IEM YOUNG ENGINEERS AWARD 2012
ENGR. DR LEE TIN SIN
Dr Lee Tin
Sin is currently an assistant professor in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. He
has completed his PhD in two years time which was fastest graduation of PhD in
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. His achievement has been reported by Sin Chew Daily on the 26
March 2011.
He
involved in developing the biodegradable starch-based bio-plastic during his
PhD study. The biodegradable bio-plastic is the blending of polyvinyl alcohol –
a fully natural degradable polymer incorporation with tapioca starch. Such
bio-plastic is a sustainable and environmental friendly material which can
reduce the plastic wastes in landfill. Moreover, this material also can be
applied as biomedical scaffolding material. He started his research of the
bio-plastic right from the basis by conducting molecular simulation using
quantum mechanics method and reached the finished products level. In other
words, his findings can be easily adapted into the industrial with mass
production ability.
The
developed starch-based bio-plastic can be applied in many plastic industries
without further modification of existing machineries. Again, this invention is
recognized of its value through the winning of silver medal in Malaysia Technology
Expo 2010 held in PWTC, Kuala Lumpur. Besides, Dr Lee Tin Sin has 30
publications in international journals, conference, book chapter and 3 patents
in polymer field. One of these works has been published in international
refereed journal POLYMER. [Lee Tin Sin, W.
A. W. A. Rahman, A. R. Rahmat, A. A. Samad (2010). Computational
modeling and experimental infrared spectroscopy of hydrogen bonding
interactions in polyvinyl alcohol-starch blends. Polymer, 51, 1206-1211.
(Impact Factor: 3.573)] which has been selected as the collection for
the first VIRTUAL SPECIAL ISSUE of POLYMER (Published by Elsevier
ScienceDirect). According to the Editorial of POLYMER, the collections were
selected by POLYMER editors to present a set of excellent contributions to POLYMER.
Moreover, he has filed three patents about the starch-based bio-plastic
technology.
Historically,
Dr Lee Tin Sin graduated with Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical-Polymer) with
First Class Honours which his first degree was sponsored by Bursa Malaysia
Foundation. After graduation, he works as a R&D process engineer in
Superlon Worldwide Sdn. Bhd. In year 2008, he pursued PhD in Polymer
Engineering under the sponsorship of National Science Fellowship of Ministry of
Science, Technology and Innovations. During the 46th Convocation of
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, he was honoured with two awards, i.e. Best
Postgraduate Student with a gold medal and Publication Award which was
conferred by the Her Majesty The Sultanah of Johor.
Dr Lee Tin
Sin is currently serves as the committee member of Chemical Engineering
Technical Division of IEM. He has delivered talks in IEM to share his
experience on polymer field. He is an active reviewer for seven international
journals. Early of this year, he was awarded a research grant from Ministry of
Science, Technology and Innovations to develop antimicrobial plastic packaging
films.
His
working teams comprise of those with depth experience in polymer field, to name
some Ir. Assoc. Prof. Dr Tee Tiam Ting, Dr Abdul Razak Rahmat, Dr Wan Aizan Wan
Abdul Rahman and etc. His research group has involved international
collaboration with Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, China to explore
the researches in polymer composite field. Finally, he always believes that a
good engineer should work ethnically, efficiently, generous with knowledge and
time to contribute actively for the goodwill of society.
The IEM Council at its meeting on 19 March 2012 unanimously confer the Young
Engineer Award upon Engr. Dr Lee Tin Sin.