When WFH also means goodbye from home

Dear SEC,

This is the last time I am writing to you as SEC director. It is indeed a bittersweet and at the same time a proud moment for me, to bid farewell to the SEC as it stands today—a lively young an promising research hub with three new programmes and 10 research projects, and with a growing network of partners.

The SEC started out as a small organization of three persons and today, it contines to grow, rejuvenate and expand its reach. At the SEC’s 10th birthday in August, SEC alumni and associates came back as old friends. I hope that members of the SEC continue to cherish not only our professional links, but also the shared experiences and personal touches that make this organisation a family. The CREATE campus in Singapore is the best place to experience and remember the cooperation of universities, sciences, disciplines and cultures towards finding answers to fundamental questions: Human settlements, resilience, health, climate. This will be a lasting achievement of NRF and all partners involved.

In the course of our work, we often met with challenges in breaking new grounds - our path has never been easy. But I am always encouraged and touched by how our colleagues at SEC, NRF, Singapore universities and ETH persevered in overcoming obstacles. It is incredible to see how this growing trans-continental research group invented and used advanced information technology and communication methods and tools to work together and to stay in touch; and how it established new cooperations in neighboring countries in Asia and beyond, which became the basis for building trust and resilience in the region and worldwide.

It was a great experience to prepare the transition with Gisbert Schneider, my successor, and to introduce him to the many facets of the SEC. I am glad that he and his wife Petra will move to Singapore.

In the new year, I am very much looking forward to be home with my family and to bring back insights and knowledge from Asia, specifically from Singapore — the place that Peter Ho describes as “our home that is a vibrant, sustainable and liveable city in a garden”. Although I did not get to meet all in person to say farewell, given the current circumstance, I was glad to see many of you at the year-end celebration.

I wish to thank everyone who has entered this phase of my family’s and my life as the director of the SEC and who has generously offered friendship and support. All the finest for 2021 and your future endeavours!

Best wishes,
Gerhard Schmitt