Why ChBE @ NUS

No. 3 in Asia and Ranked 10th in the world in Chemical Engineering by 2011 QS World University Rankings

What our Research Students Think of Us

Starting my educational pursuit in Singapore since the age of 13, the Lion city is no stranger to me. With her fusion of rich Eastern and Western culture, throughout my stay in the country, I have fully experienced the uniqueness of this small island. Upon obtaining my Bachelor degree from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in 2004, I promptly decided to join the department’s postgraduate programme to fulfill my great aspiration for research as my future career. In addition, the multi-disciplinary nature and excellent research atmosphere created by the highly qualified faulty members had also made my decision an easy one. I had very much enjoyed my past two years in the department as a PhD candidate. My supervisor, Dr. Tong Yen Wah, has been giving me great freedom in choosing the subject and direction for my project. I have been working on the development of polymeric materials as a robust and cheap alternative to biological receptors. The technique that is involved is known as molecular imprinting (MI). The advice from my supervisor has been very helpful and inspiring, enabling me to view things from a different perspective. This has definitely benefited me much. On top of that, the well-equipped laboratories, ample funding and the great support from the friendly, professional lab officers have also made my research work a smoother one. What really amazes me is the department’s continuous effort in getting the postgraduate students to keep abreast of the industrial and academic development. This can be witnessed by the myriads of department-organized seminars given by invited speakers of different backgrounds. Besides that, students have often been sent to attend local or overseas conferences, giving us great opportunities to meet and learn from some of the best in the field. Such experience is very precious and will definitely come in handy in the future. In a nutshell, the department provides a conducive research environment and, with its great passion in producing outstanding research talent, I strongly believe I have made a correct decision in joining the department’s postgraduate programme.

It was easy for me, to take a decision in 2004 to join NUS compared to other options I had for my PhD. The experienced faculty with diverse research interests, especially in the interested area of Process Systems Engineering and departments focus on the research frontiers of bio and nano technology is really enticing for anyone pursuing high end, international  research exposure. The exposure to state of the art facilities for high end research, both experimental and computational, is enriching and has provided better width to my research interests. The opportunity to learn new subjects, explore different research areas with elective schemes and share the experiences with the faculty and galore of international friends is exciting and worth an life time experience. 

My association with departments new ChemBioSys group in general and Informatics and Process Control group in particular has provided a solid platform to try out new things and explore the upcoming domain of Systems and Computational biology. The support, guidance and flexibility we get from supervisors gives us the essential freedom to do a creative and meaningful research. The challenges undertaken as my research in this area provide ample chances to learn, think and apply. The department has always supported my participation in technical conferences and provided chances to collaborate with experts from other faculties or research institutes. These unique opportunities and scope for inter-disciplinary work has given a necessary impetus to my research and has helped me to gather important professional skills.

With this kind of solid research background and graduate degree from NUS, I can envisage my future plans and can possibly dream of rewarding career as a researcher.

When I first came to NUS two years ago, I was very impressed by the size of the university. After I attended my classes and pursued my research works in the ChBE dept, the impressions that I had was even better. I feel that I was very fortunate to have been given an opportunity to be part of the NUS community, especially in my department. Through open discussions in many of my classes, I have invaluably experienced high quality education facilitated by dedicated faculty members. Furthermore, through my research works, I have  the opportunity to expose to various high-end technology  and related equipments, which might not be of my previlage should I not come and join ChBE 2 years ago. I think it is everyone's dream to be a part of a world-class university and I'm glad to be here.

DENY Hartono (Indonesian)
M.Eng. (Chemical Engineering)