11/8/2016 Local researchers honoured at Malaysia's Rising Star Award | New Straits Times | Malaysia General Business Sports and Lifestyle News Local researchers honoured at Malaysia's Rising Star Award BY ZULITA MUSTAFA 7 NOVEMBER 2016 @ 12:01 PM
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NEW FINDS: Local researchers honoured at Malaysia’s Rising Star Award THE role of research at universities is crucial not only in developing academic systems but also for Malaysia to be a part of the global knowledge society. For Professor Dr Lee Keat Teong from Universiti Sains Malaysia, one of the five Malaysia’s Rising Star Award (MRSA) Young Researcher recipients for 2016, being cited from his published papers by peers means that his research is relevant for other researchers working on their own experimental work. He said: “This also indicates that the education system in Malaysia is capable of producing researchers that are on a par, if not better, with researchers from worldrenowned institutions.” Lee, 39, has published papers in the field of biofuel, specifically biodiesel and bioethanol. Both are renewable fuel with biodiesel being used to run trucks and buses, and bioethanol to run cars. “You need to look at the positive side and be more creative and innovative in conducting research work to get the best results out of the resources and facilities made available, especially in the current unfavourable economical situation,” he said. He added that the USM management right from the vicechancellor to the deputy vicechancellors and deans have been supportive in creating an ambience that allowed him and his research team to achieve what he has achieved today. “I like what our VC, Professor Datuk Dr Asma Ismail has been advocating, that is to ‘colearn’ with our fellow colleagues and collaborators all over the world and to be more creative and innovative in carrying out a research project,” said Lee, who is also the USM Research Creativity and Management Office (RCMO) director and USM International Collaborations Office director. Lee was also recently listed as one of the four Most Cited Researchers in the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities 2016 by Subjects in the field of energy science and engineering. On his greatest challenge after this, Lee said that he wanted to translate his research achievements into something useful that can benefit the industry and society. He is working on deriving renewable energy from algae which he hoped will be an alternative source of energy to the current energy obtained from fossil fuels. Lee hopes his achievement would serve as a motivation and encouragement to other researchers in his university. “The award is also a great acknowledgement and recognition to many parties that have contributed to this win, especially my postgraduate students, mentor, colleagues and the university.” Aimed to encourage Malaysians to continue their groundbreaking research in their respective fields and advance global science, the Young Researcher Award category was presented recently by Ministry of
http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/11/186535/localresearchershonouredmalaysiasrisingstaraward 1/5 11/8/2016 Local researchers honoured at Malaysia's Rising Star Award | New Straits Times | Malaysia General Business Sports and Lifestyle News Higher Education (MOHE) to researchers below 40 years old who produced the world’s top five per cent most cited articles. Their scientific scholarly output are based on citations of their published research papers in quality international journals as indexes in Web of Science (from Clarivate Analytics) and Scopus (from Elsevier). Apart from the Young Researcher award, four other awards — Frontier Researcher Award, Highly Cited Review Award, Women in Science Award and International Collaboration Award — were presented in a ceremony held in Putrajaya recently. Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh who presented the awards said in his speech that focused and strategic cooperation is essential in order to increase the level of skills and research expertise to produce quality graduates. He said collegiality and cooperation in education and research are capable of strengthening and adding value to a country’s modernity and progress. “Collaboration can develop relationships and networks between countries, strengthen the basic values, exploring areas such as national research success and overcome the problem of limited resources and expertise in a particular field. “The collegial practices among higher education institutions can create synergies in various disciplines or patent research. “In this regard, the collaboration should be improved and intensified, not only among higher education and research institutions but also with the industry at both national, regional and international levels,” he added. At the same event, 18 scholarly journals were also awarded the Current Research in Malaysia (CREAM) status. Introduced by MOHE, CREAM is a national publishing encouragement scheme recognising the accomplishment of local scholarly journals that show remarkable performance in international databases. It is aimed at enhancing such journals to be indexed in the databases of international journals such as Web of Science (WoS) or Scopus. MOHE’s deputy directorgeneral Datin Paduka Ir Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir said the ministry has been continuously taking various measures and efforts to improve the quality and promote the production of highimpact scientific publications. “The growth and achievement in research is a significant step towards creating a scientific and progressive society, as well as contribution to the country and their universities.” USM led the list of recipients with six journals published by Penerbit USM. According to the Penerbit USM director Akhiar Salleh, this recognition serves to encourage in efforts to raise the quality of research and publication of scholarly journals in Malaysia which involved various local journal publishers. “Penerbit USM is always making improvements in the publication of journals, from aspects of abiding by the publication date, ensuring that the quality of articles selected would undergo a strict evaluation process, publishing journals which adhere to international standards, and increasing the added values of publications through the latest publication methods.
