Three CDE faculty members have been awarded the 2026 Robert Brown Promising Researcher Award from Ministry of Education, Singapore (MOE):
- Assistant Professor Yueming Jin (joint appointment, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering)
- Assistant Professor Wang Lei (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
- Assistant Professor Yuzhu Pearl Li (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering)
The award recognises outstanding early-career researchers with strong potential to advance academic research and innovation.
Asst Prof Jin received the award for her project “AI-AR-Enabled Navigation Platform for Clinical Treatment”, which uses artificial intelligence and augmented reality to improve precision in clinical procedures.
She said the award was “a great honour”, adding that the support would “help us further advance our AI-AR-enabled navigation platform for clinical treatment, with the goal of improving precision, safety, and effectiveness in future healthcare systems.”
Asst Prof Wang received the award for his project on AI-driven electrochemical diagnosis for sustainable catalysis, which uses AI and electrochemical sensing to better understand catalytic reactions in real time.
“Electrifying catalytic processes holds tremendous potential to accelerate the transition toward a more sustainable chemical industry,” he said. “This further motivates us to continue developing sustainable energy and chemical technologies through AI and advanced electrochemical sensing.”
Asst Prof Li was recognised for her project MAPS – Modelling microplAstic Pollutant transport and fate in tropical coaStal environments, which investigates how microplastics move through tropical coastal systems.
She described the award as “a recognition of the collective efforts of my students, collaborators, and research team”, adding that it would “support work to better understand how pollutants such as microplastics move through tropical coastal systems and contribute to healthier and more resilient coastal and marine environments.”
Named in honour of Dr Robert Brown, the founding Chairman of the Ministry of Education’s Academic Research Council, the award comes with funding support to help recipients expand their research and pursue new directions beyond the original scope of their projects.
