Dr Desmond Rodney Lim is Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Technology Officer at the National Space Agency of Singapore (NSAS), where he leads the national space science, technology and capability development programmes, as well as the operations of Singapore’s national space assets.
Dr Lim led several successful R&D satellite projects, including TeLEOS-1, Singapore’s first commercial Earth-observation satellite, launched in 2015. He also played a key role in technology pathfinder missions that helped mature capabilities underpinning the current products of Singapore’s space-technology companies in quantum and intersatellite communications.
Before joining NSAS, Dr Lim was Deputy CEO (Technology) at DSO National Laboratories, where he was responsible for technology horizon scanning and growing a network of local and international partners in emerging technologies. He also launched a technology acceleration programme to engage startups and small and medium enterprises.
Dr Lim co-founded a silicon photonics startup in 2000, a spin-out of his PhD research at MIT. His work has been featured in Science and The Wall Street Journal. He was Singapore’s first International Physics Olympiad gold medallist in 1989 and was named to the MIT Technology Review’s list of top young inventors in 2003. He is the inventor of more than 20 US patents.

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