FACULTY AWARDS & RECOGNITION
Professor Hossein Rezai-Jorabi awarded the 2026 Fazlur R. Khan Lifetime Achievement Award
Professor Hossein Rezai-Jorabi has been awarded the 2026 Fazlur R. Khan Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council on Vertical Urbanism (CVU). As a leading advocate for integrated design and innovative structural systems, Prof Rezai champions a holistic approach to the built environment by bringing together architecture, structure, technology, and environmental performance from the earliest stages of design. His work has advanced the role of engineering beyond technical problem-solving, positioning it as a creative discipline capable of enabling more sustainable, resilient, and adaptable cities. His recently published book, On Regenerative Design, on Systems, and on Complexity: The Polimi Lectures, explores new ideas and perspectives on key design considerations for the built environment, both today and into the future.
As the originator of the concept of fusion engineering, Prof Rezai has pioneered an approach that unites multiple disciplines to create more responsive and regenerative design solutions. He has engineered numerous high-profile and tall buildings across Asia and beyond, including Troika in Kuala Lumpur, Lincoln Modern and Mediacorp headquarters in Singapore, and BRAC University in Dhaka.
Associate Professor Stephen Tay receives Outstanding Educator Award
Associate Professor Stephen Tay En Rong is reshaping education by helping in the transformation of students from passive recipients of knowledge into confident, active learners.
In recognition of his many achievements, he received the Outstanding Educator Award at the NUS University Awards 2026. The Award recognises outstanding contribution to teaching, including instruction, educational design, assessment and feedback, as well as wider adoption of good practices in these areas through leadership and support of other colleagues.
Read more here.
NUS CDE’s Asst Prof Hou Yi receives Young Scientist Award
Assistant Professor Hou Yi has been presented with the Young Scientist Award at the annual President’s Science & Technology Awards (PSTA), Singapore’s highest honours for scientists and engineers.
Asst Prof Hou was honoured in recognition of his pioneering work in the development of next-generation solar cell technology, in particular for his contributions to the development of high-performance perovskite solar technologies, from record-breaking devices to scalable manufacturing.
Organised and presented annually by the National Research Foundation (NRF), the Young Scientist Award (YSA) is awarded to researchers aged 40 or under who are actively engaged in R&D in Singapore and who have shown great potential to be world-class researchers in their fields of expertise.
Asst Prof Hou was presented with the award by NRF Chairman Mr Heng Swee Keat at a ceremony on 28 August 2026 held at Nanyang Technological University.
Read more here.
Assistant Professor Wang Lei receives Outstanding Asian Researcher and Engineer award
Assistant Professor Wang Lei was awarded the Outstanding Asian Researcher and Engineer for 2026 by the Society of Chemical Engineers Japan (SCEJ).
Each year, the award is given to an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of chemical engineering in Asia.
Two NUS CDE researchers named NRF Fellows for the Class of 2026
Two faculty members from the College of Design and Engineering (CDE) have been named National Research Foundation Singapore(opens in new tab) (NRF) Fellows in the Class of 2026.
Under the Fellowship programme, Assistant Professor Sang Cheol Kim from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering(opens in new tab) will use automation and machine learning to design better battery electrolytes, whilst Assistant Professor Mingyang Wei from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (opens in new tab) will develop a simpler, greener way to manufacture the semiconductor devices behind solar cells and LEDs.
Both also hold NUS Presidential Young Professorships.
The NRF Fellowship gives outstanding early-career scientists and engineers the freedom and funding to lead independent research programmes in Singapore. The Fellowship is part of Singapore’s Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) efforts to grow Singapore’s talent ecosystem. It supports promising researchers, local and global, to advance their scientific journeys and to contribute to research that advances knowledge and creates impact.
More about Asst Prof Kim's research at: https://www.sckimlab.com/(opens in new tab)
More about Asst Prof Wei's research at: https://lnkd.in/gihTS9SC(opens in new tab)
Read more here(opens in new tab).
Professor Rajasekhar Balasubramanian awarded Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi)
Professor Rajasekhar Balasubramanian was conferred the Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) on Saturday, 8 August 2026, during IIT Delhi’s 57th Convocation in recognition of his outstanding contributions to research, education, and the advancement of his field.
Prof Balasubramanian is widely recognised for his pioneering work in environmental science and engineering, particularly in advancing knowledge of complex environmental challenges and their implications for human health and sustainable development. His research has made a lasting impact on the field, particularly in the study of environmental pollution and its remediation.