http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/11/186535/localresearchershonouredmalaysiasrisingstaraward 2/5 11/8/2016 Local researchers honoured at Malaysia's Rising Star Award | New Straits Times | Malaysia General Business Sports and Lifestyle News “In addition, technology such as the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is fully utilised to increase the ‘visibility’ of the journals,” said Akhiar. He added that in Malaysia, only the journals published by Penerbit USM is in the format of ePub, other than in the pdf format for online accessibility. Bulletin of the Malaysian Mathematical Sciences Society editorinchief Professor Datuk Dr Rosihan M. Ali said: “In order to ensure that the journal would be indexed in WoS, there are various criteria and assessments that needed to be fulfilled, and with the commitment of many parties, the first attempt at being indexed with ISI has been successful and we have made the record to become the fourth journal in the country to be successfully indexed.” The journal is one of the local scholarly journals which received an incentive under CREAM for its accomplishment of being admitted and indexed in the WoS database. Meanwhile, USM vicechancellor Professor Datuk Dr Asma Ismail calls for more prolific authors and publishers to work hard for their university and the country and let the world know what they are doing. “The awards and recognition were given by the Higher Education Ministry based on the assessment by Clarivate Analytics and Elsevier, and for that USM has overall won nine.” MALAYSIA’S RISING STAR AWARD 2016 Awards by Clarivate Analytics • Frontier Researcher Professor Dr Zainal Salam — Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Professor Dr Ahmad Fauzi Ismail — Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Professor Dr Ishak Ahmad — Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Professor Dr Jinap Selamat — Universiti Putra Malaysia Dr Che Hang Seng — University of Malaya • Young Researcher Professor Ir Dr Sharifah Rafidah — Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Professor Dr Lee Keat Teong — Universiti Sains Malaysia Assoc Professor Dr Lim Hong Ngee — Universiti Putra Malaysia Dr Ong Hwai Chyuan — University of Malaya Dr Huang Nay Ming — University of Malaya • Highly Cited Review Professor Datuk Ir Dr Wan Ramli — Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Professor Ir Dr Siti Kartom — Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Professor Dr Wan Saime Wan Ngah — Universiti Sains Malaysia Professor Ir Dr Mohd Ali Hashim — University of Malaya Awards by Elsevier
http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/11/186535/localresearchershonouredmalaysiasrisingstaraward 3/5 11/8/2016 Local researchers honoured at Malaysia's Rising Star Award | New Straits Times | Malaysia General Business Sports and Lifestyle News • Women In Science Professor Ir Dr Zahira Yaakob — Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Professor Dr Azah Mohamed — Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Assoc Professor Dr Suzana Yusup — Universiti Teknologi Petronas • International Collaboration Professor Dr Nasrudin Abd Rahim — University of Malaya Professor Dr Sulaiman Wadi Harun — University of Malaya Professor Dr Mohd Rafi Yusop — Universiti Putra Malaysia Recognition by Clarivate Analytics • Reuters 75: Asia’s Most Innovative Universities Universiti Putra Malaysia University of Malaya • Malaysia’s Highly Cited Researcher Named Amongst The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2015 Professor Datuk Ir Dr Wan Ramli — Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Professor Ir Dr Siti Kartom — Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Professor Dr Bassim H Hameed — Universiti Sains Malaysia
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Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh (eight from right) with the award recipients at Malaysia’s Rising Star Award (MRSA) 2016 in Putrajaya.
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