PROFESSOR BRYAN E. PENPRASE & DR. BIDUSHI BHATTACHARYA

Singapore has for decades enjoyed a dynamic and growing economy, with emerging centers of excellence in a variety of science fields such as graphene research, biotechnology and quantum technology. In recent years, Singapore has also been developing in its space technology and astronomy and astrophysics capabilities. We will review the development of some new programs in astronomy and astrophysics at the new Yale-NUS College in Singapore, and some of the ongoing research with our undergraduate students using remotely operated telescopes in Chile, and in collaboration with the Caltech ZTF and GROWTH projects. We also will discuss the exponential growth of the commercial space sector on both a local and global scale, due to cube-sats and the democratization of space. We will review new space-related education and training programs, and the mentoring of innovative R&D in space technology startups within Singapore though two new companies - Astropreneurs Hub and Bhattacharya Space Enterprises.