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Professor Ir Dr Dominic foo from The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) has been named the winner in the academic category of the outstanding Young Malaysian Award 2012.

Dr Foo, Professor of Process Design and Integration from the Department of Chemical and environmental engineering and Director for the Centre of Excellence for Green Technologies, joins an illustrious list of past winners including actress Datuk Seri Michelle Yeoh and Olympic silver-medallist Datuk Lee Chong Wei.

"I am honoured to receive this recognition and am also proud to be a Malaysian who has received all his education right up to the postgraduate level. I would like to acknowledge all the teachers and lecturers who have taught me. I feel that it is they who have made me an outstanding Malaysian," says Professor Foo.

"Perhaps the judges were impressed that I achieved a full professorship at the age of 34 within five years of graduating with a PhD. My friends in the academic field have said that I am the youngest engineering professor in Malaysia. Tome it is hardwork and smart work which has paid off," Professor Foo details possible reasons he was given this award.

Professor Ian Pashby, Ceo & Provost of The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus says, "This year's award presentation is especially meaningful to us at the University of Nottingham because two of our academics, Dominic foo and Alain Chong, who are based at the China campus, were presented with The Young outstanding Malaysia Award".

The awards recognise young people who excel in their chosen fields, and are sponsored by Junior Chamber International (JCI), one of the biggest nonpolitical youth service organisations in the world.

"The academic community at the Malaysia Campus has an excellent track record both externally and internally for receiving awards for their groundbreaking research and their world-class teaching and learning. recently, 10 academics at UNMC clinched the inaugural Chancellor's Award from The University of Nottingham, which is awarded based on feedback from students," Professor Pashby adds.

MENTORING YOUNG MALAYSIANS

"I am also passionate about working with young people to help succeed in their careers. I spend time with them to provide career guidance and also mentor new researchers and academics in planning their research career. This consumes a great amount of my personal time but seeing the younger generation succeed is very rewarding to me," says Professor Foo.

Prior to the outstanding Young Malaysian Award, Professor Foo was awarded the Innovator of the Year Award 2009 by the Institution of Chemical engineers UK (ICheme), as well as the Young Engineer Award 2010 by the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM).

He also conducts professional training for practising engineers. He is currently the Chairman of the Chemical Engineering Technical Division of IEM and also an active member of IChemE (Malaysia branch), and is a Professional Engineer registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM).

Professor Foo is also an active author, who has published more than 75 journal papers and two books, and has made more than 120 conference presentations, with more than 15 keynote and plenary speeches.