My View: Qualities of a Good Researcher

Nowadays, research scientists are exposed to an ever-challenging ecosystem in which they are not only required to carry out fundamental research, but their research must be able to apply in the industry via collaboration with industry and must be able to bring significant impact to the society at large. This requirement pushes the researchers out of their comfort zone with new research philosophy that the scope of work must be transformed from fundamental research to commercialized products or processes. Researchers must be more sensitive to industrial needs and the proposed solution should take into consideration the global challenge such as energy requirements, the circular economy as well as its sustainability. Besides, time management and financial planning skills are also other crucial criteria of researchers to ensure that the research activities could achieve maximum output within the limited timeframe and shrank budget over the years.

My Research: Contribution & Expertise

My research is focused on the material and process design that enable the maximum recovery of valuable resources from waste. The material involved in the functional or responsive material could harvest the targetted molecule at a minimum expense of energy and cost. Currently, the membrane separation process with the aid of functional/responsive polymer was employed to retrieve nutrients, metal ions, and water from wastewater.

Currently, I am leading a group on resource recovery from aquaculture effluent. This research aims to convert the liable wastewater treatment process to a profit-generating wastewater re-cycling process. The research is expected to bring impact to the SDG #4 on clean water and sanitation whereby we intend to improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials to the receiving water body, and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse of the water for the aquaculture industry.