After graduating with top honors from Singapore's most reputable junior college, I was awarded a highly coveted government scholarship in 1985 to pursue a Bachelors Degree in the United States. Earning my Bachelors within two years and with a 4.0 GPA, I was determined to continue on the path of higher learning and completed my Ph.D. Degree in Computer Science at the University of Minnesota in March 1992.

Upon the completion of my doctorate, I returned to my native land to serve out the mandatory National Service with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). Accordingly, I was unable to conduct any scientific or research work until I fulfilled my national contributions in 1994.

I officially began my career in 1994, first as a developer, and soon after as a project leader, in one of the divisions of the National Computer Board (NCB) of Singapore. During my three years in NCB, I worked with and consulted for many large private and government organizations in Singapore including the Ministry of Education, Singapore Airlines, and the Port of Singapore Authority. It was through the countless interactions with these organizations and government agencies that I had an epiphany and realized that my passion lies in applied research that impact people, processes, and organizations.

1997 marked my first career change. After extensive lobbying, NCB approved my bond transfer to the Department of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS). I joined NUS as a Senior Lecturer (NUS operated under the British-like System at the time) and by January 2000, I was promoted to Associate Professor. My research focus at that time was artificial intelligence, algorithms, search and meta-heuristics.

September 2002 signified my second career change when I was recruited by Prof C.Y. Lee to join the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management in the Hong Kong University of Science Technology as an Associate Professor. Many of my prior works were unrelated to Industrial Engineering, Operations Research, and Management Science and switching research focus during mid-career posed a considerable challenge. However, I was undeterred and even relished the opportunity to rise above the challenge.

At Present, my research interests lie in studying, modeling, and optimizing the performance of operations, resources, and people in industries as it involves an integration of techniques from Computer Science and Operations Research, Management Sciences and Information Technologies. To date, I have published more than 200 papers in refereed premier international conferences and journals.

On one end of the spectrum, I have a keen interest in devising the best and most efficient methods to solve well-known problems. In this respect, my research team currently has the best results in numerous noted problems such as Vehicle Routing with Time Windows, Container Packing Problem, K-LCS, Matrix Bandwidth Minimization, Combinatorial Auction, and so on.

On another end of the spectrum, I have also developed a fervent desire to take my research work beyond publications and transform this work into application packages, components, and systems that society may benefit from. In this respect, my development team has developed software systems that have been deployed in local and multinational enterprises and large educational institutions. My works have been translated into deployed systems such as UTTS-Exam, Online-Judge, Advanced Freight Management System, Strategic Procurement System etc. My team has also received numerous awards such as the HP Innovative IT Award, Innovation Applications on Artificial Intelligence Award and a Startup@Singapore Award for the applications and products that we deployed.

I aspire to share my wide ranging experiences with society. I believe that research findings are only a source of self validation in the academia and these findings would mean little if they were not applicable to the advancement of the human race. Furthermore, public funds are generously used to encourage and support the academia in research. Naturally, being a researcher and benefiting from these funds, I believe this is an excellent avenue for me to give back to society. By providing strategic, operational, and technological consultancy to corporations, I have also been professionally rewarded. This has not only helped fuel my research, but my own professional growth.

I am presently consulting for a number of enterprises in a bid to help them optimize their operations and resources. I also happen to be the Director of the HKUST Logistics and Supply Chain Forum where we regularly organize high impact forums and seminars to share the latest trends, initiatives and technological developments with global enterprises based in Hong Kong and the region. I am also the Founding Director of the logistics and supply chain Institute (China, Nansha) to explore opportunities in knowledge transfer and research in the Pearl River Delta.

Last but certainly not in the least, it is my greatest desire as a teacher, to develop the potential of my students to the fullest. In so far, I have been enormously successful at the undergraduate and masters' levels. However, this implies a brain drain to many Ivy League universities and dynamic corporations in the United States. This loss is something that I do not begrudge and am obliged to accept. However, perhaps out of vanity or the self validation of my skills as a teacher, I hold dearly to the thought that I will one day be able to place a student to teach in an Ivy League College.

In summary, I am an all rounded individual inspired by many positive influences that have enriched my life thus far. I have found my true calling as an academic because it had in turn empowered me to fulfill all the passions that I possess. It is absolutely the best job in the world.