The Office of Research and Innovation congratulates Prof. Dr. Teo Lee Peng and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ong Chung Lee from the Programme of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics on receiving Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) 2018, awarded by Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE). These are the first successful FRGS applications by Xiamen University Malaysia (XMUM) with a total allocated amount of RM127,700. FRGS supports fundamental research that can produce theories, concepts, and ideas for the advancement of knowledge which will contribute to the enhancement of intellectual level and the creation of new technologies. The funding covers basic areas that support the country’s strategic agenda, including Pure and Applied Sciences, Technology and Engineering, Clinical and Health Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Applied Art, Natural and Cultural Heritage, Information and Communication Technology.

Prof. Dr. Teo will conduct research on the topic “Functional equations and special values of the Selberg zeta functions and the Ruelle zeta functions for cofinite Fuchsian groups”. She will use analytic and number theoretic methods to study Selberg and Ruelle zeta functions. Particularly, she will focus on the special value of these functions for some specific Fuchsian groups that are of interest to number theorist. The research outcome will provide new insight on invariants of Riemann surfaces.

Prof. Dr. Teo received her PhD Degree from Department of Mathematics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA in 2002. Her research interests include mathematical physics and number theory. She has collaborations with many well-known mathematicians in USA, South Korea, Japan, Germany and Russia. To date, she has published more than 70 SCI journal papers.

Dr. Darren will conduct research on mathematical physics. As part of this grant, he will use an analytical approach to look into quantum mechanical analogues of random walks. Particularly, he will examine the spreading rates of these quantum walks. The research outcome will provide insight on quantum computer algorithms.

Dr. Darren Ong received his PhD degree from the Rice University, USA in 2014. His research interests are spectral theory and quantum dynamics. Dr.Ong is an international collaborator with David Damanik and Milivoje Lukic (Rice University), Jake Fillman (Virginia Tech), Liu Wencai (University of California- Irvine), Paul Munger (Amazon), Vadim Ponomarenko (San Diego State University), Christian Remling (University of Oklahoma) Tom Vandenboom (Yale University) and Zhang Zhenghe (University of California- Riverside). To date, he has published 16 research papers in mathematics journals.

We wish Prof. Dr. Teo and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Darren Ong success in their research.