Honours and Accolades

At IHPC, we recognise individual and team’s effort in driving the organisation towards the top leadership to advance science and technology through computational modelling, simulation and artificial intelligence (AI). Here are some of the outstanding accreditations and our people’s accolades and achievements.

2023 Fellow of the Royal Society

Our heartiest congratulations to Prof Gao Huajian, Scientific Director at A*STAR’s Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) and Distinguished University Professor at the Nanyang Technological University for his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.

Prof. Gao's pioneering contributions in nanomechanics of engineering and biological systems have earned him recognition. He integrates analytical and computational approaches with state-of-the-art experiments to understand how materials' deformation and failure characteristics depend on their internal microstructures. By applying fundamental concepts of plasticity, diffusion theory, and hierarchical materials design, Prof. Gao predicts properties of engineering and biological structures, from nanomechanical devices to reversible adhesion in biology.

"Being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society is a huge honour for me – it’s a scientist’s dream! The society is one of the oldest scholarly societies in the world, with legendary scientists among its members like Isaac Newton", says Prof Gao.

Prof Gao Huajian, Scientific Director, A*STAR's IHPC

The Royal Society Fellowship is bestowed on individuals who have made substantial contributions to the advancement of science. Eighty outstanding researchers, innovators, and communicators from around the world have been elected this year and Prof Gao is the only new Fellow from a Singapore organisation this year

Read more about the Royal Society and other recipients.

2023 SES Fellow / A*STAR's Highly Cited Researchers of 2022

Our heartiest congratulations to Prof Yong-Wei Zhang, Distinguished Institute Fellow at A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing (A*STAR IHPC) for being elected as the 2023 Society of Engineering Science (SES) Fellow, the first and only researcher in Singapore. He has also made it into Clarivate's list of Highly Cited Researchers 2022. This is his 5th consecutive year receiving this accreditation.

"Perform research with Passion, Persistence and Collaboration", says Prof Zhang.

Prof Zhang Yong-Wei - Distinguished Institute Fellow

The SES promotes the development and strengthening of the interfaces between various disciplines in engineering, science, and mathematics. The SES Fellow is awarded to recognise members who have contributed significantly to the activities of the SES and who have had a major impact on the advance of the engineering sciences through independent, original research or who have rendered some other exceptional service to the cause of the sciences.

Congratulations to all recipients: SES Fellow

2020 Outstanding Computing Alumni Award

Congratulations to Dr Yang Yinping, Principal Investigator, Senior Scientist & Group Manager, Social & Cognitive Computing at A*STAR's Institute of High Performance Computing in receiving the 2020 Outstanding Computing Alumni Award (OCAA) - Young Alumni Award from NUS Computing.

NUS Young Alumni Award 2020 - Yang Yinping

The Outstanding Computing Alumni Award recognises Computing alumni with noteworthy endeavours that have brought honour to NUS / NUS School of Computing (SoC).

In selecting the award winners, the selection committee has considered the following criteria:
(a) contribution/leadership in profession, industry or discipline;
(b) service to NUS/SoC, community, or the nation;
(c) entrepreneurship; and (d) any other area of human endeavour deemed worthy.

Read more on the 2020 Outstanding Computing Alumni Award (OCAA).

NRF Fellowship

Congratulations to Dr Fernando Basura, Scientist from Social & Cognitive Computing at A*STAR's Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) in receiving the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) Fellowship Award, Class of 2022.

Dr Basura's project involves the development of Artificial Intelligent (AI) models to process videos and learn “why do humans do what they do?” by reducing the gap between neural and symbolic representation through novel neurosymbolic AI. These neurosymbolic AI models can see what we do and then reason about our behaviour to interpret, justify, explain, and understand our actions. The computational understanding of “why do we do what we do” would help us to develop assistive robotics, AI for monitoring, virtual assistant AI, and technologies for smart homes.

The NRF Fellowship support potential breakthrough projects led by young investigators of the highest calibre. Read more about NRF Fellowship.

A*STAR's Highly Cited Researchers of 2021

Congratulations to Prof Zhang Yong-Wei for making into Clarivate's list of Highly Cited Researchers 2021. This is his 4th consecutive year in receiving this accreditation. His work at A*STAR's IHPC employs and develops theories and modelling and simulation tools to investigate the structural, mechanical, electronic, thermal and chemical properties of materials, with a focus on new material design, additive manufacturing, nanoelectronics, and green energy.

IHPC Deputy Executive Director (Research)

"Currently, I lead several research projects, including an NRF CRP Project on 2D materials-based in-memory computing, an AME Programmatic Project on accelerated materials development for high entropy alloys, an A*STAR SERC CRF Award Project on materials for green energy, and the AME IAF PP projects on digital twins for additive manufacturing."

