Let's ask nature for Solutions
Meet The Founders
Anuj Jain (Dr.)
ECOLOGIST, BIOMIMIC & EDUCATOR
Anuj holds a Biomimicry Professional Certification - a first in Southeast Asia - offered by Biomimicry 3.8, Montana, USA. His interests range from wildlife conservation, ecological placemaking, biomimicry for the built environment, education, and sustainable travel.
Anuj has conducted a number of biomimicry talks, workshops, and events ranging from CUGE National Parks board to the Ministry of Education Singapore. Anuj has a B. Eng from Nanyang Technological University, an M.Sc in Biomimicry from Arizona State University, and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the National University of Singapore. As a National Geographic Explorer, BirdLife International's preventing extinctions program coordinator, and the Past Chairperson of Nature Society (Singapore)'s Butterfly & Insect Group, Anuj brings deep conservation and ecological knowledge in his biomimicry work. He is also the co-founder of BioSEA - an ecology & biomimicry design firm.
Email: anuj@biomimicrysingapore.net
Sriram Nathadur
BIOMIMIC, ENGINEER & BUSINESS GURU
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Sriram has a Master's degree in Biomimicry and is pursuing a Biomimicry Professional Certification. He is also the Group CEO & Chief Investment Officer of the Nadathur Group. He is responsible for a business & investment portfolio of over US$1 billion as well as family offices in India, Singapore, and the UK. Sriram heads the Group’s healthcare & life sciences portfolio and has helped incubate and build several ventures in drug discovery, diagnostics, nutrition, agri-biotech, hospitals,& healthcare/pharmaceutical services. As Group CEO, he also oversees a diversity of other businesses including those in the hospitality and technology sectors. He holds an MBA and a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering. He is also an active philanthropist and has a keen interest in causes such as nature conservation and neuro-muscular & intellectual development. View full profile here
Kirtida Mekani
ENVIRONMENTALIST, EDUCATOR, ARTIST & BUSINESSWOMAN
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Kirtida is a passionate environmentalist, pursuer of education, successful businesswoman and a devoted artist. She served as the founding Executive Director of the Singapore Environment Council from 1993 to 1997, is a Community in Bloom (CIB) ambassador, a member of the environment committee at Southwest CDC and serves on the board of the Garden City Fund Singapore. Her partnership with National Parks has seen the creation of the Plant-a-Tree programme. In collaboration with the United World College of South East Asia (UWCSEA), Kirtida supported the creation of the Rainforest Restoration Project – specialized plant nurseries run and managed by students for many threatened rainforest species. For her many contributions, Kirtida was awarded the President’s Award for the Environment in 2015. Kirtida is an ardent advocate of biomimicry, promoting its awareness and adoption in Singapore and strongly believes that biomimicry is the path forward for science and engineering.
Email: kirtidamekani@gmail.com
Dr. Kelly Siman
SCIENTIST, EDUCATOR, CLIMATE, WATER & POLICY GEEK
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Kelly is a graduate of the University of Akron’s Integrated Biosciences’ Biomimicry Ph.D. program. While she loves all things biomimicry, Kelly’s research has focused on the systems and processes of nature. Her Ph.D. concentrated on social-ecological coastal systems resilience where she created an integrated social and coastal systems vulnerability map to identify the best places to invest in nature-based solutions. She is currently a Post-doctoral research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions. Dr. Siman has an M.Sc. from Virginia Tech, and a B.Sc from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She’s designed biomimicry corporate and educational workshops, as well as consulted with companies from product design to R&D. Kelly also enjoys getting kids and the community jazzed about the awesomeness of nature!
Grace S.Y. Lim
NATURE EDUCATOR & CURRICULUM DESIGNER
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Grace is a passionate biologist, trainer, writer, and adventurer. She is totally at home in the natural ecosystems, trekking in forests, kayaking in the mangroves, or just exploring the seashores and coastline. A zoologist by training, she uses the outdoor classroom, creative methodologies, and E-learning for her teaching of biology, and the development of educational curriculum and resources. Grace has developed and conducted programs, workshops, and learning trails for several Singapore governmental organizations, Singapore Science Centre, and primary and secondary schools. She has also conducted eco-literacy programs for teachers and trains nature guides. Grace also conducts consultancies for private organizations in environment education and sustainable development.
Priyanka Sancheti
BUSINESS CONSULTANT AND COMPANY SECRETARY
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A business startup consultant and a Company Secretary practitioner, Priyanka is a qualified company secretary in Singapore, a member of ICSA London and runs a consulting practice PRIAN Advisers. She is also a Law graduate with experience in company incorporation, corporate restructuring, compliances, legal and secretarial work for a wide clientele of companies. Her new found love is in the field of environmental law and legal issues in sustainable design. She feels how better to spend time on social media than to spread the meme of biomimicry.
