On August 26, the appointment ceremony and lecture for Professor Lay Kee Ang — tenured professor of the Science, Mathematics and Technology (SMT) cluster and Associate Provost of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) — as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Tsinghua University was held in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics (EEA). The ceremony was chaired by Professor Sun Kai, Deputy Dean of EEA, while Associate Professor Zheng Zedong, Secretary of the CPC Committee of EEA, presented the appointment certificate to Professor Lay Kee Ang. More than 30 faculty members and students, including Associate Professor Fu Yangyang, Deputy Director of the High Voltage Institute, attended the ceremony and lecture.

Zheng Zedong presents the Distinguished Visiting Professor Certificate to Lay Kee Ang

At the ceremony, Sun Kai introduced Professor Lay Kee Ang’s academic background and his outstanding achievements in the field of plasma–material interactions. Zheng Zedong awarded the certificate and expressed his expectations for future cooperation. Professor Lay Kee Ang then introduced the founding history, teaching model, and educational philosophy of the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Lay Kee Ang introducing SUTD

After the appointment ceremony, Associate Professor Fu Yangyang gave an overview of the Gas Discharge Laboratory at EEA, reporting on the team’s progress in several research directions, including lithography light sources, RF etching, laser-sustained plasma, microdischarges, unified fluid models, pulsed power, and sterilization and disinfection.

Fu Yangyang introducing the Gas Discharge Laboratory

Following this, Professor Lay Kee Ang delivered an academic lecture titled “Revision of Electron Emission Models: Quantum Materials, Nano Gap, and Ultrafast Laser.” The lecture focused on the scaling laws of thermionic and field emission currents in two-dimensional materials and presented recent advances in the field of ultrafast laser–electron interactions.

Lay Kee Ang delivering the academic lecture

After the lecture, faculty members and students from EEA engaged in in-depth discussions with Professor Lay Kee Ang, particularly on the working mechanisms of ultrafast plasma switches and related research topics.

Doctoral students Lin Chubin, Zhang Dongheyue, and Chen Jiandong presenting their research. Lin Chubin gave a talk titled “Scale-Invariant Nature of Space Charge Oscillations in Electron-Beam-Driven Diodes,” in which he discussed the scale-invariant characteristics of space charge oscillations in electron-beam-driven diodes and exchanged ideas with Professor Ricky Ang on electron emission scaling laws. Zhang Dongheyue presented “Recent Advances of Laser-Sustained Plasma Research,” summarizing the recent progress achieved by the Gas Discharge and Plasma Laboratory in laser-sustained plasma studies. The team has carried out exploratory research in areas such as plasma stability control, ultraviolet radiation regulation, and discharge structure optimization, yielding promising preliminary results. Chen Jiandong delivered a report titled “Comprehensive Modeling of Microscale Gas Breakdown under Extremely High Electric Field,” reviewing the development of micro/nano-scale gas breakdown models and introducing the laboratory’s latest research outcomes in this field.

Biography of Professor Lay Kee Ang

Professor Lay Kee Ang received his Ph.D. in 1999 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. He has served as a Research Associate at Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA), a tenured Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), a tenured Professor in the Science, Mathematics and Technology (SMT) cluster at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), and currently serves as Associate Provost at SUTD. He is a Fellow of IEEE, IOP, and AIAA, and has been listed among the world’s Top 2% Scientists in Applied Physics since 2020.

Professor Ang has held multiple academic and professional leadership roles, including Chair of the Singapore Chapter of the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS), Executive Committee Member of the IEEE NPSS PSAC EXCO, committee member of the SUTD–Singapore Aerospace Programme, member of the SUTD–Land Transport Authority Joint Transport Research Centre, and member of SUTD’s Senior Management Board. He also serves on the editorial boards of Physics of Plasmas and Nano Express, and has chaired technical sessions at major international conferences such as the IEEE Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS).

As a globally recognized expert in plasma–material interactions, Professor Ang has published over 200 papers in leading journals including Physical Review Letters. His honors include the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Distinguished Lecturer Award, the Singapore Public Administration Bronze Medal, the SUTD Excellence in Teaching Award, and the World Knowledge Dialogue Young Scientist Award.

Professor Lay Kee Ang has also played a vital role in promoting academic collaboration between SUTD and China’s higher education institutions. As SUTD’s Associate Provost, he has actively advanced cooperative exchanges with Tsinghua University’s EEA. Two undergraduate students from EEA’s Energy Internet Program (Class of 2015) spent six months conducting research in Professor Ang’s team at SUTD, establishing a long-term and fruitful partnership for student and faculty exchanges between the two institutions.