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Dr Sun Ling Ling, 46, wears many hats. At Temasek Polytechnic (TP), she heads the Healthcare Engineering Centre at its School of Engineering, and also leads the development and coordination for its seven research centres.

In the microelectronics laboratory, she is a focused researcher of few words, easily spending 10 hours a day working with scientific devices. The mother of two is also a core founding member of the Jiangsu Association (Singapore), which was established in 2015. She is currently one of its vice-secretaries, and also heads its youth wing.

There are typically more men than women in the engineering and industrial sector, and that is even more true when it comes to the field of semiconductor microchips. But for Dr Sun, this line of work felt quite natural.

“At school, my results for physics and mathematics were not bad. So when I was deciding what to study at university, I chose microelectronics because it offered pretty good career prospects at the time,” she explains.

After three years at Nanjing’s Southeast University, she graduated as an industrial engineer, working for two of Shanghai’s semiconductor companies. In 1999, her then-boyfriend (now husband) was sent to Singapore by his company. At the time, Dr Sun felt that microelectronics technology was evolving by leaps and bounds, and she wanted to stay abreast of the latest developments. She decided to enrol in the microelectronics doctoral programme at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

After earning her PhD, she continued with research at NTU. However, the university’s microelectronics department did not have many teaching vacancies. After some thought, she left for TP, where she would teach as well as undertake research.

It’s been 14 years, and Dr Sun has gradually shifted her focus to research. “In research, finding collaborators is very important,” she says. “I tell others what I can do, and I also need them to tell me what support they can offer. Only then will projects be able to take off.”

She currently leads a team that is researching sensors and the use of microchip technology for diagnostic purposes. This includes the manufacture of flexible sensing microchips for measuring pulse rates, and microfluidic and biosensor microchips that can detect viruses through blood or saliva.

As the recipient of the 2019-2020 Outstanding Youth Award from the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations, she is also dedicated to her work at Jiangsu. During the pandemic, she led its youth wing in assembling care packages for frontline workers, and also helped to organise online events and talks on healthcare.

She felt the urge to be a part of such an organisation because when she first moved to Singapore with her husband, they felt lonely. “At the time, I thought it would be good if there was an association here that could help new immigrants like us,” she says.

Today, the Jiangsu Association (Singapore) has 900 members of all ages, including a few who work in scientific research like her. “Interacting with all these members has expanded my horizons and enlarged my social circle.”