Saturday, March 28, 2020

Let's Move On

Yesterday, I have received the news that the Institute for Mathematical Research (INSPEM) will now have a new Director, namely Assoc. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rezal. His appointment will begin on 1 April 2020 until 31 March 2023 which coincides with the anniversary of the institute. It was a welcomed good news since the institute was without a director for a period of one year and four months, which was rather exceptional. I hope now that the institute can now go on progressing full steam ahead.

The news sort of made me recall some memories while I was there. There were a lot of challenges and even office politics which I don't have a stomach for. I am fully aware some criticisms (and even smear campaign) made against me but I will turn these into a valuable experience for me to proceed. I am ready to move on (and I hope everyone else too). Some of my international friends are probably not aware that I have left the institute since 16 November 2019. There were plans of international cooperation made before I left and I hope the new management will take these up seriously. The vision is still to be a research institute of international repute, which is really demanding. But as I have said before being recognised internationally precedes international repute. Thus, when it comes to international cooperation, I have often consider this to be of higher priority during my time. Currently, I will help support such cooperation in my own personal capacity.

As I have mentioned before, my leaving the institute is much due to several episodes of health problems. I am now avoiding high stress environment and have taken many physiotherapy sessions for my back to help me improve my health. However with the current extended MCO, things will grow a bit complicated. My medication supply will run out sometime early next month and I have not been able to go for physiotherapy sessions any more. For the former, I am relying on the contact of my other half with the pharmacies. For the latter, I took the benefit of working from home situation to do more exercises on the treadmill. When experiencing episodes of severe back pain, I can get feverish and have difficulty in even walking. Thus this affects me more now but I'm pushing myself to strengthen my back muscles at least.

To move on, I am open to minor changes in research directions. While I was with INSPEM, I tend to focus more on mathematical aspects of my research to fit the environment that I am in. Presently, I don't take this as a 'constraint' anymore and will try to be independent and consider other possible options. However I will remain close to my core discipline of theoretical physics and particularly quantum theory. Let's move on.
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Thursday, March 26, 2020

An Extended MCO

Yesterday, the Prime Minister declared that our present Movement Control Order (MCO), which ends on Tuesday next week will be extended until 14th April. Thus, effectively our stay-at-home period is about a month. Now to those with a fixed salary scheme, this only means we get to work at home longer. But many particularly businesses which need to operate daily to ensure income (particularly small ones), will suffer. While I may not have the experience to be in such a situation, my other half is. If ever she decides not to work, there will be less income or even losses. So I can imagine how difficult these prolonged MCO can be to them. Of course she is in a critical sector that was allowed to operate during the MCO which 'helps'. On the bigger scale, there is a need to lessen the infection rate since otherwise we might end up with a crippled work force that in the end leads to bigger economic loss. Quoting Prof. Raina MacIntyre in Australian ABC News report: "If you don't control the disease, your economic losses are going to be far greater and the recovery time is going to be a lot longer…So it's just a fallacy to think it's a choice between saving lives and jobs."

 I do not pretend to be anywhere knowledgeable about infectious disease dynamics (in realistic terms, beyond the SIR model), but this begs the question of how long should we expect for the MCO to go? Well, according to a report, analysts at JP Morgan Chase & Co (don't know who they are) predicted that the infection peak will be in mid-April (which coincides with the end of MCO period), after which, I suppose the infection will decrease. The report further said that the infection rate will slow down to 100-250 per day. This is roughly what we have now (see below); in other words - they are expecting a larger infection rate sometime soon. From the https://www.outbreak.my/ website, one can get some info on the Covid-19 infection statistics. I'm listing the figures of daily increase (new cases) from just before the surge seen on 15 March.

  • 26 March: 235 new cases
  • 25 March: 172 cases
  • 24 March: 106 cases
  • 23 March: 212 cases
  • 22 March: 123 cases
  • 21 March: 153 cases
  • 20 March: 130 cases (went past 1000th infection)
  • 19 March: 110 cases
  • 18 March: 117 cases (MCO put in place)
  • 17 March: 120 cases
  • 16 March: 125 cases
  • 15 March: 190 cases
  • 14 March: 41 cases
Note: 
  • Went past 100th infection on 9th March - at this stage, we have only seen the first wave.
  • The Tabligh Ijtima' meeting was during 28 February-1 March and the surge seen on 15 March is right after the incubation period of 14 days.
  • The Ministry claims that the infection has reached the 5th generation from the Tabligh cluster (perhaps this means 5 node-distance away from an infected node that attended the Tabligh meeting).
  • The whole graph (incomplete pending contact tracing) can be seen at https://www.outbreak.my/cases.
  • There is now a Wikimedia entry for Malaysia Covid-19 cases at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Malaysia.
Even if we hit the peak around mid-April, one expects the same rate of infection as we see now will still linger on for some extended period. In fact some predicted this Covid-19 crisis will prolonged up to more than a year before we could resume a 'normal' life. The best bet is perhaps life will not get back to its previous normalcy. There will be permanent changes to our lives and even culture, of which I would like to ponder on. Will not discuss it now though.



