the University of Adelaide in Australia as Associate Professor of Applied Ecology & Conservation. He was subsequently awarded the prestigious Australian Research Council Future Fellowship and was promoted to full Professor in 2017. Koh helped set up and served as Director of two University research centers: the , and the . From 2018 to 2020, Koh took a hiatus from academia to join Conservation International. In 2020, Koh returned to Singapore to assume the appointment of Professor of Conservation Science, Technology and Policy in the , and Director of the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions at the National University of Singapore.
Research
Koh is an applied ecologist whose notable scientific contributions include the study of species co-extinctions and modeling the environmental impacts of industrial agriculture across the tropics. His research focuses on developing innovative science and science-based decision support tools to help reconcile society's needs with environmental protection. He addresses this challenge through field studies and experiments, computer simulations and modelling, as well as by co-opting emerging technologies for use in environmental research and applications.
Impact
Koh has published over 130 journal articles, including Nature, Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Koh is one of the most cited Singaporean conservation scientists. His research has received over 16,000 citations. Koh is a pioneer in the use of low-cost drone technology for environmental applications. He is Founding Director of , a non-profit organisation that seeks to introduce drone technology to scientists and conservationists worldwide. ConservationDrones.org has received numerous awards and media coverage. Koh was an invited speaker at the TEDGlobal 2013: Think Again conference in Edinburgh, where he spoke on the positive use of drones. His has been viewed over 600,000 times by a global audience.
Outreach
Koh is a regular plenary speaker at numerous international meetings, including the WWF Fuller Symposium in Washington D.C. in 2012, the Clinton Global Initiative University in Florida in 2013, and the Intergovernmental Eye on Earth Summit in Abu Dhabi in 2015. He is passionate about the communication of Science to the public, as evidenced by numerous and regular features on his work by international media, including the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, NewScientist, the Telegraph, among others.
