Recently, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ong Wee Jun, the Assistant Dean of School of Energy and Chemical Engineering and Director of Center of Excellence for NaNo Energy & Catalysis Technology (CONNECT), Xiamen University Malaysia (XMUM), was named Highly Cited Researchers 2022 (Cross-field Category) by Clarivate.

This is the 4th consecutive year that Dr. Ong Wee Jun has entered this list. Since 2013, Dr. Ong Wee Jun has published over 115 papers in SCI journals with a total citation of 14,627, while 25 of his works were selected as Web of Science Top 1% Highly Cited Paper.

The annual Highly Cited Researcher list identifies scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant influence through publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. These highly cited papers rank in the top 1% by citations for a field or fields and publication year in the Web of Science™. On 15 November 2022, Clarivate released an update of the list, whereby 6,938 people from 69 countries and regions were included in the list, and Dr. Ong Wee Jun is one of the 13 researchers from Malaysia.

Previously, he was also selected as World's Top 2% Scientist by Stanford University (2019-2021), Outstanding Young Researcher (2022) and Outstanding Reviewer (2019) by Private Education Excellence Award, Merdeka Award Grant (2018) by the Merdeka Award Trust, Young Chemical Engineer in Research by IChemE Malaysia (2018), Young Chemical Engineer in Research by IChemE Singapore (2017), and Green Talent by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (2018).

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Focusing on nanotechnologies, Dr. Ong Wee Jun's research team aims to advance the frontiers of artificial photosynthesis system toward the production of renewable energy fuels.

His team has successfully developed nanomaterials with different dimensions and morphologies to catalyze diverse chemical reactions such as water splitting to clean hydrogen and oxygen, CO2 reduction and N2 fixation, which will mimic the natural photosynthesis in green plants and convert the solar energy into other chemical energy forms.

"Coal, natural gas and oil are exhaustible resources, meaning one day they will be finished. Thus, converting the inexhaustible solar energy into chemical energy will definitely benefit the scientific community,” said Dr. Ong Wee Jun. 

“The current technology is still at the prototype device stage (technology readiness level, TRL4). I hope that it can be commercialized in probably the next 10 years from now.”

This vision is also in line with the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals as well as the National Nanotechnology Policy and Strategy 2021-2030 issued by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) of Malaysia. According to Dr. Ong Wee Jun, he hopes to have more and more people join in this particular renewable energy field, working collectively to drive the economy of Malaysia to another level.

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3D printing technology is now used at CONNECT (Credit: Cai Wei)

The story between Dr. Ong Wee Jun and XMUM began in 2018. Before that, he obtained his PhD degree from Monash University Malaysia in 2015, and worked as a staff scientist at Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore.

"Young, but promising" is how Dr. Ong Wee Jun sees XMUM. Meanwhile, recruiting postgraduates and post-docs, designing research laboratories, establishing research centers, seeking collaboration with enterprises, industries and governments... XMUM also allows him to grow up into an independent academic.

"Joining XMUM and becoming a university lecturer is a breakthrough of my life," Dr. Ong Wee Jun said with a smile.

In 2021, the Center of Excellence for NaNo Energy & Catalysis Technology (CONNECT) was officially launched in conjunction with the 5th anniversary of XMUM, covering research regarding energy conversion and storage, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, nanomaterials, computational nanotechnology, etc. Earlier this year, Ng Sue Faye, a first-year PhD student at the center, received prestigious Green Talent Award from German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, an award conferred to only 25 people each year.

Dr. Ong Wee Jun believes that teamwork is crucial to scientific research: "Everyone in the team has different skills. Thus, if we can work collaboratively, 1+1=3 or more."

Very recently, a collaborative top-down research project from MOSTI will be carried out between CONNECT and NanoMalaysia Berhad (NMB), focusing on the mass production of graphene and hydrogen via sustainable nanotechnology. Dr. Ong Wee Jun also actively expands the team and facilitates the research-to-practice transformation by initiating more direct collaboration with academia, industry and government, repaying the taxpayers and the community.

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Dr. Ong Wee Jun and his team in front of their laboratory (Credit: Cai Wei)

When asked about his career goal and life passion, Dr. Ong Wee Jun blurted out his answer: "A teacher always wants the best for his students."

It has always been his dream to be a lecturer, explained Dr. Ong Wee Jun. Standing on the podium, he can expose students to cutting-edge research progress as early as possible. If possible, he may be able to help his students find the cause they can pursue for a lifetime, just like himself.

Currently, the courses taught by Dr. Ong Wee Jun include Nanomaterials, Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, etc. He is also responsible for supervising at least 5-6 students on their final year project and capstone project. Despite his busy schedule, he meets up with each student every week, analyzing their experimental results, stimulating their critical thinking, helping them make research plans and assigning them peer mentors, to scale new heights in their life.

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Dr. Ong Wee Jun with students from Chemical Engineering Programme (2019/04 intake) at their FYP2 poster presentation

Dr. Ong Wee Jun doesn’t have any office hour - unless he is in a meeting, his office is always open to students in need.

"I've been through times of sadness and frustration myself as well. It is important to endure the ups and downs to make one stronger and tougher in life," Dr. Ong Wee Jun said that he totally understands what his students are going through, "Thus, it’s essential for me, as a lecturer, to work with them and solve their problems to nurture their lifelong learning skills.”

His efforts are not in vain. After graduating from XMUM, many of his students choose to further their studies in top universities across Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States, and the United Kingdom, moving forward along their chosen paths.

"I started doing research in my sophomore year and turned to nanomaterials during my undergraduate FYP project. I have never regretted this decision. If possible, students can also try some research in year 2 or year 3, and get involved in internships afterwards, so that they will know whether they prefer doing research or working in the industry," Dr. Ong Wee Jun suggested.

"I always believe that hard work will always bring rewards – No pain, no gain. But first of all, you have to know what your interests are and your future prospect for the next 5 or 10 years. Only by doing what you love, eventually, you will gain the life you want."

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Dr. Ong Wee Jun with his team in front of Xiamen University Malaysia (Credit: Tang Wooi Suen) 

Dr. Ong Wee Jun would like to take the opportunity to thank the local/international funding agencies such as Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), MOSTI, NanoMalaysia Berhad, etc. for their ongoing financial support to date. Without them, none of the aforementioned achievements would have been realized.

Dr. Ong Wee Jun is actively recruiting several postgraduate (Master of PhD) students at CONNECT starting from early 2023 for the national priority project in collaboration with local industries on scalable production of graphene and hydrogen via microwave plasma-driven methane cracking. If you are interested to work in this inspiring project, kindly contact Dr. Ong Wee Jun for further discussion (weejun.ong@xmu.edu.my). Please look at the promotional banner below for more details.

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Click here to read the LinkedIn post.

For more information about Dr. Ong Wee Jun and his research group, please refer to the link below:
https://sites.google.com/site/wjongresearch/