Edward Ng
Encyclopedia
Edward W Ng is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Applied mathematician who has also held the positions of senior scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...

, senior engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...

 and technical manager in the U.S. Space Program. He is noted for his broad variety of mathematical applications in space science
Space science
The term space science may mean:* The study of issues specifically related to space travel and space exploration, including space medicine.* Science performed in outer space ....

 and engineering. He has also contributed conscientiously in the spin-off of technology from the space program, with applications in such diverse subjects as Bose-Einstein distribution in mathematical physics
Mathematical physics
Mathematical physics refers to development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The Journal of Mathematical Physics defines this area as: "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the development of mathematical methods suitable for such applications and...

, symbolic and algebraic computation, computational physics
Computational physics
Computational physics is the study and implementation of numerical algorithms to solve problems in physics for which a quantitative theory already exists...

 and biomedical research
Biomedical research
Biomedical research , in general simply known as medical research, is the basic research, applied research, or translational research conducted to aid and support the body of knowledge in the field of medicine...

.

Ng
Ng
Ng is a Cantonese and Hakka transliteration of the Chinese surnames 吳/吴 and 伍 , and Hokkien and Teochew transliteration of the Chinese surname 黃 . It is pronounced , and 伍 means "five." It is sometimes romanized as Ang, Eng, Ing and Ong in the United States and Ung in Australia...

 attended the Queen Elizabeth School, Hong Kong
Queen Elizabeth School, Hong Kong
Queen Elizabeth School , or QES and QE for short, is the first EMI co-education secondary school founded by the Government of Hong Kong...

 for secondary education, and the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

 for his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

. He received his M.A. and PhD
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

 degrees from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. He was employed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...

 (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...

, aka Caltech under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

). He retired in 2006.

Dr. Edward Ng was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...

 (AAAS) and is cited in the American Men and Women of Science
American Men and Women of Science
American Men and Women of Science is a biographical reference on leading scientists in the United States and Canada published as a series of books and online by Gale, a unit of Cengage Learning. Gale acquired the title from Information Today, Inc. in 2001....

., as well as Marquis Who's Who
Marquis Who's Who
Marquis Who's Who, a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc., is the American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies...

 in Science and Engineering. He was the editor of "Symbolic and Algebraic Computation" (ISBN 3-540-09519-5), in the Springer Science Lecture Notes Series. He was also a co-editor of the Proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute in applied mathematics (ISBN 978-90-277-1571-5). He has published numerous technical papers of diverse mathematical applications in space sciences and engineering (selected list in external link below). His papers have appeared in Astrophysical Journal
Astrophysical Journal
The Astrophysical Journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering astronomy and astrophysics. It was founded in 1895 by the American astronomers George Ellery Hale and James Edward Keeler. It publishes three 500-page issues per month....

, Mathematics of Computation
Mathematics of Computation
Mathematics of Computation is a quarterly mathematics journal focused on computational mathematics that is published by the American Mathematical Society. It was established in 1943....

, Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy
Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy
Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy is scientific journal in the field of astronomy and astrophysics.It was established in as Celestial Mechanics in June 1969.- External links :* , National Library of Australia...

, Journal of Computational Physics
Journal of Computational Physics
The Journal of Computational Physics is a bimonthly scientific journal covering computational physics that was established in 1966 and is published by Elsevier. As of 2011, its editor-in-chief is Gretar Tryggvason . According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2010 impact factor of...

, M.I.T. Journal of Mathematics and Physics, ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software
ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software
ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software is a quarterly scientific journal that aims to disseminate the latest findings of note in the field of numeric, symbolic, algebraic, and geometric computing applications...

 and Proceedings of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society , founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society , and the Institute...

.

Notable Quotes

  • "In science, one man's noise is another man's signal." cited in New York Times (1990). The context was in space science
    Space science
    The term space science may mean:* The study of issues specifically related to space travel and space exploration, including space medicine.* Science performed in outer space ....

     data and the reference was to the scientific-engineering concept of Signal-to-noise ratio
    Signal-to-noise ratio
    Signal-to-noise ratio is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. It is defined as the ratio of signal power to the noise power. A ratio higher than 1:1 indicates more signal than noise...

    .
  • Why Do We Explore Space? an educational paper in Space 2006, published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
    American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
    The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society , founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society , and the Institute...

  • Nobel Connection to Space Program, a paper in Space 2007, published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
    American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
    The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society , founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society , and the Institute...

    .
  • High-precison approximations of Bose-Einstein Functions in the Mathematics of Computation
    Mathematics of Computation
    Mathematics of Computation is a quarterly mathematics journal focused on computational mathematics that is published by the American Mathematical Society. It was established in 1943....

     published by the American Mathematical Society
    American Mathematical Society
    The American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians.The society is one of the...

    .

Awards

Ng has received a number of NASA Awards (cf attached citations), including the special NASA Certificate of Apollo-Columbia Commemoration of the Space Transportation System–65 Flight in 1994. He also was the recipient of the American Astronomical Society Team Appreciation Award on the Deep Space Network
Deep Space Network
The Deep Space Network, or DSN, is a world-wide network of large antennas and communication facilities that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions. It also performs radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe, and supports selected...

.

Professional affiliations

  • American Association for the Advancement of Science
    American Association for the Advancement of Science
    The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...

     (Fellow)
  • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
    American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
    The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society , founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society , and the Institute...

     (AIAA)
  • Phi Beta Kappa
  • Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
    Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
    The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics was founded by a small group of mathematicians from academia and industry who met in Philadelphia in 1951 to start an organization whose members would meet periodically to exchange ideas about the uses of mathematics in industry. This meeting led...


External links

  • Selected publications by Edward W Ng
  • Unclassified papers can be found by author name of E. W. Ng or Edward Ng in this NASA database
  • NASA/JPL Proceedings on Information Systems for Space Astrophysics edited by J. Cutts and E. Ng
  • A number of these papers are accessible via the NASA ADS Astrophysics Data System
    Astrophysics Data System
    The Astrophysics Data System , developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration , is an online database of over eight million astronomy and physics papers from both peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed sources...

    , at Harvard-Smithsonian CFA
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