Professor Freddy Boey (Chinese: 梅彦昌) is the Deputy President (Innovation & Enterprise) of the National University of Singapore (NUS), overseeing the University’s initiatives and activities in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship and research translation, as well as graduate studies. He will become the President of the

City University of Hong Kong City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is a world-class public research university located in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1984 as City Polytechnic of Hong Kong and became a fully accredited university in 1994. Currently, CityU is ...

. He was previously the Senior Vice President (Graduate Education and Research Translation) of NUS. Before joining NUS in 2018, Boey was Deputy President and Provost of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) from July 2011 to September 2017. Prior to these appointments, he was the Chair of NTU's School of Materials Science and Engineering from 2005 to 2010. A

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

of Materials Engineering, Boey graduated from

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university h ...

, Australia, with a

First Class Honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

degree in Materials Engineering in 1980. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry and

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

in 1987 from the National University of Singapore.NTU academic profile – Boey Yin Chiang, Freddy
/ref>Great teachers, researchers, campus life...
''The Straits Times, 2 November 2011''

Research and innovation

Boey's research areas are in functional

biomaterials A biomaterial is a substance that has been engineered to interact with biological systems for a medical purpose, either a therapeutic (treat, augment, repair, or replace a tissue function of the body) or a diagnostic one. As a science, biomateria ...

for medical devices,

nanomaterials * Nanomaterials describe, in principle, materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale). Nanomaterials research takes a materials science-based approach to na ...

and

nanostructures A nanostructure is a structure of intermediate size between microscopic and molecular structures. Nanostructural detail is microstructure at nanoscale. In describing nanostructures, it is necessary to differentiate between the number of dime ...

for

cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...

regeneration Regeneration may refer to: Science and technology * Regeneration (biology), the ability to recreate lost or damaged cells, tissues, organs and limbs * Regeneration (ecology), the ability of ecosystems to regenerate biomass, using photosynthesis ...

, sensing and

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...

storage. A keen inventor, he has filed 25 original patents with NTU, the majority of which have been licensed. He founded several companies to patent and license his creations, such as a surgical tissue retractor which was licensed to Insightra Medical Inc., Irvine, California, and sold in the United States, India, Japan and Europe. Boey's other inventions include a fully biodegradable peripheral cardiovascular

stent In medicine, a stent is a metal or plastic tube inserted into the lumen of an anatomic vessel or duct to keep the passageway open, and stenting is the placement of a stent. A wide variety of stents are used for different purposes, from expandab ...

micropump Micropumps are devices that can control and manipulate small fluid volumes. Although any kind of small pump is often referred to as micropump, a more accurate definition restricts this term to pumps with functional dimensions in the micrometer ran ...

s for thermal management solutions in consumer electronic gadgets, microfluidic and biomedical devices a

coronary stent A coronary stent is a tube-shaped device placed in the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart, to keep the arteries open in the treatment of coronary heart disease. It is used in a procedure called percutaneous coronary intervention (PC ...

with drug release capability, a

hernia A hernia is the abnormal exit of tissue or an organ, such as the bowel, through the wall of the cavity in which it normally resides. Various types of hernias can occur, most commonly involving the abdomen, and specifically the groin. Groin herni ...

mesh and cardiac peptides for treating

heart diseases Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, ...

. His innovations have garnered him numerous investment funding and research grants. Among the companies Boey founded are Amaranth Medical Inc, Adcomp Technology Pte Ltd and Electroactiv Ltd. Boey also teamed up with the renowned Mayo Clinic to develop implants for the controlled release of cardiac peptides specially designed to treat heart diseases, through a joint start-up, CardioRev Pte Ltd. This company won early-stage funding under

SPRING Singapore The Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board ( abbreviation: SPRING Singapore) was a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Singapore Government. It worked as an agency for enterprise development, and helped enterp ...

