I-Ming Tang
Education:
- B.Sc. (Physics) University of Chicago, USA
- Ph.D. (Physics) University of Cincinnati, USA
Research interests:
1) Advanced Materials
2) Biological Materials
One of the objectives in any research initiative started by the Royal Thai Government is the development of human resources. So when the government announced the creation of the National Center for Nanotechnology (NANOTECH) to foster research in this area, there was a resurgence of interest in material science at the university level. Individual universities set up their own programs in the nanotechnology. The Faculty of Science at one of them set up a Capability Building Unit in Nanoscience of which I was asked to be head of. Several years later in 2008, the Commission on Higher Education (CHE) set up the Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics (ThEP) to support research at the universities in Thailand. I was picked to be head of one group to do research in nanotechnology.
The students in my team worked in two areas, development of targeted drug delivery systems and simulation of the performance of spintronic devices based on a newly discovered material, graphene. I wish to emphasize that the topics that the students worked on were picked by themselves. It is hard to motivate students to spend the necessary time to do the research if they are told what to do and they do not see any fruits of their labor. This is why publication of their work is stressed. Future areas of research arise when additional problems and questions are encountered during the analyses of the work and writing up of the work. These new questions become the topic of latter thesis problems. Research is a living organism.
After my students (M.Sc. and Ph.D.) had finished their education, several of them were hired by these universities (seven in all). Three of them specialize in preparing the nanomaterials (nano particles, nanowires, nanofilms and nanorods) using electrodeposition on templates or a SLS (solution-liquid-solid) process. These two processes will be used to create nanosize materials. These materials will then be modified so that they can be used in practical applications.
Special emphases will be placed on involving the students in carrying out the research and writing up the paper. When I started to work in Thailand in 1974, I asked my dean at the time, what my main task was, to teach the Thai students or to motivate the students and fellow colleagues to publish. The dean told me that I could help Thailand the most by doing the latter. Most of the 230 international papers authored by Prof. I-Ming Tang (his appointment was signed by His Majesty the King on September 15, 1986) are co authored with either his students or with his fellow colleagues. Less than 10% of my papers are sole authored by me.
Selected Publications
1. W. Pon-On, N. Charoenphandhu, I.M. Tang, J. Teerapor-npunpuntakit, J. Thongbunchoo, N. Krishnamra, “Biocompo-ite of hydroxyapatite-titania rods (HApTiR); Physical pro- perties and in vitro study”, Mat. Sci. Eng. C 33, 251 (2013).
2. B. Soodchomshom, I.M. Tang, R. Hoonsawat, “Directional quantum transport in grphyne p-n junction.” J. Appl. Phys. 113, 073710 (2013).
3. K. Patanarapeelert, T.D. Frank, I.M. Tang, “From a cellular automaton model of tumor-immune interaction to its macro-scopic dynamical equation: A drift-diffusion data analysis”,Math. Comp. Mod. 53, 122 (2011)
4. C. Saiyasombat, N. Petchsang, I.M. Tang, J.H. Hodak, “Preparation of iron boride-silica core-shell nanoparticles with soft ferromagnetic properties”, Nanotechnology 19(8), 085705 (2008).
5. J. Wong-ekkabut, S. Baoukina, W.Triampo, I.M. Tang, D.P. Tieleman, L. Monticelli “A simulation study of fullerene translocation through lipid bilayers” Nature Nanotechnology 3, 363 (2008).