The Core Members
Clare Miflin
Clare has over 20 years of architectural experience, mostly at Kiss + Cathcart, Architects - a firm well known for their philosophy of “productive” architecture in terms of human, environmental and economic benefits. She considers buildings within the larger systems of which they are part, integrating energy production, vegetation and even agriculture. Her projects include Bushwick Inlet Park, which won a 2014 AIA Cote Top Ten Award; Smithsonian Tropical Research Station in Panama, Solar 2, designed to achieve Living Building Certification; and many rooftop greenhouses for NYC public schools. She is currently working on a large mixed use passive house project and design guidelines for architects to aid NYC’s goal of zero waste to landfill by 2030. Clare is active in the NYC’s sustainable community, being part of AIANY’s Committee on the Environment, NYC Living Building Collaborative, and Sustainability Coordinator for her local food cooperative. Fascinated by natural systems, she holds a Masters in Biomimicry and Biomimicry Professionals Certification. She set up ThinkWoven in 2018.
Shiva Susarla
Shiva is the Founder and Managing Director of RENERGii Asia, an advisory, venture builder and innovation alchemist focused on Urban Sustainability. RENERGii's projects draw extensively from principles of Circular Systems and Biomimicry. Shiva is the partner for the ClimateLaunchPad business competition in Bengaluru and Singapore. He is also currently setting up an Urban Farming innovation platform in Bengaluru. RENERGii is also part of the Climate Collective, a network of organizations attempting to solve the various dimensions of the climate problem in South Asia. Shiva's background is in renewable energy investments, policy research and consulting and business development. Shiva has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science Engineering and an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management. He has also completed the coursework for the M.Eng program from the National University of Singapore.
Christine Lintott
Christine is an Architect practicing from the west coast of North America on Vancouver Island. She is Principal of her own firm, which is centered around progressive and innovative approaches to crafting built environments. Her design solutions integrate ecological processes of place while responding to unique design challenges for a variety of project typologies including schools, seniors housing, district scale master planning, non-profit developments, and aerial adventure experiences. Christine is educated in urban agriculture and permaculture practices and Masters of Science in Biomimicry along with her Biomimicry Professional designation. Her current project work includes a regenerative design proposal for the learning commons of an independent school, a residential tower hosting a forest, and a biomimetic component solution for tree attachments for her aerial game client. Her research and development work includes exploring boundary layers and their role at multiple scales in managing air flow, with the prospect of informing the design of air barrier products used in the building industry.
Lisa Teo
As a Principal of a regional design firm and sustainability advocate, Lisa has robust consultancy experience in both ASEAN and the Middle East. She also thrives in advocacy work; from grassroots initiatives to supporting policy imperatives in ASEAN(ILO), and in facilitating knowledge sharing platforms and international collaborations (YSEALI) that drive resilience-focused strategies and innovation for sustainable cities, of which Biomimicry is a hot topic!
Lisa holds a Masters of Architecture from the University of California Los Angeles, Bachelor of Science from Boston University and has professional certification in Public Policy and Administration, GreenMark, Universal Design and Construction Law.
As a diver of the deep blue and climber of high peaks of green, she is continuously inspired by the Nature; its forms, processes and ecosystems.
The Collaborators
Dr. Carlos Alberto Montana-Hoyos
An Industrial Designer with communication skills in Spanish, English, Italian and Japanese, Carlos has a bachelor's degree in Industrial Design from Javeriana University (PUJ), Columbia and an MAID and a PhD from Kobe Design University, Japan in Biomimicry and Design for Sustainability. As a design practitioner, Carlos has worked in-house in several industries in the areas of packages, electric appliances, furniture, lamps, ceramics and handcrafts, with experience in Colombia, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Australia and UAE and many of his projects having received international design awards. From 2006 to 2010, Carlos was a Fellow and Assistant Professor in the Industrial Design Program, National University of Singapore. He currently lives and works in UAE, where he is the founding Associate Professor at the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation. Carlos has taught Biomimicry in design at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and conducted workshops and guest lectures on these topics.
Dr. Richard Kwok
Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Singapore Technologies Kinetics Ltd (ST Kinetics), Dr. Richard Kwok has a Master of Science in automotive engineering and Ph.D. in technology management. He is also the chairman of Intellectual Property Right Committee in Singapore Technologies Engineering since 2000. Dr Kwok was the recipient of the prestigious Defence Technology Prize 2002 (Individual Engineering Award) and the Defence Technology Prize (Team) Award 1999 by the Ministry of Defence Singapore and the Cheng Fook Choon Gold Award in Engineering Process Innovation & Improvement by Singapore Technologies in 1997. In December 2006, he also won the Lifelong Learner Award. His areas of interest and research include robotic technologies, survivability & protective technologies, nano & novel materials, power transmission, weapon platform, renewable energy, Intellectual property and business management. Dr. Kwok turns to nature for innovation and is a believer of TRIZ.