astronomy

Vivian Yam

Vivian Yam is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Vivian Yam rather than just read about it. In short: Professor Vivian Yam Wing-wah (born 10 February 1963) CSci, CChem, FRSC, is a Hong Kong chemist. Yam is the youngest female member ever to be elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Key takeaways

Vivian Yam belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Vivian Yam to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Vivian Yam from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Professor Vivian Yam Wing-wah (born 10 February 1963) CSci, CChem, FRSC, is a Hong Kong chemist. Yam is the youngest female member ever to be elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She was a 2011 L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureate "for her work on light-emitting materials and innovative ways of capturing solar energy."

Early years and education Vivian Wing-Wah Yam was born in British Hong Kong. Her father was a civil engineer, although Yam says that neither he nor her mother steered her toward her career. Yam cites being intrigued by the sight of mercury and a workaholic and pregnant biology teacher who taught her up to the very last minute. Yam attended an Anglican grammar school. She received her B.Sc. in chemistry (1985) and PhD (1988) degrees at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) where she was on the badminton team, studying under Chi-Ming Che.

Career In 1988, she became a junior faculty member at the Department of Applied Science, City Polytechnic of Hong Kong; at the time, there were no facilities at all for teaching chemistry. She helped with establishing the first chemistry books in the library as well as ordering the first beakers and chemicals. Yam's work took her to Caltech in the late 1980s, where she investigated excited state spectrocsopy under Harry B. Gray. After a spell at the University of Rochester (with David G. Whitten) in 1990 she went to study at the Imperial College London in 1991 (with the Nobel laureate Geoffrey Wilkinson) and stayed until 1992. Her research turned to organometallic synthesis "studying the luminescence of complexes with metal–metal interactions". She worked with tetraethyllead which at the time was not a banned additives for petrol. This work was on the border between organic and inorganic chemicals. Yam has been associated particularly with the elements osmium, platinum and ruthenium. She joined the HKU faculty in 2001 where she is the Philip Wong Wilson Wong Professor of Chemistry and Energy. Yam became a Fulbright Scholar in 2007.

Yam was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2001, aged 38, becoming the youngest female member. The previous holder of this record was, Che, Yam's earlier mentor. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World in 2006 and a member of the Foreign Associate of National Academy of Sciences in 2012.

Application Yam's research deals with organic light emitting diodes which are brighter and more efficient that the older light emitting diodes; her chemistry has enabled much more efficient displays to be created for mobile phones and laptops. These OLEDs can be deposited on clear plastic, glass or more unusual materials to also create improved car headlamps and larger flat television screens. Yam quotes that nearly a fifth of the world's power is used to create lighting. Creating more efficient lighting will significantly affect the world's power consumption. She believes internal quantum theory indicates that we may develop lamps based on metal containing chemicals that are 100% efficient.

Awards and honours Her awards include the HKU Outstanding Researcher Award (1999–2000), Croucher Foundation Senior Research Fellow (2000–01), Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Hong Kong in 2002, Outstanding Women Professionals and Entrepreneurs Awards (2005), State Natural Science Award (Second Class, 2005), the Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Lectureship & Medal (2005/06), and the Japanese Photochemistry Association Lectureship Award for Asian and Oceanian Photochemist Eikohsha Award, (2006), HKU Distinguished Research Achievement Award (2006/07), Hong Kong Outstanding Women Professionals and Entrepreneurs Award (2008), Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress (2011), the L'OREAL-UNESCO for Women in Science Award (2011), the 13th World Outstanding Chinese Award (2013). and the Royal Society of Chemistry's Ludwig Mond Award (2015). Asteroid 83363 Yamwingwah, discovered by Bill Yeung in 2001, was named in her honour. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 17 May 2011 (M.P.C. 75104). In 2016, she became a laureate of the Asian Scientist 100 by the Asian Scientist.

Personal life In 1990, she married Patrick Shing-Tat Mak (Chinese: 麥成達) whom she met in Che's laboratory, where they conducted research together. They have two daughters.

References

External links

Hong Kong University page Curriculum Vitae at Chinese Academy of Sciences

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Vivian Yam

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Vivian Yam claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Vivian Yam before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Vivian Yam ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Vivian Yam

In research: Vivian Yam appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Vivian Yam in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Vivian Yam is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1963 births, 21st-century American women scientists, Academic staff of the University of Hong Kong, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Vivian Yam outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Vivian Yam in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Vivian Yam means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Vivian Yam out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Vivian Yam in simple terms?

Professor Vivian Yam Wing-wah (born 10 February 1963) CSci, CChem, FRSC, is a Hong Kong chemist. Yam is the youngest female member ever to be elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Why does Vivian Yam matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Vivian Yam?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Vivian Yam.