Professor Aaron Thean is Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is also Director of the National Research Foundation’s SHINE centre, a next-generation microelectronics research facility, and the A*Star SIMTech–NUS Joint Laboratory for Large-Area Flexible Hybrid Electronics.

A distinguished scientist and inventor in the field of microelectronics, Aaron has received multiple accolades in recognition of his research excellence, including the 2014 Compound Semiconductor Industry Innovation Award for his research group’s breakthrough work in III-V finFETs and the 2001 Gregory Stillman Semiconductor Research Award for his PhD work. In 2016, he joined NUS under the prestigious Returning Singapore Scientists scheme. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at NUS from 2019, and Dean of the College of Design and Engineering from 2022 to 2023. Known for his translational research in state-of-the-art semiconductor technologies, Aaron also holds more than 50 US patents.

Complementing Aaron’s forte in research and innovation is his extensive industry experience, with an R&D career spanning two decades working across major semiconductor technology companies in the United States and Europe, including IBM, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies and Motorola’s Advanced Products Research and Development Lab, where he worked on the R&D of cutting-edge semiconductor technologies and emerging nano-device architectures. Prior to joining NUS in 2016, he was Vice President of Logic Technologies at IMEC, where he forged partnerships with the industry’s foremost companies such as Intel, Apple and Samsung, and directed R&D operations in such areas as materials research, process technology and system-technology co-design.

Aaron graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received his BSc (Highest Honors), MSc and PhD degrees in electrical engineering.