“Harnessing the power of scientific knowledge for the future of Malaysia – Scientific breakthroughs by Malaysians for Malaysia”
For Ivan Hoh, science has always been sparked curiosity and fascination, even as a teen. Born and bred in Ipoh, Perak, Ivan nurtured his love for science and discovering new knowledge by reading everything he could get his hands on and asking incessant questions to anyone who would answer. By the time he enrolled in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) as a fresh-faced molecular biology student, he was firmly convinced that his path in life lies in the study of science.
In his university years as an undergraduate and Masters student, he seized the opportunity to work under inspiring local scientists at the then-newly founded Malaysia Genome Institute (MGI), learning all he could about high throughput sequencing, management and analysis in the Lates calcarifer transcriptome project. Having gotten a taste of what the study of genomics and bioinformatics has to offer, Ivan embarked on a new journey to prove to the world that Malaysian scientists can contribute a whole lot to the world.
In 2010, two years after graduating with a MSc in Genomics from UKM and having gained some experience as a Sequencing Project Manager, Ivan founded Codon Genomics with fellow Malaysian scientists with his vision firmly set on providing powerful genomic applications to every possible industry. Today, Codon Genomics is one of the fastest growing bioinformatics company in South East Asia and the de facto partner for digitization and data analytics.
As a young man, Ivan was inspired and motivated by fellow scientists he has met and he believes the future lies in humans’ will and ability to innovate science. To ensure his vision for science in Malaysia to continue moving forward, Ivan is actively participating in efforts to invest in young Malaysian scientists. Currently, he is on the various committees and advisory boards in local institutions like UKM, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), and Management and Science University (MSU). As a member of the International Rubber Research Development Board associate member, Ivan is also part of the committee for the Malaysia Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Masterplan Planning.
Ivan, with more than 35 Tier One scientific publications and 750 citations, has set his sights on steering Codon Genomics towards contributing further in advancing science and society by utilising biological data and analytics. In this age of Big Data analytics making leaps and bounds in harnessing the power of information for the understanding our world better through science, Ivan with his team is set on the path that leads to more breakthroughs and solutions to today’s scientific questions