Chai (centre) receiving the FMIC award from MIC president Dato Dr Ong Eng Long during the Chemistry Night in Petaling Jaya recently.
KUCHING: Malaysia Institute of Chemistry (MIC) Sarawak branch chairman Dr Alvin Chai has been conferred as the second recipient of Fellow of MIC (FMIC) from Sarawak following a lapse of 30 years.
MIC in a statement yesterday said FMIC is the highest grade of membership conferred to chemists who have made a substantial contribution to the field of chemistry in Malaysia and is also in accordance to Section 17 of the Chemist Act 1975. Chai received the honour from MIC president Dato Dr Ong Eng Long during a Chemistry Night function in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
The first FMIC recipient from Sarawak was Chan Woon Peng who received the award back in 1986 and to date, there are slightly more than 100 FMICs in the country.
Chai was elected as IKM Sarawak branch chairman in 2013. Prior to this, he was elected as branch vice chairman from 2010 to 2012 and also served as committee member from 1988 to 2009.
Since 2013, he has also been co-opted as IKM Council Member and has assisted MIC in conducting workshops, organising conferences and chemistry carnivals. On his contribution, he was awarded the Pingat Perkhidmatan Bakti in 2009 and Pingat Perkhidmatan Setia in 2013 by the state government.
Chai graduated from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) with Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Chemistry in 1985. He obtained his Master of Science in analytical chemistry from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) in 2003.
Two years later, he pursued his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in environmental chemistry at University Copenhagen Denmark under the university’s scholarship. He graduated in 2008 with his thesis entitled ‘Fate of Pesticide in the Humid Tropics – Application to Insecticides Used in Vegetable Crops’.
Chai started his career as a research officer at Agriculture Research Centre Semongok, Department of Agriculture Sarawak in 1986. He was assigned to pioneer the pesticide residue research and analysis.
In 1990, he established the Pesticide Residue Laboratory to monitor the residues of pesticides in crops and environment and for farm certification. Over the years, he has undergone pesticide residue trainings in various institutions in Germany, The Netherlands, Canada and USA.
Through his endeavour, the Pesticide Residue Laboratory is now fully equipped with state of the art equipment such as GC, LC, GC tandem MS and LC tandem MS to undertake the analysis and research of more than 500 pesticides in Malaysia. Currently, he holds the post of Assistant Director of Research and heads the Crop Production & Postharvest Branch and Analytical Research & Service Branch.
He is also actively involved in the development of new pesticide residue analytical methods and conducts research on the fate of pesticides in crops and environment. His QuEChERS analytical methods for the analysis of pesticide residue in vegetables, fruits, soil, white pepper and black pepper are used in many laboratories in Malaysia and aboard.
He has conducted training in pesticide residue analysis for many institutions both locally and abroad.
Chai has also published over 100 papers in high impact international refereed journals, local journals and conferences and is the peer reviewer for more than 23 high impact international refereed journals published by Elsevier, Springer, Royal Society of Chemistry, American Society of Chemistry, Taylor & Francis and more.
He is also a member of the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residue, a member of the Working Group on Maximum Residue Limit and a member of the Working Group on Standardization of Pesticide Residue Analytical method.
Currently, he is the alternate member of Pesticide Board Malaysia and chairman of the Sarawak Pesticide Licensing Committee. He led and facilitated the Creativity and Innovation group of the Department of Agriculture, Sarawak in 2011-2015 at state, national and international levels.