Siti Ngalim, Senior Lecturer at Universiti Sains Malaysia, grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and returned home after studying in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Outside of her own research, she has worked over the last few years to connect and expand her local biophysics community by founding a biophysical society in the region and planning events to facilitate networking and collaboration.
Ngalim grew up in Ampang, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. Her parents were from large families, with more than 10 siblings each. Neither attended secondary schools, as they were needed at home to take care of younger siblings and to help with farming. When Ngalim was growing up, her father worked as a truck driver and her mother cared for the home and children, selling sweet snacks called “kuih” for extra income. “Though they are not well educated, my parents follow the news on the television and the radio and have discussions about things going on around us,” she shares. “My mom is good at maths. Whenever we had to buy ingredients for the kuih at the supermarket, I tried to compete with her at the speed of her basic math skills, but I could never win. My dad is into arts and crafts, alternative medicine, world history, and religion—including controversial and taboo subjects that most locals his age would not want to discuss. Surely, the conversations I had with them when I was young made me a curious person.”
Ngalim lived with her parents until she was 12 years old and then in public boarding schools until age 19, when she finished college preparatory courses. She enjoyed science as a child because there were more pictures and infographics than words in her textbook, which appealed to her as a visual thinker. She also had two uncles, one of whom was a medical doctor and the other an engineer, who she viewed as well-off financially which made pursuing a science degree seem like a good choice.
She received scholarships to pursue higher education, enrolling at Pennsylvania State University where she majored in biotechnology and minored in microbiology. “During my senior year in my undergraduate, I remember not wanting to see only bands (as in electrophoresis images) all my life. I wanted to venture into more applied sciences and engineering,” she says. “That was why I went for a master’s degree in nanomedicine, where I researched bone growth on chemically etched micropatterns on a titanium alloy.”
She earned that master’s degree from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, followed by her PhD in pathology from the University of New South Wales in Australia, where she researched cell migration in the presence of soluble and immobilized biomolecules.
When she was looking for a tenure-track position in Malaysia, the government was undertaking an initiative to ensure that all professors at public universities held PhDs. Because of this, she was able to be hired without first holding a postdoctoral position. In 2015, she was trained in Förster Resonance Energy Transfer at Kyoto University. A few years later in 2017 she undertook a one-year research attachment with E. Ada Cavalcanti-Adam at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany. “There, I received training on nanopatterning called diblock micellar nanolithography (BCMN) whereby soluble proteins are immobilized on uniformly spaced nanogold,” she explains.
Cavalcanti-Adam describes her as determined and a positive presence in the lab: “A most memorable quality is her good spirit at work—positive and extremely helpful for all the lab members!”
Trying to establish a new lab immediately after receiving her PhD while also applying for grants (and figuring out what grant agencies were looking for) was a major challenge, and the funding challenges continue, as they do for many. “As always in life, like we say in our local Malaysian-English slang: ‘No money, no talk,’” she says. “Even when the money is there, the budget is tight. I realized that optimism helps. Any rejections or failures—publications, grant applications, research challenges, etc.—are demotivating, but then you fix them, reach out for help, and keep on trying.”
She is now a Senior Lecturer at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Bertam Campus in Penang, Malaysia. The most rewarding aspect of her career is that she is always learning new things. “The fact that I’m learning every day, it’s very humbling,” she shares. “Plenty of jargon too, as biophysical research involves interdisciplinary research teams. I learn something new from clinicians, surface chemists, physicists, and engineers.”
Nur Azirah Yahaya worked as an intern and then a research assistant in Ngalim’s lab. “I loved working with Dr. Ngalim as she was a caring, supportive, and flexible mentor. One of my favorite things about her was that she has a positive character and always sees good in people. She knew the potential of me and all of her students, and always wanted us to keep growing and learning new things,” she says. “Also, she was ready to help us when we needed help. I’m thankful that she gave me the opportunity to be part of her team. She is awesome and I miss working with her all the time.”
“In Malaysia, the progress of and industrial products resulting from biophysical research are negligible. Less than three percent of jobs in Malaysia are STEM-related, and most of those are in electrical and electronic manufacturing,” Ngalim reports. “Penang state, which is a state hub for STEM jobs in Malaysia, only recorded RM1 billion (approximately US$240 million) in the biology-based industry (as recently communicated by Penang Institute). It’s difficult to convince youngsters to take biology in college—let alone biophysics—when job prospects are limited. One hope is that we have plenty of biodiversity and resources from our tropical forests and waters that are worth studying for medical and pharmaceutical applications. At least from my part, I aim to disseminate knowledge on regenerative medicine from a biophysics perspective. My research focus will be on ‘remote’ controlling cell behavior by tuning the presentation of the extracellular matrix.”
Ngalim is actively working to support the growth of the STEM sector in her country. “I am an affiliate of the Young Scientist Network–Academy of Sciences Malaysia (YSN-ASM) Policy and Governance Working Group. Currently, I am helping with a study on unemployment and underemployment of STEM graduates in Malaysia,” she says. “Once this problem and possible solutions have been presented to the government, hopefully within the next two years, I wish to focus my policy study on the biology-based economic sector and research like biophysics in Malaysia.”
In 2018, Ngalim and a few colleagues founded a local biophysical society, Pertubuhan Biofizik Malaysia. She has also been engaging with the Biophysical Society (BPS) over the last few years to bring together researchers in her area through BPS-sponsored local networking events. “I had to Google around for researchers in the country and within the region who are doing interesting biophysics research, especially on the topic of mechanobiology,” she shares. The events have been fruitful, leading to research collaborations, grants, and recruitment of students. Ngalim also volunteers as a BPS Ambassador for Malaysia, which has given her new opportunities to share with the broader biophysics community what Malaysia’s scientific culture and challenges are.
Ngalim is a co-organizer of an upcoming BPS Thematic Meeting, “Cell Adhesion Networks.” While the meeting was initially planned for 2021, it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is now being planned for 2023.
Her advice to young biophysicists? “Never underestimate the influence of joining and being active in scientific societies! BPS is a great place to start.”