’s Technology Enterprise Commercialisation Scheme. Boey has published 344 top journal papers with a citation of 7436 and

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as ...

of 44. He won about S$36 million in competitive research grants between 2008 and 2011, including a S$10 million individual National Research Foundation (NRF) Competitive Research Programme grant for his work on fully biodegradable

cardiovascular The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human or other vertebrate. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, tha ...

implants, a S$20 million NRF Technion-Singapore grant for his research in

nanomedicine Nanomedicine is the medical application of nanotechnology. Nanomedicine ranges from the medical applications of nanomaterials and biological devices, to nanoelectronic biosensors, and even possible future applications of molecular nanotech ...

for cardiovascular diseases and a S$1.25 million grant from the NRF Translational Flagship Project for his research to make

cataract surgery Cataract surgery, also called lens replacement surgery, is the removal of the natural lens of the eye (also called "crystalline lens") that has developed an opacification, which is referred to as a cataract, and its replacement with an intra ...

safer.

Teaching

During his tenure as Chair of NTU's School of Materials Science and Engineering, Boey oversaw its transformation into one of the leading schools in the field. As an educator and mentor, Boey has supervised 33 PhD students and mentored 15 post-doctoral students. His current biomedical research team comprises 12 PhD students and more than 10 post-doctoral students and senior research fellows. About 15 of his past and current students and staff have been or are now involved in their own or his start-up companies. As Deputy President and Provost, Boey has worked to enhance learning conditions for students. Among these initiatives are a S$45 million learning hub with modern study and social facilities, as well as upgraded learning spaces and resources across campus. He has also implemented new measures to ensure that teaching standards remain high, with potential faculty appointments having their teaching abilities reviewed on different levels.

Awards and appointments

Boey won the President's Science and Technology Medal in 2013, the best science prize in Singapore. He received the gold medal from the President

Tony Tan Keng Yam Tony Tan Keng Yam (; born 7 February 1940) is a Singaporean former politician who served as the seventh president of Singapore between 2011 and 2017. He did not seek for a second term as president in 2017 due to a constitutional amendment. ...

during September 2013. He was awarded Singapore's

Public Administration Medal The Pingat Pentadbiran Awam (English: Public Administration Medal) is a Singaporean orders and decorations, Singaporean decoration instituted in 1963 and has three grades: * Emas (Gold) * Perak (Silver) * Gangsa (Bronze) The medal may be awarded ...

(Gold) by the Government of Singapore in 2016. He was also awarded Singapore's

(Silver) by the Government of Singapore in 2010. He is a director on the boards of the

Intellectual Property Office of Singapore The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Law of the Government of Singapore. IPOS advises on and administers intellectual property (IP) laws, promotes IP awareness, and provides the infra ...

, DSO National Laboratories and Temasek Laboratories@NTU, and is a founding member of the newly set up Singapore Academy of Engineers. He is also a member of the SPRING Singapore Technology Policy Advisory Committee and has been on the President's Science and President's Technology Award committee since 2007. Boey is on the panel of several national funding and award panels and has chaired the National

A*STAR The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore. The agency supports R&D that is aligned to areas of competitive advantage and national needs for Singapore ...

Grants Review Committee for the past few years. He is also Honorary Professor at both the

University of Indonesia The University of Indonesia ( id, Universitas Indonesia, abbreviated as UI) is a public university in Depok, West Java and Salemba, Jakarta, Indonesia. It is one of the oldest tertiary-level educational institutions in Indonesia (known as the D ...

and the

Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications The Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (NJUPT or NUPT; ) is a public university located in Nanjing, China. It is jointly developed by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Post ...

. An active member of the materials engineering community, Boey is a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (United Kingdom) and Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Singapore, and was until recently the Deputy President of the Materials Research Society, Singapore. Boey was an ''ad hoc'' member of NTU's inaugural University Academic Advisory Committee. He was also an appointed member of both the University Blue Ribbon Commission and the Blue Ribbon Implementation Commission. In November 2011, Boey received the Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award from Monash University at the 50th anniversary celebrations of its Faculty of Engineering. The award recognises his achievements as a teacher, researcher and innovator, including his exceptional contributions to nanomedicine, as well as his active community engagement. In December 2011, he received the Degree of Doctor of Technology from Loughborough University for his outstanding achievements as an engineer and academic leader. In February 2013, he was awarded the prestigious Faculty of Medicine Fellowship by Imperial College London in recognition of his achievements in the field of biomedical engineering and his outstanding contributions to the development of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

References

External links

NTU website

NTU President’s Office

NTU School of Materials Science and Engineering
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boey, Freddy Year of birth missing (living people) Living people National University of Singapore alumni Materials scientists and engineers Recipients of the Pingat Pentadbiran Awam Fellows of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining