³Life as a Sanctioned Professional Killer²
by Prof Peter KL Ng
In conjunction with NUS Faculty of Science¹s 80th anniversary celebrations

Prof Peter KL Ng, Director of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research,
has in recent years become deeply involved in environmental and conservation
biology. In the field of biodiversity science, the killing and preservation
of animal specimens for research is an integral part of the discipline. If a
biologist's desire is to conserve - how should this need to kill be
rationalized? An engaging and charismatic speaker, he will explore this
seemingly conflicting aspects of his work and leave you with some answers
and probably, as is his style, more questions!

Saturday 7th March 2009: 4pm ­ 5pm
Venue: LT 31 NUS Faculty of Science (next to Science Canteen)
Free Admission

How to get there:
Take SBS Bus 95 from Buona Vista MRT station.
Drop off at the second stop after the bus turns in to NUH/NUS.
See map: http://tinyurl.com/nuslt31


Registration required; please sign up at:
http://www.nipunaperera.com/naf09/other_event.php?o_id=4

ABSTRACT - In the field of biodiversity science, the killing and
preservation of animal specimens for research is an integral part of the
discipline. This is all the more so in systematics, which is my forte. In
the 25 years I have been in this field, thousands of crustaceans, fish and
other animals have been killed in the name of ¹science¹, and as a university
professor, I have given my blessings to dozens of students and colleagues to
kill even more. Does that make me a mass murderer? And what has this killing
achieved in my discipline? How does this scale of scientific killing
correlate with the so called Œbiodiversity crisis¹ facing the planet in
which thousands of species are under threat of extinction? If a biologist¹s
desire is to conserve how we rationalize with this need to kill? In a wide
ranging talk, these seemingly conflicting aspects will be discussed and
hopefully, clarified.

BIOGRAPHY - Prof Peter Ng worked on his PhD at the National University of
Singapore part-time while still an education officer with the Ministry of
Education in the 1980s. He joined the then Department of Zoology in 1990,
and has been involved in biodiversity and systematics research, primarily
with crabs and fish over the last 17 years. Recognised as a international
taxonomic expert on these groups, he also works on a wide variety of
different biodiversity issues and has become deeply involved in
environmental and conservation biology. He is on the editorial board of over
a dozen international journals, as well as being a member of numerous
international biological organizations, notably the International Commission
for Zoological Nomenclature. He is now director of both the Raffles Museum
of Biodiversity Research and the Tropical Marine Science Institute at NUS.


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