Special Recognitions

As part of the annual award ceremony, the World Cultural Council grants special recognitions to a selected number of talented researchers who, early in their careers, have had international impact through their research. A commemorative diploma provided by the World Cultural Council will be presented during the ceremony along with a research grant of SGD5,000 provided by Nanyang Technological University (NTU).


The following five researchers from NTU will be granted a special recognition on 2 October 2013:

Asst Prof Juliana Chan (Science)
Asst Prof Chan engineers targeted hybrid polymeric-lipid nanoparticles that cling to artery walls and slowly release medicine. In her latest work, she has grown 3D capillary beds in microfluidic devices towards applications in tissue engineering and drug testing. In 2013, Asst Prof Chan was awarded the Elite Nanyang Assistant Professorship from NTU and will teach at both the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, jointly setup by NTU and Imperial College London. A recipient of the Singapore Youth Award 2013, Asst Prof Chan founded the Asian Scientist Magazine in 2011. The Magazine has to date produced 2,500 stories.

Asst Prof David Lou Xiong Wen Lou (Science)
Asst Prof Lou, from the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at NTU, has developed several electrode materials with potential for commercial use in high-performance supercapacitators and lithium-ion batteries. His research achievements have been published in many high-impact journals. He holds several patents and, among other accolades, in 2012 he received the Young Scientist Award from the Singapore National Academy of Science for his research on nanostructured materials for energy and environmental applications.

Assoc Prof Jasmine Sim Boon Yee (Education)
Assoc Prof Sim is an internationally recognized scholar of citizenship education. The Assistant Head of Graduate Programmes at the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Academic Group, National Institute of Education at NTU, Assoc Prof Sim's research into multicultural citizenship and pedagogic practice has influenced teacher education in Singapore and overseas. She also contributed to re-conceptualizing the revised Social Studies curriculum in Singapore the context of changing global landscape. This has now been implemented in all primary and secondary schools in Singapore. Her articles have been published in top-tier journals around the world.

Asst Prof Wang Qijie (Science)
Asst Prof Wang has a PhD in electrical and electronic engineering from NTU, specializing in optics and photonics. He co-developed integrated plasmonic and metamaterial structures to engineer the beam characteristics of semiconductor light sources. Together with his students, Asst Prof Wang recently invented a broadband and high photoresponse graphene-based photodetector which could lead to flexible, low-cost image sensors for various applications. His work has received worldwide attention in the mass media. Asst Prof Wang is also a Nanyang Assistant Professor at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, NTU.

Prof Zhang Hua (Science)
Prof Zhang has made huge impact in three research areas: the synthesis of novel two-dimensional nanomaterials, applications of graphene and other two-dimension nanosheet-based materials, and surface patterning from micro to nanometer scale. He has had many “firsts”, including the synthesis of novel hexagonal close-packed gold nanostructures, considered one of the most important breakthroughs in materials science and chemistry. A faculty member of School of Materials Science and Engineering at NTU, Prof Zhang's achievements have been widely published in journals, such as Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, among others.