PROFESSOR IR. DR. WONG YEW HOONG

Prof. Ir. Dr. Wong Yew Hoong received his B.Eng. (Hons.) in Materials Engineering and Ph.D. in Electronic Materials from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Before joining Universiti Malaya (UM), he was a Research Fellow at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He is now a Full Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UM. 

On professional qualifications, he is a Professional Engineer (PEng) in Material Engineering discipline registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM), Chartered Engineer (CEng) registered with the Engineering Council UK, Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE) UK, Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (FIEM), Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (SMIEEE) USA, Member of Young Scientists Network – Academy of Sciences Malaysia (YSN-ASM), and Project Management Professional (PMP®) registered with the Project Management Institute (PMI), USA. 

Prof. Wong is a passionate engineer, researcher, educator, innovator, and leader in materials engineering, particularly specializing in the processing of electronic materials for energy-related applications. To date, he has published more than 140 research papers in high impact factor WoS/ISI-indexed journals, more than 30 proceedings, 5 invited book chapters, and 2 filed Malaysian patents. His current standing of h-index is 23 (WoS) / 24 (Scopus) / 27 (Google Scholar). 

In terms of research funding, Prof. Wong is actively collaborating with both local and multi-national industries, securing fundings and consultancy work to solve industry problems. Thus far, he has successfully secured 48 funded projects from the government ministries, industries, international agencies, and university, as Principal Investigator (PI) / Project Lead and Co-PI (37 projects completed; whilst 11 projects ongoing), with a total of more than RM 8 million (RM 6.8 million external grants and RM 1.2 million internal grants), in which, he serves as the PI for 25 projects, worth more than RM 1.6 million (mostly from external sources). 

To run the research activities, Prof. Wong heads the Electronic Materials Laboratory and Semiconductor Thin-Film Laboratory. To date, he has supervised 59 postgraduate students (13 PhD, 9 MEngSc, and 20 MEng graduated; whilst 15 PhD, 1 MEngSc, and 1 MEng on-going) and mentored 3 postdoctoral research fellows. 

Owing to his expertise in the field, he served as a Visiting Professor to National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), Taiwan in 2018 and serves as an Adjunct Professor to Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia in 2023–2024. He is an Editorial Board Member for reputable journal, i.e., "Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing" [WoS/ISI, IF 3.927, Q1 (2020)], a Section Editor of "ASM Science Journal" (Scopus), and Editorial Board Member of "Soft Science" (Scopus). Also, he was being invited several times as Keynote Speaker for international conferences and seminars and as a Guest Speaker to the industry relevant to the semiconductor sectors.

Prof. Wong also serves as External Assessor (EA) for various Engineering Academic Programs at various universities. Besides, he often serves as a Reviewer, reviewed more than 300 manuscripts for several WoS/ISI-indexed journals. Moreover, Ir. Dr. Wong's involvement as Internal and External Examiner for master and doctoral theses, as Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) Panel Evaluator, as IMM Auditor, as well as Panel Evaluator for National and International Grants underscores his active engagement in scholarly discourse and academic assessment. These engagements not only contribute to the advancement of knowledge but also reinforce his standing as a respected academic within the global community. 

Within UM, for more than 11 years (since 2013), Prof. Wong has taken on various administrative and leadership roles, including serving as Program Coordinator (Head of Program) for Mechanical Engineering for 5.5 years (Jan 2016 – Jun 2021) and leading accreditation efforts that culminated in the attainment of Full Accreditation (2021 – 2026) by the EAC. Prior to that, he served as UM Auditor, appointed by the Vice-Chancellor in 2015. These experiences demonstrate Ir. Dr. Wong's capacity to manage academic affairs effectively and ensure adherence to quality standards. With these experiences, Ir. Dr. Wong currently heads and manages the UM–Changsha University of Science and Technology (CSUST) Joint Education Program, Open Distance Learning (ODL) Program, and Asian Universities Alliance (AUA) – Joint Lecture Series Program that contribute to the income generation as well as brings up the reputation of UM internationally. On top of that, Ir. Dr. Wong is also the current Protem Head, Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Future Sustainable Energy and serving as UM Taskforce Committee Member for the Preparation of Cost Data Documentation, appointed by the Associate Vice-Chancellor (Infrastructure and Information Services). 

Outside UM, Prof. Wong's engagement with professional bodies such as IEM, IEEE, IMechE, IMM, and YSN-ASM showcases his commitment to advancing the engineering profession and nurturing future talent through Chairmanships, Deputy/Vice-Chairmanships, Secretary, and Academic Liaison roles. He is IEM Council Member from 2022/2023 to 2024/2025 and Chairman of IEM's Material Engineering Technical Division (MaTD) in 2023/2024. Prior to that, in IEM, he served as the Deputy Chairman of MaTD in 2022/2023 and 2021/2022, Protem Deputy Chairman of MaTD in 2020/2021, Secretary-cum-Treasurer of Electronic Engineering Technical Division (eETD) in 2016/2017 and Committee Member of eETD from 2013 to 2022. In IEEE – Electronics Packaging Society (EPS) Malaysia, he serves as the Vice-Chair in 2021 – 2023. Prior to that, he served as the Secretary for 4 years, from 2017 to 2020 and Executive Committee Member in 2016. He also serves as an Academic Liaison Officer (ALO) for the IMechE-UM Student Chapter since 2018, Secretary of IMM Standard Assurance Committee (SAC) since 2023 and IMM SAC Committee Member since 2018. As a Member of YSN-ASM for the term 2020 – 2023, he served as Committee Member in the Science Policy and Governance Working Group and in the Research Synergy Working Group. 

With more than 17 years of research experiences (since 2007) and over 15 years of teaching experiences (since 2009) in the field of materials engineering, as well as significant contributions to the society, Prof. Wong earns numerous accolades. In recognition to the engineering research excellence and contribution to the profession and nation, Prof. Wong was bestowed the Anugerah Tokoh Muda Kejuruteraan Negara (National Young Engineering Icon Award) 2023 by the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Following that, Prof. Wong was recently conferred the IEM Young Engineer Award 2024 by the President of IEM during the 65th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and IEM Presidential Award of Excellence 2024 during the 65th Annual Dinner. Prior to that, he received the prestigious international IEEE–EPS Outstanding Young Engineer Award 2020 by the President of IEEE-EPS, USA for his contributions to the field of electronic packaging materials and semiconductor fabrication technologies through novel material and process development (https://eps.ieee.org/awards/outstanding-young-engineer-award.html). With the dedication and vast contribution to IEEE-EPS Malaysia and IMechE Malaysia, he was awarded with the Outstanding Technical Contribution Award 2023 and Outstanding Regional Leadership Award 2023 from IEEE-EPS Malaysia as well as IMechE Best Young Member 2023 from IMechE Malaysia. Moreover, he received UM Excellence Service Awards in 2017, 2019, and 2020. He has also won more than 10 awards at international exhibitions pertaining to his research and innovations, such as MTE and ITEX Gold Medals, Silver Medals, Best Invention Awards, Outstanding Innovation Awards, and Special Merit Awards.