Shi Wah Choong

Buddhist, Educator/Teacher, Promoter, Scientist, Single, Student

I was born and raised in Malaysia by a hardworking father who is illiterate and mother who only finished a second grade education. I am the first person in my family to finish a college education. I received my early education in Malaysia and Singapore before coming to the US in 2004. I graduated from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in Chemistry in 2010 and represented my class as Outstanding Department Honoree. After graduation, I helped to formulate bio based engine lubricants worked at Amyris Inc. Then I joined Genentech's small molecule drug discovery team, before joining Purdue Chemistry for a doctoral degree. Working with American Chemical Society, BASF, Girl Scouts of Central Indiana and Iota Sigma Pi for Women in Chemistry, I have organized activities to promote awareness and enthusiasm for Chemistry in local communities. I also helped organize regional Analytical Chemistry conferences and science forums. I really enjoy teaching and I thought it's priceless to share knowledge with people around us. This is also one of the main reasons why I am happy and proud to be part of the TED community to promote positive changes, locally and globally, through ideas worth spreading. My doctoral work focuses on creating biomaterial-functionalized surfaces with features as small as DNA, which could be useful in synthetic material applications such as nanoelectonic and organic solar cells. My analytical background also includes ambient mass spectrometric ionization techniques.

ambient mass spectrometric ionization, multicultural communication, nanoscale imaging technique, teaching