Profile

PROF. DR. YAP THOO CHAI
Formerly with Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)

PROF. DR. YAP THOO CHAI, an Academic Fellow of Academy of Science Malaysia, is a Retired Professor in Plant Breeding at UPM (1976-96).  Prior to that, he was a lecturer in the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur (1971-75). He obtained his B.Sc. from Dept. of Agronomy, National Taiwan University, Taipei; M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Dept. of Crop Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.  His interests in crop breeding, quantitative genetics and biometrics brought him to work as part-time research assistant in the Statistics and Experimental Design Laboratory, Department of Agronomy, National Taiwan University, Taipei; research assistant at the Crop Science Dept. at University of Saskatchewan; did sabbatical research on genotype x environment interaction at Univ. of Western Australia, Perth; and did sabbatical research on computer simulation  of plant breeding research at Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Japan.  He also did oil palm breeding research at PORIM, and later was appointed as a Technical Advisor to PORIM (1982-1995). He has published over 100 scientific papers in local and international scientific journals, and a book on plant breeding entitled “Prinsip-Prinsip  Pembaikbiakan Tanaman” (1985 & 1990). He released three varieties for commercial production, namely Chinta sweet corn, Bakti super sweet corn, and Line 30 of long bean.  Upon retirement, Prof. Yap continues to be active in education and research after, teaching in International Multimedia College, Senior University International at Lead Academic Sdn. Bhd., offering  EMBA courses of the Rutherford University Kuala Lumpur at Corbiz Consultancy Sdn. Bhd., and  serving as business consultants in agricultural projects of many private companies.  He was President of the Malaysian Scientific Association (1992-96), President of the Malaysian Senior Scientists Association (2009-11) and served as Regional Secretary and Board member of SABRAO (1989-2000).