Zakir Hussain, Straits Times 28 Feb 08;Impressed by the work and living environment here - including the Botanic Gardens and various farms in north-west Singapore - they decided to become permanent residents in 2001.
WITH two degrees under his belt from the famous Shanghai Jiaotong University in China, Mr Yu Hao could have pursued his PhD at any top American university.
Fortunately for Singapore, orchids turned out to be the deal-breaker for Mr Yu, 35, a life sciences researcher who won the Singapore Youth Award in the science and technology category last year.
Mr Yu chose to study orchid biology here in 1997 because the National University of Singapore had a reputation in the field.
Six months later, his wife Wang Jing, now 34, came to NUS to do a PhD in biological sciences as well.
Impressed by the work and living environment here - including the Botanic Gardens and various farms in north-west Singapore - they decided to become permanent residents in 2001.
That same year, Mr Yu got his doctorate. Ms Wang got hers a year later. But a stint in California a year later reinforced Mr Yu's decision to sink roots here.
'We considered a place where my family and work could be stable, and where we could bring up children,' he said.
Since 2004, Mr Yu has been a principal investigator at the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory. Ms Wang is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology.
The couple and their two young children - daughter Yi Shan, seven, and son Qi Yuan, four - became Singaporeans in February 2006.
'We are proud to be members of a dynamic nation,' said Mr Yu.
'Giving up our previous citizenship was not really a struggle. Singapore's culture has integrated essences from various races,' he said.