Prof Zhang Yong-Wei is Principal Scientist II and Deputy Executive Director (Research) at IHPC. He is an Adjunct Professor at the National University of Singapore and Singapore University of Technology and Design. He has published more than 500 peer reviewed international journal papers and was listed as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2018, 2019 and 2020 by Clarivate. He is an Editorial Board Member for Advanced Theory and Simulation (Wiley), Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering (IOP), and International Journal of Applied Mechanics (World Scientific).

IET Fellowship

The prestigious IET Fellowship is the highest membership level by IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) awarded to individuals who have demonstrated recent significant achievement(s) sustained at high levels for a period of at least five years or more in engineering, technology or related disciplines relevant to the IET.

Elevation to this Fellowship is an endorsement of Dr Jason Png's contributions to significant technological innovation and achievements in electromagnetics, high-speed silicon photonics, Physics-driven AI in optics and quantum nanophotonics. It also recognises his leadership and responsibility in numerous major programs and activities within A*STAR's Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC).

Read more about Fellow (FIET) membership.
Elected Fellows (September 2021).

IOP Fellowship

Dr Gang Zhang, Senior Scientist, Electronics & Mechanics Department at A*STAR's Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) has been awarded the IOP Fellowship.

More about Dr Zhang:

Obtained B. Sci and Ph. D. at Tsinghua University in 1998 and 2002 respectively
Focused research on nanoscale heat conduction
Published more than 260 referred papers, with citations over 18,500 and an h-index of 70
Loves cooking and hiking
Might become an archaeologist due to a strong interest in history if not a scientist

IOP Fellowship is the highest level of membership attainable within the Institute of Physics (IOP), United Kingdom. It enables people to connect with like-minded people, give back through mentoring and outreach initiatives, and enhance professional development. As an IOP fellow, Dr Zhang could use his experience and enthusiasm to encourage others to study, work and excel in physics.

Find out more on IOP Fellowship.

Vebleo Recognitions

Dr Jason Png, Department Director of Electronics & Photonics at A*STAR's Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), has been honoured the Vebleo Fellow and the Vebleo Scientist Award for his notable contributions to the progression in the field of materials science, engineering, and technology.

He delivered a keynote on 'Towards Optimised High-Speed Integrated Photonics' and an invited talk on 'AI and Computational Quantum Photonics’ in the webinar on Materials Science, Engineering and Technology held on 21-24 May 2021.

Vebleo Fellow honours and acknowledges researcher or scientist who has prominence and leadership in the field of science, engineering, and technology.
Vebleo Scientist Award is a tribute to the researchers/scientists who have contributed to the progress of humanity through their dedication to science and help to raise the accomplished individual's profile.

Read more on Vebleo.

Most Read Article in 2020

The Journal of Chemical Physics recently released an update on Most Read Articles from 2020. The article - WIEN2k: An APW+lo Program for Calculating the Properties of Solids has garnered the highest record of over 10,000 downloads.

Congratulations to all the researchers, including Dr. Robert Laskowski, Senior Scientist, Materials Science & Chemistry department from IHPC.

Read the full article here.

A*STAR's Highly Cited Researchers of 2020

Prof Zhang Yong Wei

The highly anticipated list of Highly Cited Researchers™ 2020 identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science™ citation index.

Our heartiest congratulations to Prof Zhang Yong-Wei, Principal Scientist II & Deputy Executive Director (Research) of IHPC who has been recognised in the 2020 list of Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate Web of Science. This is his 3rd consecutive year in receiving this accreditation.

A*STAR's Highly Cited Researchers of 2019

Prof Zhang Yong-Wei

"I am truly humbled and motivated to receive this recognition as a highly-cited researcher for the second consecutive year.

The work I do at A*STAR is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary in nature, and aims to reveal new insights and understandings across fields such as materials, mechanics, physics, chemistry and biology.

A*STAR provides me the opportunity to partner with local and international ecosystem players such as NUS, Nanjing University, China, Northwestern University and Rice University, USA, and my colleagues from other A*STAR research institutes, including IMRE and SIMTech.

My primary projects focus on exploring 2D materials for energy and electronics applications, improving current additive manufacturing processes, and leveraging machine learning to guide design of high entropy alloys.

My research serves as stepping stones for mankind to advance science and develop new technologies, and I derive great satisfaction from addressing real-world problems such as the continuation of Moore’s law, the need for new materials, and the need for green energy."

Dr Liu Zhuangjian

“I am honoured to be recognised as a highly cited researcher, and it would not be possible without the team’s effort.

Using numerical simulations in our research on materials and micro-structure systems, we developed new approaches to design flexible electronics devices which have excellent mechanical flexibility and make them attractive as wearable devices.

