In our ‘10 Questions’ series, KBS caught up with Jeeu Fong Sze (Yvonne), a Kent Business School PhD Alumna, the 2017 Doctoral Award Winner and Assistant Professor of International Business at Beijing Foreign Studies University in China.
Describe yourself in 3 words
Hardworking, perfectionist and careful.
How did you come to realise that you wanted to pursue a PhD?
I was inspired by my lecturer when studying for my bachelor degree.
What was the supervision for your PhD like?
I was lucky to have Professor Said Salhi from Kent Business School (KBS) as my supervisor, he is a supervisor that every PhD student would dream of. He is knowledgeable, hardworking and very passionate towards research.
Describe how you spent your time at KBS
I am actually a night owl who works best at night. I worked mostly from 2 pm to 3 am during my time at KBS (in the Annex building).
What was your experience of teaching at KBS like?
I really enjoyed teaching at KBS because I learn better when I teach. Teaching also enhanced my presentation skills and allowed me to temporarily ‘getaway’ from my research
Explain what winning the Doctoral (PhD) Award in 2017 meant to you?
I never expected myself to win this award. I am very excited about receiving this award as it gives recognition to my research.
What impact did winning this award have on your career?
I think more people in the operational research field recognise my work.
Tell us what you will be discussing in your talk at the Beale Lecture
I will give a talk that is related to my PhD work, focusing on the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), one of the most extensively studied combinatorial optimisation problems due to its high practicability in transportation logistics.
Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
I see myself to be promoted to Associate Professor and to be publishing more high-quality papers in the next five years.
Tell us one thing that most people don’t know about you
Most of my works were done at the nocturnal hours.
If you would like to be featured in our ‘10 Questions’ series, please get in touch with a member of the Marketing team kbsmarketing@kent.ac.uk