IMRE LEADERSHIP TEAM

Dr Wong Chia Woan is the Director of Corporate Services in the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE). She is also the Division Director of Administration Division which oversees the functions of research administration, project management and lab management.

She joined IMRE in 2001 to establish the Research Administration (RA) Department for the management of IP portfolio and project administration. The RA Department was subsequently renamed as Strategic Planning Office (SPO) in 2015 with the expansion of its roles to cover functions such as resources planning and implementation of systems for critical operations.

In addition to her work at IMRE, Dr Wong was the Treasurer of Materials Research Society Singapore (MRS-S) in 2002-2003 and the Joint Secretary in 2004-2005. During this period, she facilitated the professional linkages between MRS-S and local research organisations and Institutes of Higher Learning as well as the promotion of Materials R&D to the local research communities.

Dr Chiam is the Deputy Executive Director at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE). He received his B. Eng in Electrical and Computer Engineering from National University of Singapore, graduating with a Class I degree, before obtaining his Ph. D in Physics from Imperial College London in 2008. He is currently also the Technical Director of the Singapore Battery Consortium and the Lead for Urban Green Tech Horizontal Technology Programme Office. Previously, Dr Chiam was also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University from 2011-2019. He has supervised more than 30 students and has published more than 70 research papers with >3200 citations. He has more than 15 years of experience in interface physics and electrochemistry of electronic materials and has a keen interest in pushing the boundaries of research and in the translation of technologies. 

Dr Tan assumed the appointment as the Deputy Executive Director in April 2021 and her role expanded to include planning of strategic capabilities and resources, mentoring of researchers and facilitating their career development and timely training as well as interfacing with external stakeholders such as industry partners and public agencies. Prior to her current appointment, she has a strong track record in leadership in IMRE, serving as the Division Director for Composites and Structural (2020-2021), Head of Department for Polymer Composite (2017-2020) and Polymeric Materials (2016-2017) and Deputy Head of the Synthesis and Integration Group (2014-2016). Dr Tan graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical Engineering) from the University of Science, Malaysia and obtained her Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. While pursuing her doctoral studies, she conducted research on self-assembly and rheology of functional polymers and developed deep expertise in dynamic and static light scattering technique which is useful for elucidating the structure-property-process relationship of polymers and composites. Beyond IMRE, she also contributed to A*STAR-wide and national initiatives. She was part of the working member in the JISP Advanced Materials taskforce which looked into identifying areas in advanced materials where Singapore needs to build capabilities to win.

Dr Davy Cheong is currently the Director of IMRE's Entrepreneurship Office. Prior to this appointment, Davy is the Division Director of the Polymeric and Organic Materials Division at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE). Davy is also the Director for the Singapore Battery Consortium (SBC). He graduated with a Ph.D. in 2003 from the University of Sydney (USYD). He was awarded the Australian Research Council Postdoctoral fellowship in 2004, Silver prize for Wall Street Journal Asian Innovation Awards in 2012 and A*STAR Scientist-Entrepreneur Award in 2014. He obtained a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1997. After working as a research engineer at DSO National Laboratories, he pursued a Ph.D. degree in 1999 and joined IMRE as a research engineer in 2005. He was the Chief Technology Officer for a A*STAR spin-off company from 2012 to 2016.  His main interests are in product prototype development and scaling up and commercialisation of research outcomes.