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00607 5602 462
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J.Ng@soton.ac.uk

Dr Jo-Han Ng PhD, BEng, FHEA, AMIMechE

Associate Professor, Head of Research, Research Management Centre

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Dr Jo-Han Ng is currently the Head of Research at the University of Southampton Malaysia, after relinquishing his previous duties as the Head of Academic Quality & Innovation and Director of the Foundation Programme & Head of Quality Assurance. He is a Green Engineer (or Greengineer as he would like to call it) with research interests on green technologies.

My dreams as a kid was to teach, to be a scientist and to be an engineer at the same time. As such, the chance to build a long-lasting career as a researching lecturer in the field of engineering in University of Southampton Malaysia proves to be a dream come true. Adding on to it, I'm also relishing to work with a very dynamic pioneering team in USMC. This is made sweeter as a born-bred Johorean, I feel proud to be playing my part in contributing to the rapidly growing Iskandar region

He obtained his Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (Honours) with First-Class classification in 2007 from the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus and was offered a fully-paid research scholarship to conduct his PhD research in the same university. The nature of his PhD led him to conduct research work in the trans-disciplinary field of mechanical/automotive and chemical (kinetics) engineering.  
 
His research interest lies in the field of renewable energy with particular interest in biodiesel lubricity, renewable fuel productions, chemical kinetics of transesterification reaction, combustion reaction mechanisms, CFD simulation of diesel engines, experimental studies on performance and emissions characteristics of biodiesel fuelled diesel engines. His collaborations have also led him to be a visiting researcher at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2014-2015. He is also currently an Associate Research Fellow at UTM-Centre for Low Carbon Transportation in cooperation with Imperial College (LoCARTic). In 2023, he founded the Carbon Neutrality Research Group, leading a group of scientists to battle climate change. 
 
He also serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Society of Automotive Engineers Malaysia (JSAEM) and Carbon Neutrality (Springer). He was also part of the team that won the Japanese TORAY (Malaysia) Science Education Award six times in 2015-2022 for their contribution in innovating science education, and won the UoS’ ILIAD PCAP award 2015. He has obtained his Fellowship under the United Kingdom Higher Education Academy and serves the faculty by providing training to other new academics as the USMC Leader of Postgraduate Certificate for Academic Practice. He is also a Fellow of the Advance Higher Education Academy (UK). 
 
Dr Ng has published around 100 original peer-reviewed research articles, involved in 20 research grant/industrial projects and has won awards from SEAMEO (ASEAN), Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), World Federation of Scientists (Switzerland), Falling Walls (Malaysia/Germany), Autoliv (Sweden/USA), PILC (China), Al-Dabbagh (Saudi Arabia), TORAY Foundation (Malaysia) and Elsevier. In 2022, he also won the Best Award Energy Cluster in PECIPTA ’22. 

Research interests

Dr Jo-Han’s research primarily revolves around both technical and pedagogical research.  
 
A) Technical Research 
 
His primary research interest revolves around: 
Sustainable biofuels (biodiesel, biojet fuels, pyrolysis oil, and syngas) 
Energy-water-food (EWF) nexus 
Life cycle assessments (LCA) 
Design of Experiments (DOE) and advanced Statistical Analysis methods 
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of reactive flows 
Combustion of engines and swirling flow studies 
Microwave-assisted chemical reactions (including transesterification) 
 
Prospective PhD students and collaborators are encouraged to discuss about potential research by dropping a line to J.Ng@soton.ac.uk. Funding is available for selected projects.  
 
B) Education Research  
 
Jo-Han also works on pedagogical research covering themes such as: 
Science-themed Escape Rooms through the Creative and Playful Learning (CPL) pedagogical approach.  
Game-based learning through Minecraft (He was also the first Malaysian to be a Microsoft Minecraft Global Mentor in 2017.) 
Gamification of education through the use of phone app. (Quizona Chemistry
 
He encourages fellow educators at all levels (K-12 to university) to collaborate on modern pedagogical techniques in reaching out effectively to students from the digital native generation. 

Research group

Energy Technology

Research project(s)

Reaction Kinetics Mechanism of a Novel Enhanced-Mixing Transesterification for Biodiesel Production

The crises of fossil fuel uncertainty and environmental issues, has led to biodiesel being in prime position as an alternative to fossil diesel. This is because of its uniqueness in being compatible with present-day diesel infrastructures, renewable and scientifically verified to be more environmentally-friendly. Despite governmental fiscal incentives and abundance availability of biodiesel feedstock, its usage is still uncommon. Conventional batch reaction transesterification for biodiesel production is inefficient, increasing cost of production. This can be attributed to the lack of detailed understanding of underlying reaction mechanism and its associated mass transfer and chemical kinetics rates. Little is understood on how the operating and reactor parameters limit biodiesel transesterification from a reaction mechanism point-of-view.

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Dr Jo-Han Ng has authored around a hundred scientific publications. A complete list of his publication can be found on: 
 
Google Scholar: Scholar Profile 
 
ORCiD0000-0002-3519-1770 
 
Scopus Author ID57158527100 
 
Personal WebsiteOnline CV 
 
He has also authored five books, including Elsevier’s Biojet Fuel in Aviation Appplication (ISBN: 9780128228548

Presently teaching the following modules: 

  • FEEG1003 Thermofluids 
  • SESM2017 Thermodynamics 
  • SESM1016 Mechanical Systems Analysis 
  • MATH1054 Mathematics for Engineering and the Environment

Previously taught the following modules: 

  • SESG1005 Fluid Mechanics
  • SESM1015 Professional Engineering and Functional Materials 
  • FEEG2006 Engineering Management and Law 
  • MATH1055 Mathematics for Electronic and Electrical Engineering 
  • PGCAP-Prep UoSM
Dr Jo-Han Ng
Head of Research, Research Management Centre,
University of Southampton Malaysia,

C0301, C0302, C0401, Block C Eko Galleria,
Jalan Eko Botani 3,
Taman Eko Botani,
79100 Iskandar Puteri, Johor,
Malaysia

Email: J.Ng@soton.ac.uk

Phone: +607-5602462

Room Number : UoSM 3L011

Room Number : 193 USMC/4025


Dr Jo-Han Ng's personal home page
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