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Monday, March 23, 2020

After the Long Pause, the Long Break

Have not been posting here for more than two months. However with many things happening, I thought I should restart so that I can make some records in this blog of important things happening. During the long pause, went through ups and downs, do some soul-searching but after awhile one just need to move on and tries one's best for the future. Below, I'll jot down in point form some main events that have passed.
  • January 16: Quantum Yi-Jing Sdn Bhd agreed to contribute financially to cover EQuaLS expenses.
  • January 17: Presented a talk on Mathematical Routes to Quantum Theory in INSPEM Weekly Seminar, a regular weekly event of the institute. Have always thought that one should attach more importance to this event.
  • January 20: Discussed on how to revamp our courses including that of quantum mechanics. Thinking of three-part course. Others, a course on quantum information science (advanced undergraduate or postgraduate)

  • January 23: Started to be concerned of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak since we have an international event EQuaLS2020 planned.
  • January 24: Shocked to know that school colleague, Prof. Dato' Mashitah Mohd Yusoff (former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of University Malaysia Pahang) passed away due to cancer. Didn't know she had the illness.

  • January 25: Wuhan Coronavirus arrived in Malaysia with three confirmed cases from tourists of China.
  • January 29: Dr. Athirah's PhD student Suzila Mohd Kasim viva examination. Her work is on commuting graphs of finite groups.
  • January 30: My son and my other half rescued a kitten from a drain. Later to be our new furry family member Koko

  • January 31: WHO declared China's virus outbreak an international emergency.
  • Within January, had several episodes of back pain. Was worried about EQuaLS planning, whether we have enough time or not. Sometime in January, we had postponed the event from February to March 2020. Also, all the while, was following the Wuhan virus outbreak.
  • February 2: Sent my other half to the airport as she went for umrah with her sister's family. So it was then me, the eldest, my third son (still in semester holiday) and the youngest. My second son is already working in Pulau Indah.


  • February 3: Finally received message from my other half in Medina. They are safe and well there.
  • February 7: My other half now in Mecca.




  • February 5: Made some decisions on what to teach for Advanced Mathematical Physics this upcoming semester. See circled region below.

  • February 9: Send back my third son to college in IIUM, leaving myself, my eldest and the youngest.
  • February 10: The new semester starts. I'm teaching 'Special Relativity & Classical Field Theory' and 'Advanced Mathematical Physics'.
  • February 11: Decided to use Szekeres' book "A Course in Modern Mathematical Physics" as a guide.
  • February 13: My other half came back home from her umrah. Was having cough and slight fever.
  • February 15: Update my graduate course notes as blog posts in Ketchup Spills.
  • February 17: Finally received the formal green light from ICTP (Kate Shaw) for our EQuaLS2020. Thus it will be part of Physics Without Frontiers program at Malaysia.
  • February 18: Went to INSPEM workshop at Zenith Hotel Putrajaya.
  • February 19: Attended a farewell gathering for me as INSPEM Deputy Director. Currently Dr. Rezal is taking up the duties of the Director. Still can't understand why there is no appointment of a new director. Some photos.









  • February 20: Final Skype meeting with Kate Shaw from ICTP. ICTP put up a website for EQuaLS2020 at http://indico.ictp.it/event/9329/overview
  • February 21: Start making my own preliminary announcement of EQuaLS2020. Still has issue of one more speaker and Areeya's flight out of Australia (due to Covid19 outbreak).
  • February 22: Went to Ismail Budin's son's wedding. Met school-mates there.







  • March 6: We have started discussing internally whether one should continue EQuaLS2020 when there was already an increase of Covid-19 infection in Malaysia from the Tabligh cluster. See https://www.outbreak.my/. At the time we already had 34 participants. The decision then was to continue with precautionary measures and we had the green light from the university's Health Centre. Was following the development of the outbreak since then. At this stage, I was also look at how other events are being held and looked for consistency.
  • March 10: Had our last meeting for EQuaLS2020. Explain rationale of continuing and if there are any other concerns, should be discussed with me.
  • March 11: Received concerns by the institute management of EQuaLS2020. Felt being sabotaged. Had to take the day off as my other half went for a heart check-up.
  • March 12: Finalised EQuaLS2020 programme. The last day will have a forum on Quantum Information Science in South-East Asia. Afternoon: M.Sc. viva examination for Dr. Chan's first graduate student, Mohamad Hanif.

  • March 13: All speakers have booked their flights and have given their itineraries. In the afternoon, members of the Department raised concern on EQuaLS2020. Finally before the office hours end, we receive instruction from the university to halt all activities irrespective the size of the gathering (ours was just a normal class size). My heart sank and finally gave up. Emailed speakers thereafter asking them not to board their flights (which was just on the coming Sunday). This will probably be my last attempt - will now pass the baton to my younger colleagues.




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