Miranda Yap was a professor in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the National University of Singapore, and the Executive Director of the Bioprocessing Technology Institute at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research of Singapore.
Education
Yap earned her Doctor of Philosophy in chemical engineering at the University of Toronto in 1979. She had previously received a basic degree in applied chemistry from University of Singapore, now known as the National University of Singapore (NUS Grad. Medical School), and a master"s degree in biochemical engineering at University College London in 1973.
Career
She returned to Singapore in 1982 to join NUS Grad. Medical School. With a government grant, she helped to establish the Bioprocessing Technology Unit (BTU) in 1990, which was later renamed as Bioprocessing Technology Centre (BTC) in 1995 as a National research centre for bioprocessing technology with Yap as the Director. In 2003, the centre was renamed the Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) and relocated to the new Biopolis research centre in Singapore. She also founded two organisations, the Centre for Natural Product Research (now called Merlion Pharmaceuticals) and the Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Technology Center (now called A-Biology Pharma).
During her career, she published 58 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
In February 2006, Yap was named a Foreign Associate to the United States National Academy of Engineering. She is the only female scientist and second Singaporean to be elected to the academy.
She has been a lecturer in the Advanced Course in Cell Technology at the University of Minnesota, which describes her as:
Professor Miranda Yap is the founding Director of BTI, which is the pivotal institution in advancing Singapore’s bioprocessing research and plays a critical role in Singapore’s success in the expansion of biomanufacturing industry. She has been instrumental in nurturing BTI’s growth.
Transforming it from its nascent days as the Bioprocessing Technology Unit in National University of Singapore to a renowned international institution today.
She has trained numerous Doctor of Philosophy and master students in many areas of biotechnology. In cell culture technology her work has spanned from early work on cellular physiology to recent transcriptome and proteome analysis for cell engineering. Yap was married to Doctor Yap Kian Tiong and died in Singapore on October 14, 2015 five years after suffering from an aneurysm.