HONOURS

2024 World’s Top 2% Scientists (based on c-score), Stanford University & Elsevier
2023 Singapore Book Awards Finalist (Top 4) in Best Young Person’s Title for Screen Smart: Growing Up in the Digital Age
2023 Ranked 13th in Singapore (based on D-index) in Best Social Science and Humanities Researcher, Research.com
2022 Top Cited Paper (with Lim et al.) for “Population anxiety and positive behaviour change during the COVID-19 epidemic: Cross-sectional surveys in Singapore, China and Italy”, Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, Wiley Publishing
2022 Most Outstanding Student Research Award (for MA supervisee S. Y. Lee) for “Can Algorithmic Misinformation Correction on Social Media Reduce Covid-19 Misinformation Spread? An experimental investigation in Singapore” [Poster], 5th Asian Conference of Criminal and Operations Psychology
2020 Fellow status for distinguished scholarly contributions to the field of communication, ICA
2019 Public Administration Medal (Silver) for outstanding efficiency, competence and industry, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore
2019 Outstanding Applied Communication Scholar Award, ICA
2019 ASCoR McQuail Award (with Lee & Ho) for best article advancing communication theory published in a peer-reviews journal in the previous two years for “Explicating problematic social network sites use: A review of concepts, theoretical frameworks, and future directions for communication theorizing”, Amsterdam School of Communication Research
2019 Top Faculty Paper, First Place (with Chen & Fu) for “Developing and validating the scale of parental social media mediation across child and parent samples”, Mass Communication and Society Division, Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication Annual Conference
2019 Best Published Article (with Lee & Ho) for “Explicating problematic social network sites use: A review of concepts, theoretical frameworks, and future directions for communication theorizing”, Children, Adolescents & Media Division, International Communication Association 69th Annual Conference
2019 Top Dissertation (for PhD supervisee E. Lee) for “Hooked? Extending the Social Cognitive Model in Examining the Antecedents of Problematic Social Network Sites Use Among Singaporean Adolescents and Adults”, Human Communication and Technology Division, National Communication Association (NCA)
2018 Asia Scholar Professor, University of Melbourne
2018 Article of the Year, First Place (with Chen & Ho) for “A meta-analysis of factors predicting cyberbullying perpetration and victimization: From the social cognitive and media effects approach”, Communicating Science, Health, Environment & Risks Division, Association for Communication in Journalism & Mass Communication Annual Conference
2016 Long Service Award, NTU
2015 Fulbright US-ASEAN Visiting Scholar Award, US Embassy in Singapore
2015 Top 3 Papers Book Prize (with Hossain) for “Baseline study on current awareness on pregnancy complications, antenatal care and media use among pregnant women in Bangladesh”, International Conference on Health System Innovation
2015 Best Faculty Paper (with Pang et al.) for “Utilization of CSR to build organizations’ corporate image in Asia: Need for an integrative approach”, Public Relations Division, ICA 65th Annual Conference
2015 Urakami Foundation Award (with Yee) for “Telly Tubbies: Mediating effects of attitudes and anticipated emotions on media exposure and the intention to eat unhealthily among children in Singapore”, 12th Asian Congress of Nutrition
2015 Outstanding Research Award (with Hossain, Salmon, & Ling) for “Role of protection motivation theory motivators and psycho-social factors in empowering pregnant women’s antenatal care utilization: Implications for health policy in Bangladesh”, DC Health Communication Conference
2015 Honorable Mention Research Award (with Shin, Yee, & Wardoyo) for “An integrative parental mediation model of healthy vs. unhealthy food consumption”, DC Health Communication Conference
2015 Honorable Mention Research Award (with Panchapakesan) for “Psychosocial facilitators and barriers towards civic engagement through mobile for dengue prevention in Sri Lanka, India and Singapore”, DC Health Communication Conference
2015 Top 3 Papers Book Prize (with Hossein) for “Baseline study on current awareness on pregnancy complications, antenatal care and media use among pregnant women in Bangladesh”, International Conference on Health System Innovation
2015 Research Commercialization Spinoffs Award (with Fernando, Vijaykumar, Ratnayake, & Foo) for “Mo-Buzz: Socially-mediated system for vector-borne diseases surveillance engagement”, NTUitive and Institute for Media Innovation
2014 Ogilvy Foundation International Award for academic leadership, Ogilvy Foundation, New York
2014 Neo Ubimedia MindTrek Awards (NUMA), Honorable Mention for “Sensing environment through mobile: A personalized wearable obstacle detection system for visually impaired people”, MindTrek 2014
2014 Top Paper Award (with Yeo & Hong) for “The effects of regulatory fit and presentation order of health messages in countering unhealthy food advertising’s influence on attitudes and intentions to eat healthily”, Health Communication Division, ICA 63rd Annual Conference
2013 Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation Award (Shortlisted) for innovative ICT applications-solutions developed in Singapore for “My Pet Fitness Mobile Application”
2012 Undergraduate Research Experience on Campus (URECA) Supervision, Silver Award, NTU
2011 Top Paper Award (with Li) for “Impact of visual and social cues on exercise attitudes and behaviour of overweight children playing an exergame”, Games Division, ICA 61st Annual Conference
2011 Amanda L. Kundrat Health Communication Thesis of the Year Award (for MA supervisee M. Wijaya) for “Influencing Children’s Food Consumption: Impact of Message Framing and Tailoring on Efficacy and Intention”, Health Communication Division, ICA 61st Annual Conference
2011 URECA Supervision, Platinum Award, NTU
2010 Top Paper Award (with Tay, Agatha, & Pang) for “Crisis preparedness versus paranoia: Testing the crisis message processing model on the effects of over communication of crisis preparedness messages by governments”, Public Relations Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Conference
2010 URECA Supervision, Silver Award, NTU
2009 Sumitomo Research Award, The Sumitomo Foundation
2009 URECA Supervision, Gold Award, NTU
2008 URECA Supervision, Platinum Award, NTU
2008 Teaching Excellence Award (Nominated), NTU
2007 Research Outstanding Research Award Recognition, NTU
2005 Best Paper Award, Finalist for “Examining adolescent dieting behavior: A protection motivation theory communication perspective”, American Marketing Association’s Public Policy and Marketing Annual Conference
2004 Outstanding Educator Award, NUS
2003 Outstanding Educator Award (Shortlisted), NUS
1989 Marketing Institute of Singapore Award (Student)