Associate Professor Adam Switzer has been selected as the new Permanent Representative of Singapore to the Coordinating Committee for Geosciences Programmes in East and Southeast Asia (CCOP). CCOP is an intergovernmental organization with 15 member countries with the mission to “facilitate and coordinate the implementation of applied geoscience programmes in East and Southeast Asia in order to contribute to economic development and the improvement of the quality of life in the region”. As the Permanent Representative of Singapore Assoc Prof Switzer will be a member of the governing body of the organisation, establishing policies and principles to govern CCOP’s activities, approve budgets and programmes.
Assoc Prof Switzer has also been approached by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to lead Singapore efforts on an IAEA project to coordinate training for their member countries in collaboration with the Singapore government. Within the IAEA Regional Cooperative Agreement (RCA), the IAEA wishes to harmonize methodology of sampling for analysis of stable isotopes and other parameters in coastal wetland samples, a topic that falls under Assoc Prof Switzer’s area of expertise. The upcoming training will target representatives from 22 IAEA member countries in the Asia-Pacific region including China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.