500,000 visitors expected at Nobel exhibition

KUALA LUMPUR, Sat. – The National Science Centre hopes to attract some 500,000 visitors from all over the world, especially Asia, during the Nobel Centennial Exhibition which will be held next year.

The exhibition, the only one to be held in the region after Japan and South Korea hosted it in 2002, is dedicated to the 100-year celebration of the Nobel prize which was introduced in 1901.

Besides Kuala Lumpur, the exhibition will also be held in Chicago and New York in the United States, Florence in Italy and in the United Kingdom.

NSC director A. Jayanath said all six different fields of the Nobel prize, physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economics and the promotion of peace, would be featured and brought directly from the Noble Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.

“During the exhibition, we will also bring in Nobel laureates to conduct roadshows in universities, workshops and also for meet-the- people sessions.

“Besides, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad has challenged the Academy of Sciences to have a local Nobel prize winner by 2020 and we have to start somewhere. This this is part of it,” he said.

Jayanath said this after the launch of the NSC sticker in conjunction with the Merdeka month by Deputy Minister of Culture, Arts and Tourism Datuk Fu Ah Kiow at the NSC here.

Jayanath said the exhibition was also expected to attract some 300,000 schoolchildren.

In a related matter, Fu said taxis in the Federal Territory and Selangor could play an important role to help promote the NSC.

“Out of the 250,000 visitors to the NSC last year, 85 per cent were schoolchildren who came through trips organised by the schools while the remaining 15 per cent comprised families.

“The lack of public transportation has prevented more members of the public and tourists from visiting the NSC.”