This one features a white-haired and bespectacled scientist scribbling on his notebook, with a few animals peering into books about themselves. The scientist depicted is not only Malaysian but an important award-winning individual whose legacy and contributions continue to resonate in the scientific community.
His name is Lim Boo Liat and on this day in 2003, he was the first Southeast Asian to be awarded an Honorary Membership to the American Society of Mammalogists.
Born in 1926, Lim showed promise at a young age, having an interest in animals and often visiting the garden at his secondary school to observe the animal life there.
Lim was only 16 when the Japanese occupied Malaya, disrupting his studies and forcing him to work to support his family. However, his path to the scientific world was set in 1947 when he took up a position as laboratory assistant at the Institute for Medical Research in Kuala Lumpur.
During his service there, he travelled overseas as part of scientific expeditions and was part of the team that founded Zoo Negara. The Malaysian Nature Society, which had gone dormant during the Second World War, was also revived thanks to his efforts.
He would go on to study animal ecology and taxonomy in Oxford, before returning to Malaysia to lead IMR’s Medical Ecology division. While there, he published 80 scientific papers from 1955 to 1969; his work earned him the attention of European professors who offered him a chance to pursue a Master’s Degree in Science.
Returning to the IMR, he became a full-fledged zoologist and received his PhD in Zoology from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 1977. Due to his extensive knowledge, he was recruited by the World Health Organisation to help manage the Vector Biology Control Research Unit.
Lim is regarded as a pioneer for his contributions to the local field of zoology, and he received numerous awards, local and international, for his discoveries. He was also the first Southeast Asian recipient of the Spallanzani Award and received Honorary Membership to the American Society of Mammologists.
Some of his studies were also instrumental to the preservation of Malaysia’s jungles, as he found the impact deforestation had on the diversity of the country’s species. Numerous animals and parasites have also been named after him, with a flea, a frog, a snake and a protozoon bearing his name.
In addition to journal articles, Lim wrote numerous books during his lifetime, mostly focusing on the local wildlife residing in Malaysia’s jungles and seas.
Lim was awarded the Merdeka Award in 2013 for his numerous contributions to local scientific knowledge.
Never one to keep his knowledge to himself, Lim was once quoted as saying, “The satisfaction to me now is that I am able to impart my knowledge to the younger generation.” In his final years, he continued to train wildlife officers and guide fellow scientists to make their own discoveries.
In 2020, he passed away in his Cheras residence at the ripe old age of 93, with over 300 research papers being his legacy to the scientific world.
Little wonder then that such an important figure in Malaysian science merited his own Google Doodle; one can hope that his legacy will continue to be remembered well into the future.