We are collaborating with public hospitals and local universities to produce stretchable devices for health monitoring. This next-generation flexible and wearable electronics also offer a wide variety of applications ranging from energy harvesting devices to smart prosthetics and human–machine interfaces.

Together with my colleagues at A*STAR and beyond, we combine mechanics with innovative engineering to design devices with more functional capabilities to improve lives.

Outside work, I spend quality time with my family and friends, swim and read.”

Integrated Environmental Modeller (IEM) wins multiple awards in 2019

15 Sep 2019

The Integrated Environmental Modeller (IEM) developed by A*STAR’s Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), Institute for Infocomm Research (I²R) and Housing & Development Board (HDB), has won multiple awards this year, including:

President's Technology Award 2019
Minister for National Development’s R&D Merits Awards 2019
IES Prestigious Engineering Awards 2019
ASEAN Outstanding Engineering Achievement Awards 2019

IEM is a first-of-its-kind high resolution modelling tool that allows users to project how various environmental factors such as solar, wind, temperature, noise; as well as their interrelationships and combined impact affects an urban setting. Other modellers currently available in the market are only able to assess each environmental factor in isolation.

IEM is a result of both in-house and open-sourced multi-physics environmental modelling code that captures the correlation of environmental factors. The IEM is the first integrated and scalable tool to couple all key environmental physics and their complex interactions into a single simulation platform using the latest high performance computing technology.

With IEM, users will be able to visualise environmental features such as natural ventilation, air temperature, solar irradiance, and noise levels on a virtual “Digital Twin” platform which allows for efficient refinement to urban plans. This reduces the risk of costly physical trial-and-error, and allows development plans to be tested computationally before actual implementation. It also provides quantitative and scientific assessments that let planners understand the different trade-offs involved to aid decision-making.

The IEM was also adopted in the urban design plan for Tengah New Town, and could be scaled up for the whole island, e.g. island-wide wind map enables the identification of wind corridors to minimise impact of new developments on existing estates.

To know more about IEM, view the video here.

PTA 2019
President's Technology Award 2019
From the left: Mr. Fachmin Folianto (I²R), Mr. Tan Sze Tiong (Director, Centre of Excellence for Environmental Sustainability Research, Building & Research Institute, HDB), President Halimah Yacob, Dr. Poh Hee Joo (IHPC) and Dr. Koh Wee Shing (IHPC)

MND Congress 2019 Award Giving
Minister for National Development’s R&D Merits Awards 2019
From the left: Lawrence Wong (Minister for National Development) and Dr. Lim Keng Hui (Executive Director, IHPC)

IES Prestigious Engineering Awards 2019
From the left: Prof. Yeoh Lean Weng (President, IES), Dr. Poh Hee Joo (IHPC), Prof Tan Sze Wee (ACE, SERC A*STAR), Dr. Lye Kin Mun (Executive Director, I2R), Dr. Lim Keng Hui (Executive Director, IHPC), Mr Fong Chun Wah (Deputy CEO, Building, HDB), Dr. Cheong Koon Hean (CEO, HDB), Dr. Amy Khor (Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources), Dr. Wong Liang Heng Johnny (Group Director, Building & Research Institute, HDB) and Mr. Tan Sze Tiong (Director, Centre of Excellence for Environmental Sustainability Research, Building & Research Institute, HDB)

ASEAN Prestigious Engineering Awards 2019
ASEAN Outstanding Engineering Achievement Awards 2019
From the left: Mr. Mervyn Sirisena (Vice President, Education Group, IES Council), Dr. Ir. Heru Dewanto (Chairman, AFEO), Dr. Lim Keng Hui, (Executive Director, IHPC) and Dr. Wong Liang Heng Johnny (Group Director, Building & Research Institute, HDB)

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President's Technology Award 2019
The President's Science and Technology Awards (PSTA) are the highest honours bestowed on exceptional research scientists and engineers and underpin Singapore's efforts to raise the level of excellence in research and strengthen the growing community of scientific talent in Singapore.

Minister for National Development’s R&D Merits Awards 2019
The biennial Minister for National Development’s R&D Awards seek to recognise and encourage outstanding R&D efforts from the MND Family and partners which contribute towards MND’s vision of making Singapore “An Endearing Home, A Distinctive Global City”.

IES Prestigious Engineering Awards 2019
The Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards are to recognise and demonstrate the outstanding engineering skills which have made a significant contribution to the engineering progress and the quality of life in Singapore.

ASEAN Outstanding Engineering Achievement Awards 2019
The ASEAN Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award seeks to confer recognition to outstanding engineers’ achievements which has made a significant contribution to the engineering progress and the quality of life in ASEAN.

Honours and Accolades

A*STAR celebrates International Women's Day