By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Abd Ra’ai Osman, Izwan Azman

BANGI, May 27, 2015 – The National University of Malaysia (UKM) has been mandated the task to produce the first Nobel Prize winner for Malaysia.

The new Chairman of the Board of UKM Dato’ Seri Dr Ibrahim Saad said he wanted to see at least one member of the UKM community win a Nobel Prize.

Launching the UKM 45th Anniversary celebrations and the launch of the  45 Years Of UKM Publications here today, Dr Ibrahim said the university has clearly demonstrated outstanding performance in various fields.

He expressed pride in UKM not just as an alumni but also because for 45 years its experts in various fields had been given due recognition.

“The excellence of its graduates has  raised UKM’s profile as a leading institution of higher learning,” he remarked.

Dr Ibrahim replaced the former Chairman of the UKM Board Emeritus Prof Dato’ Dr. Mohamad Zawawi bin Ismail who had recently stepped down.

He is also the former Chairman / Dean of the Education Centre at UKM from 1981 to 1983.

Meanwhile, UKM Vice Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali, in his opening remarks, urged the UKM community to support the university by being guardians to its trust.

According to Prof. Noor Azlan,  trust and expectations of the country must be interpreted in line with current and future challenges.

“UKM has matured in 45 years. The Socio-economic level is higher, the demands of the more advanced society has increased, and the environment and the landscape of keen competition requires us all to dare to make changes  and take on new responsibilities that are generally more demanding,” he explained.

Prof. Noor Azlan urged the UKM community to join forces to improve the integration of knowledge, expertise and academia across disciplines to create meaningful solutions and high-value deals.

“We need structures that promote the integration of these operations. We must produce high impact results for all stakeholders. We have to accept that challenging conventions with innovation and creativity is something commonplace among us. The outlines of  six key result  areas should be central to our actions,” he reminded staff and students.

In conjunction with the annivesary celebrations, UKM Publications also launched a 45 years of UKM publishing programme. On the sporty side, there was the presentation of a flag and mock cheque at a 450 kilometers charity cycling event, as well as an exhibition covering 45 years of the university from 1970 until the present.

A total of 15 UKM staff and students took part in the charity cycle event  that lasted for four days beginning May 23 and headed by Prof Dr Yang Farina Abdul Aziz of the Faculty of Science and Technology. Prof Yang Farina is a researcher at the School of Chemical Sciences and Food Technology

The team started from Bangi and headed to Tanjung Karang, then to Teluk Intan, Tanjung Malim, Kuala Lumpur and back to the campus in Bangi.