Malaysian Scientist Honored with MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Award
By Subaashinee Kupusamy
14 October: Dr. Kong Xin Ying, a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, has been recognized as the only Malaysian recipient of the prestigious MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 (TR35) Asia Pacific Award for 2024. The award celebrates her significant contributions to sustainable energy harvesting and environmental remediation.
The TR35 Award, which highlights 35 innovative individuals under 35, recognizes young leaders who have made notable advancements in fields such as biotechnology, energy, materials science, and more. Dr. Kong’s groundbreaking work focuses on converting plastic waste into valuable fuels and chemicals using catalysts under ambient conditions. Her process can transform non-biodegradable plastics, which typically take centuries to decompose, into useful products in just one day. This innovation not only has the potential to reduce plastic pollution but also creates chemicals for use in various industries, including as solvents, food additives, and hydrogen carriers.
Dr. Kong expressed her gratitude for receiving the award, emphasizing that it validates the importance of her work in tackling plastic waste with sustainable solutions. She is the fourth Malaysian to receive this accolade in the last decade, joining the ranks of previous awardees such as Wei Ru Wong, Dhesi Raja, and Goh Ai Ching.
In addition to her MIT recognition, Dr. Kong was recently named to Stanford University’s World’s Top 2% Scientists list for 2023. She is also one of the five recipients of the 2023 Merdeka Award Grant for International Attachment. Later this month, she will begin a research stint at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley as stated in Business Today.
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