Why did you decide to move to Asia?

There are many, many interesting questions regarding Earth processes related to natural hazards in the region — the biggest ones are tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanism, sea-level rise and climate change. Most of these questions are not being addressed there, because of sparse funding regionally and thin ranks of academic researchers. The longer I have worked in the region, the more I have enjoyed it and the more aware I have become of the need for doing basic Earth science aimed at improving civilization's chances for survival. Singapore's government was very receptive to this big idea.

Singapore is not known for volcanoes, tsunamis or earthquakes, though.

Many of Singapore's neighbours are exposed to these natural processes, and its economic and political health is very much influenced by the state of its neighbours. Singapore could get covered in 20 centimetres of ash from an Indonesian volcanic eruption. And Singapore will certainly be exposed to the effects of climate change.

What are your plans for the institute?

I am in my mid-50s now, and I have developed some grand visions about science — I have always wanted to see the impact of science on people's lives. We're proposing to do basic science to assess danger. If you want to know the risk facing an area on a fault, you need to know whether there might be a magnitude 9 earthquake or whether it's more likely to be a flurry of 8s.

Who have you recruited so far?

Paul Tapponnier will lead the tectonics group and Chris Newhall will lead the volcanology group. There will be 20 principal investigators and about 50 graduate students and 20 postdocs. Eventually I hope to have an undergraduate programme as well.

How is Singapore's Earth science scene?

There currently isn't one. Between 25° N at Taipei and 35° S at the Australian National University in Canberra, there are no well-funded Earth research centres. We will have to create it, just as Berkeley and Stanford had to back at the end of the nineteenth century. But there are Earth scientists in other countries in the region. They just aren't very well funded. We are already talking to our Japanese and Taiwanese colleagues, for example.

Did former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's statement: “no public purpose is served by interfering in [gay people's] private lives” influence your decision to go?

Yes, Yew weighed in on the issue while I was there last year. It was quite reassuring. There is a ban on homosexual sex. I'm not a political type, but I'm also not a sycophant. I decided to leave my acceptance speech for the gay scientist of the year award on my homepage, although I knew that Singapore might have issues with it. I don't want to be a poster boy for the Singapore gay community, but I wouldn't have gone if I couldn't bring my partner.