Seven Nobel Laureates have been appointed advisors to the new Institute of Advanced Studies, which aims to transform science and tech research at NTU within a decade.

NTU academics and students interacting with Nobel Laureates? This is the kind of buzz NTU hopes to create on campus through its new Institute of Advanced Studies.

Announcing plans for its set-up at the university's 50th Anniversary Convocation on 11 July, NTU President Dr Su Guaning said that seven world-renowned Nobel Laureates had agreed to be advisors to the new institute. One of them is Prof C N Yang, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1957.

At least two Nobel Prize winners will visit NTU each year, to share their expertise with faculty, students, and the wider community. NTU will welcome the first Nobel Laureate, Prof Robert B Laughlin from the Department of Physics at Stanford University, in August 2005.

The founding director of the institute is Prof Phua Kok Khoo, Chairman of World Scientific Publishing Company.

On the institute's directions, Dr Su shared: "A hallmark of this institute shall be science at the highest level – an interdisciplinary study of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology as fundamentals, with materials, electronics, nanotechnology, computing and engineering as applications."

New, young faculty members are being aggressively recruited to spearhead quality research and "totally transform" NTU's work on science and technology in a decade. Funding will be sought from external sources.

NTU's best faculty will be able to "rub shoulders" with "the brightest brains around the world", Dr Su promised. They will be encouraged to reach for the top, including Nobel prizes.