Wong Sin Yeng

Dr. Wong Sin Yeng is an associate professor and Deputy Director at the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), whose work has led to identifying hundreds of new plant species in Southeast Asia.

Dr. Wong Sin Yeng is an associate professor and Deputy Director at the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). She has a master’s degree in Wood Science and a PhD in Plant Systematics, both from UNIMAS.

She has over 20 years of research and teaching in the following fields: tropical plant diversity, evolution and phylogeny, particularly for the Malesian region, pollination biology, adaptive morphology, and botanical nomenclature in Sarawak. Her current research projects focus on Araceae, Arecaceae (focusing on rattans), and Dipterocarpaceae (focusing on the Engkabang nuts) plant families.

She has been part of various projects over the years, particularly on aroids, gingers and other herbaceous plants in South East Asia, and recently on Durio, the Dipterocarpaceae, Pachycarpae, and calamoid palms. Her and her team’s botanical research projects are some of the most innovative in South East Asia, leading to the identification of 250 new species, 20 new genera, and a new tribe of Araceae.

Her ability to link evidences of high diversity through multiple perspectives has allowed her to publish almost 200 papers. She has also led 12 research projects funded by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia, and Sarawak Research and Development Council.

Selected links:

The Amorphophallus plants of Borneo - Asia Research News, March 10, 2023
IBEC Most Cited Researchers - Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
Borneo states yield 27 new plants and animals in 2021 - The Vibes, January 4, 2022
The European Aroid Community New Interest in the Age of Social Media - The International Aroid Society Newsletter, December 2020

Selected publications

Google Scholar
UNIMAS profile
Wong, S.Y. et al. Target sequence data shed new light on the infrafamilial classification of Araceae. American Journal of Botany. 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16117
Wong, S.Y. et al. Phylogeny of Amorphophallus (Araceae) on Borneo with notes on the floral biology of three species. Taiwania. 2022, vol 67, no 1, 55-66. DOI: 10.6165/tai.2022.67.55
Low, S.L., Wong, S.Y. The diversification of thecae horns and their putative significance—a case study of Schismatoglottideae (Araceae). Org Divers Evol 22, 843–856 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-022-00573-9