Young Researcher Award (2023)

Assistant Professor KOH Ming Joo is an organic chemist with research interests spanning chemistry, catalysis and materials science. His current research focuses on developing impactful technologies that shrink the environmental footprint of synthetic chemistry, thereby achieving greater sustainability in chemical production.

Through multi-disciplinary collaborations, Ming Joo also develops recyclable catalytic systems for liquid-phase organic synthesis as well as new technologies for upcycling waste plastics. These inventions have significant implications in driving global efforts towards cost- and energy-efficient chemical production with lower carbon emissions and waste generation.

Ming Joo publishes extensively in top scientific journals such as Nature Catalysis and Nature Chemistry. He currently serves as an editorial board member of Green Synthesis and Catalysis, and an early career advisory board member of the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry.

He has received various international and national accolades, including being named in the MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific list in 2021 and becoming the first Singaporean to make the American Chemical Society’s Chemical & Engineering News’ Talented 12 list in 2022.