In an interview, SMU Behavioural Sciences Institute Director Professor David Chan, who recently became the first scientist in the world to attain Elected Fellow status of all six major international psychological associations, shared how his police days helped shape his world views and research interests. He also shared about what it means to be part of translating science to practice and cautioned against an academic system that motivates scientists towards a narrow type of scholarly behaviour that does not make good use of their expertise to solve practical problems for society.