The Distinguished Alumnus Award is one of IIT Delhi’s prestigious honours, recognising alumni who have demonstrated excellence, leadership, and significant impact in their profession and society.
Asst Prof Mike Zheng Shou named Asian Young Scientist Fellow 2026
Assistant Professor Mike Zheng Shou is advancing AI's ability to understand and generate video, helping to push video AI from passive analysis towards more capable real-world applications.
In recognition of his contributions to multimodal video intelligence, he has been named an Asian Young Scientist Fellow 2026. The Fellowship will support his continued research on long-form video modelling, Video-Language-Action agents, and video world models for digital and physical environments.
The Asian Young Scientist Fellowship (AYSF) announced 12 Fellows this year, comprising accomplished early-career scientists selected for their exceptional scientific contributions and potential in their respective fields. Awarded annually, the Fellowship supports early-career researchers in the fundamental science disciplines of life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics and computer science. Each Fellow receives US$100,000 over two years to support their research, along with opportunities to participate in the AYSF annual conference, academic activities, and a broader network of young scientists across Asia and globally.
Read more here.
Professor Ong Shyue Ping elected Fellow of the International Society of Materials Modeling
Professor Ong Shyue Ping has been elected a Fellow of the International Society of Materials Modeling (ISMM).
The Fellow distinction is one of the Society's highest honours and is deliberately selective, with the number of living Fellows limited to 100 worldwide. Election recognises outstanding and sustained contributions to materials modelling, together with service, leadership, mentorship and contributions to strengthening the international materials modelling community. It also carries lifetime membership of the Society.
Prof Ong's research sits at the intersection of materials science and information science, spanning machine-learned foundation potentials for atomistic simulation, solid-state battery materials, and semiconductor materials informatics. His group develops and maintains a widely adopted open-source software ecosystem for computational materials science, including pymatgen, MatGL and MatCalc, alongside the MatPES dataset.
The election will be recognised at the 12th International Conference on Multiscale Materials Modeling (MMM12), to be held in Jeju, Korea, from 8 to 13 November 2026.
Asst Prof Guillaume Sartoretti named ST Engineering Distinguished Professor
Assistant Professor Guillaume Sartoretti from the Department of Mechanical Engineering(opens in new tab) has been appointed ST Engineering Distinguished Professor for a two-year term beginning 1 July 2026. The appointment builds on his work across multiple research projects with partners from across ST Engineering(opens in new tab).
The ST Engineering Distinguished Professorship recognises researchers who have made outstanding contributions to translating research into practical applications. Through knowledge sharing and collaboration with ST Engineering’s engineering and technology teams, the professorship supports customer-centric product research and development focused on customer needs and real-world outcomes. This includes advancing research from the laboratory to prototype development, pilot deployment and commercially viable products.
Asst Prof Sartoretti’s collaboration with ST Engineering began through the NUS-ST Engineering Joint Lab on a project focused on intelligent traffic signal control. The team developed distributed algorithms to improve traffic flow in complex urban environments.
This research in multi-agent coordination has since been extended to the maritime sector. In an ongoing project with ST Engineering’s Unmanned and Intelligent Systems, Asst Prof Sartoretti is developing systems that enable multiple autonomous tugboats to work together to manoeuvre larger vessels.
His expertise in multi-agent coordination is also being applied to public security. Asst Prof Sartoretti leads research into strategy-driven robotic swarms as part of a consortium that includes Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania. The research is funded by Singapore’s HTX (Home Team Science & Technology Agency)(opens in new tab), with coordination through ST Engineering.
More recently, a project with ST Engineering’s Land Systems has begun exploring next-generation embodied AI. The research aims to enable legged robots equipped with manipulator arms to navigate rough terrain and carry out complex tasks, including opening doors and moving objects cooperatively. The project provides a foundation for longer-term collaboration in advanced ground robotics.
“I am deeply honoured to receive this appointment and grateful to ST Engineering for its sustained partnership and trust over the years. From coordinating traffic flows across our cities to leading strategy-driven drone swarms for security applications, my research has focused on how large groups of agents can act intelligently together.
“I believe the next frontier is to bring that same coordination to teams of embodied AI agents, including quadrupeds and humanoids, working side by side to navigate and interact with their surroundings. I look forward to continuing this journey with ST Engineering and translating that vision into deployable technologies with real-world applications in Singapore and beyond,” said Asst Prof Sartoretti.