NUS profs clinch UK awards
Two NUS academics — NUS Geography Professor Henry Yeung and NUS Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Assistant Professor Ning Yan — have received prestigious accolades by leading professional associations in the UK for outstanding contributions to their respective fields.
Prof Yeung has been conferred the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) (with the Institute of British Geographers [IBG]) Murchison Award 2017 for pioneering publications on globalisation.
RGS has been recognising excellence in geographical research and fieldwork, teaching and public engagement with its esteemed Medals and Awards since 1832. The Murchison Award is the most senior among the Awards and is conferred upon geographers whose publications are judged to have contributed most to geographical science in recent years.
An economic geographer and Co-Director of the Global Production Networks Centre, a research centre based in NUS Arts and Social Sciences that looks at the global production of goods and services and its impact on economic development, Prof Yeung has been teaching at NUS since 1996.
He was named a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2012, ranked first in the list of top 50 human geographers in the Journal of Economic Geography (Vol. 10) in 2010, and conferred the NUS Outstanding Researcher Award in 2008.
“It gives me enormous pleasure to have my work, which is all done in Singapore, recognised by RGS. I hope this award paves the way for further decentering of such knowledge production, particularly in the fields of humanities and social sciences,” said Prof Yeung.
Prof Yeung will receive his award from RGS President Mr Nicholas Crane at an official ceremony in London on 5 June.
Asst Prof Yan has been conferred the Environment, Sustainability and Energy Division Early Career Award 2017 by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) for his work on generating materials from renewable sources such as agricultural and food waste.
RSC’s Prizes and Awards recognise exceptional achievements by individuals, teams and organisations in advancing the chemical sciences.
Asst Prof Yan joined NUS in 2012 where he established the department’s Lab of Green Catalysis, which focuses on the valorisation of waste materials into value-added chemicals and the development of next generation metal catalysts for a wide range of industry applications related to energy generation and environmental protection.
His latest accolade follows on the heels of past achievements including being a recipient of the NUS Young Investigator Award and the Global Green Chemistry Center Network Young Researcher Award in 2015, and the UNESCO Green Chemistry for Life Young Scientist Grant in 2014.
“It is a great honour to receive the RSC Environment, Sustainability and Energy Division Early Career Award. Indeed, it is a huge encouragement for me to further pursue academic dreams in the years to come,” said Asst Prof Yan.
