PENANG, 13 July 2014 - Our society and country need to be confident that the technology produced by local scientists is able to solve existing problems such as water treatment problems.

This was stated by a scientist who is recognised as one of the four scientists with the Most Influential Mind in the World, Professor Dr. Abdul Latif Ahmad during a recording of Astro Awani talkshow at NADI Centre of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), chaired by Haji Nazri Kahar.

The professor in Membrane Engineering from USM School of Chemical Engineering, said that it is about time we put serious effort to ensure that our country's desire to be a leader in technology will be turned into a reality, and not merely as a technology user.

"For example, the use of membrane technology in water treatment should be fully utilised by the country since we have many experts from various universities in related fields and they should collaborate to find ways to reduce production costs as it can be used as a water filter. It can produce quality water to the community on a long-term basis as what has been done by our neighbouring country which made use of this technology a long time ago," said Abdul Latif.

Membrane is the finest filtration technology of the molecules and cells which act like a biological filter in the human body and works the same way as how our kidneys work.

According to Abdul Latif, it is a great loss if the research outputs ended up in laboratory and journals, and they cannot be fully utilised for the community because they are not commercialised and no follow-up action is made to use it for the purpose of improving the quality of life of the community.

Asked about why such effort is difficult to carry out, he said that in developed countries, industries work together with the university to produce technologies which later will be developed and used. In Malaysia, the industry just wanted to look for a quick solution, whereas research actually needs time to derive the expected result.

Abdul Latif hoped that our community’s perceptions and confidence towards local research can be changed since many researches conducted by universities ended up in the laboratories and only appeared in academic journals for academic reference purposes only.

"I also hope that lecturers and young researchers will take advantage of the very good research environment available in the country, including the wide availability of grants provided by government agencies, but the important factor is that the research outputs should be used in the community with a high impact on the country, including getting them commercialised," said Abdul Latif when asked on his hopes for young researchers to be successful in the future. - Translation: Siti Faizah Abd Halim/Text & Photo: Mohamad Abdullah