Faculty of Business and Finance academic Assoc Prof Dr Lee Voon Hsien was recently awarded the “National Outstanding Young Researcher Award” by the Private Education Cooperative of Malaysia. The award was conferred to Dr Lee at this year’s Private Education Excellence Awards 2021 which was supported by Emerald Publishing.

“I was ecstatic when I found out that I had won the award. It felt like all my hard work was finally paying off. This award is a testament to the hours of research that I have put into each project and also to the sacrifices that I have taken for me to get here. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dato R. Rajendran and UTAR for all the supports given. I also want to thank my co-authors for their valuable contributions and assistance. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my family for their relentless support and encouragement in all my undertakings,” enthused Dr Lee.

In addition to this award, Dr Lee was also conferred the “National Outstanding Educator Award” by the Private Education Cooperative of Malaysia in 2018. Her other recent achievements also included numerous research honours, namely Most Downloaded Article in Machine Learning with Applications, Best Paper Award at an International Conference in 2021, and the Most Downloaded Article awarded by Expert Systems with Applications (ESWA), Elsevier, USA. Dr Lee is also the Chairperson of the Centre for Business and Management.

When asked for words of encouragement towards aspiring educators and researchers, she advised, “This award recognises the research impact of my work, and helps in boosting my confidence, broaden connections and increase my research visibility. My advice to prospective educators and researchers is to read widely and think broadly! For knowledge does not acquire you; you must acquire it in order to remain at the top.”