Educational Background
Sponsored by the Malaysian government in 2012, John was part of a group of 100 Malaysian students to pursue undergraduate engineering degrees which were taught and assessed in Korean and English in Korea. Before leaving for his degree at Yonsei University, he attended 2 years of intensive Korean and engineering programme at Seoul National University. Not wanting to neglect the significance of leadership skills in terms of ensuring a love-filled community, he also became a part of the college ministry - Emmaus Campus Ministry as a student leader with other local and international students, and a church leader at New Philadelphia Church throughout his undergraduate study in Korea. In addition, he went on a short mission trip with other church leaders in 2016 to Colombo, Sri Lanka. He aspires to be a professor who is not only capable of doing great research by combining advanced research skills and practical knowledge from institutes in Britain and Korea but also publishing books to encourage people to look into the prospect of incorporating business into science by participating in one of the programmes - EnterpriseTECH organised by Cambridge Judge Business School. He is now reading the MPhil in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Dr. Silvia Vignolini.
2018-2019 | Master of Philosophy in Chemistry (Postgraduate) at the University of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
- Full-time postgraduate research (thesis-based) programme under a fully-funded loan-convertible scholarship - Excellent Student Programme 2018 (Program Pelajar Cemerlang 2018) offered by the Public Service Department, Malaysia
- Cambridge Judge Business School's EnterpriseTECH Programme
2014-2018 | Bachelor of Science in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
- Full-time undergraduate study taught and assessed in both Korean and English under a fully-funded scholarship - France, Germany, Korea and Japan Programme 2012 (Program Khas 2012) offered by the Public Service Department, Malaysia
2013-2014 | Intensive Korean Language Programme (Level 2 - 6) and Foundation in Engineering in Korean at Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
2012-2013 | Intensive Korean Language Programme (Level 1 - 2) and Foundation in Engineering in Korean at INTEC, UiTM, Shah Alam, Malaysia
- Full-time Korean Language (level 1-6) and Engineering preparatory programme under a fully-funded scholarship - France, Germany, Korea and Japan Programme 2012 (Program Khas 2012) offered by the Public Service Department, Malaysia
- To equip Malaysian students with strong Korean language skills in terms of speaking, writing, listening, and reading, and also firm foundation in Korean Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics before leaving for their undergraduate studies in engineering taught and assessed in both Korean and English at accredited universities
- To familiarise Malaysian students with Korean culture and educational system
Research Project
Kah Shang (John)’s current research focuses on how seafood waste can be transformed into something useful that can be applied in daily lives such as edible colourful films, food thickener, and nano-scaffolds. Driven by the research that has been done on plant cellulose, a long bio-polymer which is biodegradable and bio-compatible, he has shifted his attention to seafood chitin, an organic bio-polymer that has a similar structure and properties as cellulose. Studying the extraction of chitin from crustacean shells at optimum conditions not only helps reduce seafood waste tremendously but opens more routes for future scientific researches on its extended potential applications. His current research project also focuses on how shrimp chitins can be deacetylated and to have them self-assemble on a macroscopic scale.
Photo Courtesy: Advanced composites may borrow designs from deep-sea shrimp. July 14, 2015, Purdue University.