I am Cindy, an educator and researcher in Chemical Engineering. I am a full time educator, an advocate for supercritical fluid research (click here or visit my instagram to find out more!). I am  also full time mummy to 2 young and energetic girls who are my motivation and inspiration! 

Contact me:

You can drop me an email at: chellyc@nus.edu.sg  or find me @dr.cindy.lee

My academic Journey

My journey in chemical engineering started way back in secondary school where we learned about distillation of crude oil into its various useful components. From then on, I was fascinated with the units and processes that create and produce the materials that we use everyday. It was then my aspiration to study Chemical Engineering at the National University of Singapore. I obtained my Bachelors in Chemical Engineering at National University of Singapore, and subsequently carried on to do my Masters and PhD degree under the Singapore-MIT Alliance Scholarship (Molecular Engineering of Biological and Chemical Systems), with studies and research based partly in MIT and NUS, with my mentors Professor Kenneth A. Smith (MIT) and Professor Wang Chi-Hwa (NUS). 

My PhD research topic was on supercritical fluid processing for drug delivery systems (click here).  After completing my PhD, I joined a research consultancy company in the Netherlands (FeyeCon Carbon Dioxide Technologies B.V) as Project Leader, specializing on supercritical carbon dioxide processes for food and pharmaceutical applications, where I had the opportunity to lead and be involved in several interesting projects relating to the application of supercritical fluid technology for food product development with Dutch and other multinational companies. 

I joined Newcastle University in Singapore (NUiS) in 2012, teaching the first batch of students from their chemical engineering program in Singapore. The experience in teaching helped me develop my skills as an educator over these years and also enabled me to grow and learn alongside with my students. The saying that “you learn the most when you teach” is really spot in my experience. I was the first Director of Excellence in Learning and Teaching (DELT) for Newcastle University in Singapore, overlooking and contributing to the overall learning and teaching quality. I was also the acting Director of Operations for the Chemical Engineering Program from 2018-2019, working closely with colleagues from SIT on the newly developed joint degree program. 

 

In August 2019, more than a decade after my graduation from NUS, I joined the Educator team in NUS, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering as Senior lecturer. I look forward to the exciting new journey where I can contribute to the Chemical Engineering education which has kept me intrigued and interested in the work I do in my journey so far. 

 

My interests

I enjoy watching movies, especially sci-fi and superhero movies (particularly MCU). I like how the concepts and philosophies of some of these movies help to inspire us in our work, ideas and everyday life. Some of my favorite movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe include <<Black Panther>> and <<Thor Ragnarok>>.

I enjoy cooking and appreciating how the process of cooking allows us to apply most of the concepts we learn in Chemical Engineering (Mixing, heat and mass transfer, separations, biochemistry, etc..) 

I think it is important to stay healthy in order to be able to enjoy your life and to support people around you. I am not particularly athletic (used to hate P.E) but now I enjoy long (but slow) runs and Pilates.  

I enjoy art and crafts. This allows me to integrate my hobby of creating with spending time with my kids. One particular kind of craft i enjoyed is the Shrink Plastic where we apply the principles of polymer behavior to create pieces of art work that are unique and durable.