Vivian Wing-Wah Yam

Professor Vivian Yam Wing-wah (born 10 February 1963) CSci, CChem, FRSC,

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. 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. 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 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. 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.

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