Professor Er Meng Hwa currently holds the positions of Vice-President (International Affairs) and Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
After completing a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) degree with first class honours from National University of Singapore in 1981, he went on to pursue PhD studies in Electrical and Computer Engineering under a University of Newcastle's postgraduate research scholarship in 1982. His research thesis was entitled Optimum Antenna Array Processors with Linear and Quadratic Constraints and he graduated in 1986. One of his key results was patented by the University of Newcastle and the Commonwealth Government of Australia.
He joined the Nanyang Technological Institute, the predecessor of NTU, in 1985 as a lecturer and has risen to hold several key management and leadership positions at the University. He was founding Director of the Centre for Signal Processing from 1995 to 1997, Dean of the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering from 1996 to 2005, Dean of College of Engineering from 2001 to 2004, Deputy President 2 from 1998 to 2006, Acting Provost from 2006 to 2007, Associate Provost and Acting Dean (Graduate Studies) from 2007 to 2008 and Senior Associate Provost from 2008 to 2011.
Professor Er’s career has been underpinned by a very strong research track record. His research interests include array signal processing, satellite communications, computer vision and optimization techniques. He has secured and completed a total of 24 research projects with a cumulative grant of about $21 million. He has published over 250 papers in international journals and conference proceedings and holds five patents.
In addition, he has been involved in editing technical journals and had been Chairs of several international conferences including the 15th World Conference on Cooperative Education (WACE) which was held in Singapore in June 2007. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Singapore, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, USA, a registered Professional Engineer in Singapore and a ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer. He serves as: a Member of the Board of Governors of Singapore Polytechnic and S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and a Council Member of National Institute of Education; a Member of the Board of Directors on several Singaporean companies including ST Electronics Ltd, ST Electronics (Satellite Systems) Pte Ltd, Singapore Sports School and NIE Internationals Pte Ltd; and is a member of the Professional Engineers Board of Singapore and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners Board.
Professor Er Meng Hwa’s achievements have been recognised by the award of several major prizes and honours – the Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) Prestigious Engineering Award in 2001; a Public Administration Medal (Silver) and Public Administration Medal (Gold) by the President of the Republic of Singapore in 1998 and 2006 respectively; and National Serviceman of the Year Award by 1PDF COMD in 1999. He is the first Singaporean and the first academic in Asia to be conferred an Honorary Fellowship by the London-based Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) in 2005 in recognition of his outstanding contributions to engineering research, education and public service. More recently, he has been conferred an Honorary Fellowship by the ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organisation (AFEO) in December 2006 in recognition of his outstanding contributions to engineering profession in Singapore and the region, and elected as a Fellow by the ASEAN Academy of Engineering and Technology in 2009.
