University Awards

Young Researcher Award

To solve deep and fundamental problems in the information sciences, developing new mathematical results along the way that will have wide applicability in science and engineering. ” Dean's Chair Assoc Prof Vincent TAN
PhD (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
MEng, BA (University of Cambridge)
Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
and Mathematics
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Research Interests

  • Information theory
  • Statistical signal processing
  • Machine learning

Research Achievements

  • Known internationally for his works on finite-length fundamental limits in networks which shape the design of low-latency
    communication systems
  • Established an impossibility result for pointto-point communication systems that matches Strassen’s achievable result from the 1960s. No communication protocol can improve on this performance bound. Also derived similarly stunning results for multiuser networks together with his collaborators
  • New mathematical theorems constitute byproducts of these analyses and are applicable to machine learning tasks such as the estimation of graphical networks from data
  • Raised research grants of $3 million from the National Research Foundation (NRF), Ministry of Education, Institute of Data Science, JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science)-NUS and Institute of Mathematical Sciences

Publication Credits

  • Authored and published a research monograph in the Foundations and Trends® in Communications and Information Theory
  • Publishes extensively in top journals, such as IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Communications in Mathematical Physics, and the SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics
  • Obtained over 1,000 total citations in published papers with a Hirsch index of 16

International Standing

  • Editorial board member of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (since May 2018)
  • Keynote/invited speaker at several international conferences, workshops, seminars and summer schools

Awards and Accolades

  • Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Information Theory Society (2018/19)
  • NRF Fellowship (Class of 2018)
  • Young Researcher Award, NUS Engineering (2018)
  • Commendation List (2014/15 to 2016/17) and Honour Roll (2017/18), NUS Engineering Teaching Awards
  • NUS Young Investigator Award (2014)
  • MIT Jin-Au Kong EECS outstanding doctoral thesis prize (2011)
 Honour Roll Recipients