Chen Wei Ning, William

Biography

As a government scholar, Professor Chen received his university education (both B.Sc. and D.Sc.) from Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. Professor Chen joined NTU as an Associate Professor in 2002, and received his tenure award (Associate Professor) in 2008. He was promoted to tenured Full Professor of Biomolecular Engineering in 2011. At the University level, Professor Chen is the Director of the Food Science & Technology Programme. Under his leadership, the NTU-Wageningen University Joint 2nd Major in Food Science and Technology has now been elevated to the Nanyang Scholarship Programme. He is concurrently in charge of the Graduate Education Office at Nanyang Environment & Water Resource Institute (NEWRI). Professor Chen has shown outstanding dedication towards training university students at all levels. Twenty PhD, 9 MSc, and numerous undergraduate students have graduated from his NTU lab since 2002. Professor Chen was honoured at the 2010 NTU convocation with the “Inspirational Mentorship”, in recognition of his effort in guiding the top undergraduate student in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering to be the recipient of both Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal and Koh Boon Hwee Scholar’s Awards. In 2013, his Science Research Programme student from Raffles Institution (undisputedly the best institution for pre-tertiary learning in Singapore) won an individual Gold Medal at the prestigious Singapore Science & Engineering Fair (SEEF). In 2015, his Nanyang Science Programme students from Raffles Institution won a Silver Medal. Professor Chen’s research is highly inter-disciplinary with a strong focus on cellular engineering platforms for pharmaceutical and environmental applications. His current research is in the area of metabolic and microbial engineering toward production of valuable chemicals including biofuels, as well as environmental engineering for resource recovery and sustainable food production. His research in converting food waste to high value food ingredients using microbial engineering was covered in Future Forward programme by Channel News Asia (Jan 2015), and separately reported in The Straits Times (Jun 2015, Apr 2016, and Mar 2017). Professor Chen is active as PI and Co-PI of competitive external research grants from major government funding agencies as well as leading international food industries, totalling more than S$12 million. He has published extensively (with more than 155 papers) in peer-reviewed international journals, and has been invited as a Plenary Speaker at various international conferences. He has also been invited as a Visiting Professor by Zhejiang University of Technology in 2016. In recognition of his contributions, he is now a Fellow of the US Food Systems Leadership Institute (FSLI). Professor Chen is active in professional services. He is an Academic Editor of PLoS ONE, and an Associate Editor/member of the Editorial Board of eight international journals. Professor Chen has been involved in organizing international conferences. He was the Organizing Chairman of the inaugural International Symposium on Synthetic Biology in 2010, an event widely reported in Singapore local media including a column analysis in The Straits Times. In addition to teaching and research, Professor Chen has made dedicated service contributions to School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, NTU and Singapore society at large.

Research Interest

Biomolecular Engineering for Environment-Host Interactions; Proteomics Platform for Clinical Biomarkers; Metabolic and Microbial Engineering for Valuable Chemicals; Environmental Engineering for Resource Recovery; Sustainable Production of Food Ingredients