Prof. Dr. Tou Teck Yong
Prof. Dr. Tou Teck Yong was born in Sibu, Sarawak in 1958. He obtained his BSc (Physics) and PhD (Plasma Physics) from the Universiti Malaya in 1982 and 1987 respectively. He is a fellow of the Academy of Science Malaysia and the Institut Fizik Malaysia. He worked as a postdoc at the Institute for Advanced Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia in 1987-89. Upon his return in 1989, he joined the Institute for Advanced Studies, Universiti Malaya as an academic staff. In 1999, he joined Multimedia University (“MMU”) as a professor in the Faculty of Engineering. He became the Vice President for R&D in 2008-2013, and retired from the university in 2018. His main research covered laser-matter interactions, pulsed laser deposition of thin films, solder alloys and joint reliability, silicon wafer and organic light emitting diodes. He has supervised 10 PhDs and more than 25 Masters in his entire academic career.
Prof. Dr. Tou has been on the Board of Trustees of Top Glove Foundation since 2008, and the R&D advisor for Top Glove Corporation since 2013, providing advice and guidance. He also sits on the Board of Directors of Mikro MSC Berhad, and Powerwell Holding, both listed on the ACE Market of Bursa Securities as a Senior Independent Non-Executive Director. He is currently an Adjunct Professor in both the UCSI University and the Multimedia University.
I am honoured to succeed Professor Dr. Kurunathan Ratnavelu as the President of IFM for 2021-23, and glad to take this opportunity to wish all IFM members a very good health. Let’s first wish that the Covid-19 pandemic will diminish so that IFM is able to resume all the physics related activities.
On behalf of IFM, I would like to express our greatest gratitude to Professor Kurunathan for his great contribution to IFM over the years as the Hon. Secretary for 13 years, followed by President between (2011-2021). I would like to highlight that, together with late Professor SP Chia, they managed to win the second opportunity to host the Asia-Pacific Physics Conference in Malaysia (APPC14, 2019, Kuching), after the 5 th APPC in 1992. The effort took several years for IFM to develop proposals, raise fund and finally host it in Kuching, Sarawak on 17-22 November 2019, which attracted more than 500 participants from different parts of the world.
During the annual Taiwan Physical Conference in 2019, I witnessed the Heads of Physics Department from almost local universities met up with industrial captains to discuss the effectiveness of physics education for industrial carriers of new graduates. These include the advances in electronic packaging, photonic devices, scientific instruments and national facilities such as the synchrotron which necessitate periodic review of the physics syllabus at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I am not sure if the same university-industry linkage has been effective in Malaysia, but for the benefit of carrier prospect of young physicists, I believe IFM may try to initiate similar activity in future.
The Covid-19 pandemic have derailed many scientific activities and meetings and forced us to rely on internet technologies. I believe that hybrid conference, workshop and meeting may become a new norm in future.
To all fellows and members, please feel free to share your views or even contribute any news on physics - please drop a line or two to my email address tytou.mmu@gmail.com.
Council Members
Advisors
Divisions
Prof. Dr. Ng Kwan Hoong
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chin Oi Hoong
SubGroup
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chew Khian Hooi
Prof. Dr. Hasan Abu Kassim
Dr. Woon Kai Lin
International
National