Robert Vieweger, MBL (Director) studied Law at the University of Cologne, Germany, and obtained an MBL degree. He worked as a lawyer in Dusseldorf and later in Tokyo, advising international clients in the fields of corporate and commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring projects, and international contract law. During his more than three years of practice in Japan, Robert was admitted to the Tokyo Bar Association as a Registered Foreign Lawyer participating in various projects for corporate subsidiaries, branches, joint ventures, and distribution structures between Europe and Japan.
Since 2012 Robert heads the Singapore Office of the Germany-based law firm Thümmel, Schütze & Partner in Singapore —one of the oldest Foreign Law Practices in Singapore— providing commercially oriented legal and business services for international corporations and private clients. The emphasis of his practice is on international investments in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and other ASEAN Member States, as well as the investment in international markets by corporations from these jurisdictions. His various projects include several multimillion-dollar M&A transactions such as Volkswagen AG’s investment in Suzuki Motor Corporation (€1.7 billion) as well as venture capital projects, advising technology and other start-up companies, and private placements.
Apart from his German bar admission, Robert is registered with the Legal Services Regulatory Authority of Singapore as a Foreign Lawyer. He has authored various seminars and publications on international legal topics.
Javier G. Fernandez, Ph.D. (Founder) is Associate Professor and Founder Academic Member of the Singapore University of Technology and Design. His research focuses on the broad study, development, and application of biological materials and engineering systems. Among multiple recognitions, he has been named the world’s most outstanding young researcher in materials science by the Bayer Foundation, one of the ten Asia Innovators Under 35 by MIT, and one of the top innovators in sustainability by the Launch Organization (NASA, U.S. Agency for International Development, and U.S. Department of State). He has also been awarded with the Zwick Science Award for his studies on Mechanical Testing, and the best Ph.D. thesis at the University of Barcelona for studies in the use of biopolymers in Microelectronics and Biomedicine.
After his Ph.D. in Barcelona, he was hired at MIT, where I developed the “Micro-Masonry”, a technology to assemble artificial organs and recognized as a “breakthrough in tissue engineering” (CNET). Later, he moved to the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, where he invented “Shrilk“, a compostable and biocompatible material inspired by the insect cuticle. Shrilk is referred, for example, to as “one of the materials that will change the future of manufacturing” (Scientific American), a “Supermaterial” (National Geographic), and has been chosen (with graphene and metamaterials) one of the “five material that could change the word” (The Guardian).
His opinions and views on scientific issues and environmental policies have been covered in personal interviews, documentaries, and articles of National Geographic, BBC, PBS, FOX, Euronews, Discovery Channel, The Guardian, Huffington Post, and many others.
Stylianos Dritsas (Founder) is an Associate Professor and pioneering faculty in the department of Architecture and Sustainable Design at the SUTD where he established the Digital Design and Fabrication Laboratory. His academic research investigates the creative use of industrial robotics for design and the development of digital manufacturing and construction methods. His applied research and consulting work is on automation and optimization of large-scale or highly complex architectural designs, exactly those that require the fusion of design, science, and technology. Prior he was an Associate Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates where he contributed to numerous large-scale international projects and has taught at the Architectural Association in London, UK; Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, Switzerland; and Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA, USA. He studied Design Computation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Architecture Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens. He is a registered Architect, ARB/UK, and Architect Engineer, TEE/Greece.