Lin Yang Straits Times 7 Nov 10;
His job is that of Singapore's High Commissioner to Brunei. But what really makes Mr Joseph Koh tick is: playing with spiders.
So passionate is he about these creepy crawlies that his close friends and colleagues nicknamed him 'Spiderman'. It has been a love affair that has spanned 40 years, and made the diplomat - who has amassed more than 12,000 specimens of spiders - an expert in the field.
Singapore's High Commissioner to Brunei Joseph Koh has donated his collection of spiders, including more than 500 species from Singapore and South-east Asia, to the museum. PHOTOS: LEONG TZI MING
Now, the 62-year-old will donate his entire collection to the Raffles Museum for Biodiversity Research, more than doubling the museum's current holding of 5,000 specimens.
His collection includes more than 500 species from Singapore and South-east Asia and represents a historical catalogue which can help scientists determine whether any arachnid species have become extinct over the last 40 years.
This donation comes as the museum looks to expand. So far, it has raised $46 million to build a new building by 2014 and increase its exhibition and collection space by 10 times the current size. It needs $9 million more.
'It will be morally wrong, if not downright criminal, if such a large collection is left at home to collect dust when it should be studied by other scientists,' Mr Koh told The Sunday Times about his decision to gift his collection.
Besides, there are too many specimens for him to study within his lifetime, he said.
The collection grew, thanks to Mr Koh's active hunting for specimens in the wild, often taking colleagues on the prowl. One of them, Ms Ria Tan, 50, credits him for inspiring her to become a conservationist. She founded Wild Singapore, a website devoted to local environmental news. Mr Koh was her supervisor in the civil service 25 years ago.
'He organised these leisure trips on the weekends, where we would go hunting for spiders in the jungles of Singapore,' recalled Ms Tan.
Mr Koh taught her and other colleagues how to find spiders, take photos, and finally, to trap them inside plastic pill boxes.
At the end of each excursion, he would take the spiders home to study, preserve, and catalogue them. 'He's got this Darwinian persona of a kind, patient teacher. My passion for nature all started with him.'
Mr Koh has a long-established relationship with the museum. Along with some previous specimen donations, he also published an authoritative guide to spiders in Singapore in 1989; a guide that staff at the museum regularly use.
The Raffles Museum bestowed on him the title of Honorary Research Associate in 2004 for his contributions to science.
Professor Leo Tan, 66, who is leading the museum's fund-raising effort for the new building, was also Mr Koh's tutor during their undergraduate years.
Prof Tan remembers Mr Koh as a professor's dream student; one who did not study science for the purpose of making money, but for the pursuit of knowledge itself. 'He has this innate passion for insects, and it was unfortunate he had to enter the civil service due to lack of opportunities in life sciences at the time.'
Still, Mr Koh lived his passion in his spare time, and found the diversity of arachnid species fascinating. 'I am 'turned on' by the discovery of new patterns of similarities amid the variations,' he said.
Since the fund-raising drive started last December, the museum has received other interesting donations. An American, who was returning to his native home, bequeathed a bull and an elk head.
A local chef contributed his personal collection of fossils. And the owner of a local tannery donated a large collection of 50- to 60-year-old animal skins, including tiger skins; such a gift is impossible to acquire legally today.
Not everyone close to Mr Koh shared his enthusiasm for spiders. When he proposed to his wife 36 years ago, she agreed to marry him only if he removed all of his spiders from the bedroom.
But as the collection grew, the specimens made their way gradually back to our 'love nest', he said.