Prof. YUE Chee Yoon (茹智遠)

Prof Yue was named in the World’s Top 2% Scientist in 2022 by Clarivate Analytics. His primary research activities are in materials science and engineering encompassing: nanocomposites, polymer science and engineering, adhesion science and technology, polymer blends, fibre reinforced composites, microfluidic devices, and 3D printing materials. His citations and H-index based on Scopus are 7042 and 45 respectively. In external research grants, he won over S$7.8M as Principal Investigator (PI) and S$11.6M as co-PI. The research outcomes of his PhD student on high-modulus water swellable elastomer composite were adopted commercially by Schlumberger Singapore.He is actively working on the commercialization of two inventions with colleagues.

Professional Qualifications / Memberships

Professional Experience

Academic

Academic Leadership

Awards and Service

He was awarded the Singapore Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2002. He is Member of Dean’s Advisory Council, Monash University Faculty of Engineering Australia, and Deputy Chairman of the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Engineering Advisory Committee, Singapore.

Key achievements at National University of Singapore (NUS) from 2021 - present

1. Established the new PhD (by Innovation) degree in NUS. This new PhD track allows the thesis to be framed around an unmet technological, economic or societal need. The students in this programme would be potential entrepreneurs who would contribute to economic and societal impact. A few may go on to start their own venture capital firms, that will further fuel economic growth.
2. Established the new Technology Access Program (TAP) which is an Executive Programme to connect corporates to NUS startups. It provides corporations privileged access to the NUS Intellectual Property portfolio. This new programme was setup within short period of 6 months.
3. Directed, formulated and implemented new strategies to connect and collaborate with the top universities in South East Asia through the NUS Overseas College initiative.
4. Directed the refocusing of outreach strategies for the highly successful Master of Science (Venture Creation) programme for greater diversity. As a result, there are now more students from many countries and also from South East Asia.
5. Chairman, NUS Enterprise Academy Taskforce for reviewing and planning teaching and mentoring resources for GRIP, MSVC GRIP Lite and TAP.
6. NUS representative, ASEAN University Network (AUN) Innovation Committee.
7. Member, NUS Committee on Technology Enhanced Experiential Learning (TEEL).

Some key achievements at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore from 1990 - 2021

1. He served in numerous leadership positions strategizing, creating, developing, and directing research and educational programmes in collaboration with many universities all over the world. His forte is in conducting detailed analysis, formulating strategies and implementing plans successfully.
2. He was a core member of the University Vision team (2000 – 2002) comprising 7 senior university leadership members. He formulated strategies and successfully implemented changes to transform NTU from a teaching university into a world-class research-intensive university within 15 to 20 years.
3. As Associate Provost (Graduate Education), he repositioned and repurposed the graduate office. He reformed PhD education to have elements of basic research and industrial relevance. He spearheaded the establishment of 24 dual PhD degrees with top universities in Europe, Japan and South Korea. He established programmes to prepare PhD graduates to be future-ready.
4. As Founding Dean of the NTU Interdisciplinary Graduate School, he infused interdisciplinary education post-graduate programmes across the university. This enabled NTU to produce a new batch of highly relevant and sought-after interdisciplinary graduates that were capable of tackling complex problems that confront the world.
5. As Programme Chair in the Singapore-MIT Alliance (2000 – 2011), he gained valuable insights on what constitutes a world-class university, and benefited from institutional learning from MIT. Furthermore, he saw firsthand what made MIT so entrepreneurial. Based on these, as Dean of School, he incorporated elements of innovation and enterprise in the undergraduate curriculum. He also re-positioned undergraduate education to be nimble by incorporating market trends. He championed entrepreneurship education in NTU, instilling into students a good understanding and appreciation of entrepreneurial thinking. The focus of undergraduate education shifted from teaching to learning (i.e. developing ways to enable students to learn effectively rather that information download through lectures).
6. Served as Member, NTU Graduate College Advisory Board (2018-2020); Mentor, NTU Leadership Academy to guide promising faculty for future leadership succession; Member, NTU Teaching Council to mentor faculty in their teaching.
7. Served as Chair, Advisory Committee, HKUST Interdisciplinary Programs Office, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong SAR, China from 2013 to 2015.