ABOUT SPEAKER: Zhenzhi was appointed Director of the National AI Office under the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office on 1 November 2019. The National AI Office will set the national agenda for AI in Singapore, and catalyse efforts across research, industry, and government stakeholders to apply AI to address national priorities.
Zhenzhi holds a concurrent appointment as Director of Planning and Policy at the Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR), where she oversees strategy and policy formulation, corporate planning, and international relations. This includes coordinating division and nation-wide R&D issues, as well as gathering intelligence on current R&D challenges and future requirements for Singapore’s R&D landscape. She was formerly Director (Strategic Planning) of A*STAR’s Science and Engineering Research Council, which manages research institutes and programmes in Electronics, Engineering, Chemicals & Materials and Digital Technologies.
Prior to this, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Medical Biology (Singapore) specialising in human embryonic stem cells differentiation and corneal endothelial cells regeneration.
Zhenzhi graduated summa cum laude from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (USA) with a degree in Bioengineering and then went on to complete her Ph.D. at Cambridge University (UK) in Stem Cell Medicine.