Professor Dr. Alvin Ng Lai Oon
Dr. Alvin Lai Oon Ng, DPsych, FMASO, has dedicated his entire career to improving mental health practices, first as a clinical psychologist and now as a psychology professor and deputy dean at Sunway University’s School of Medical and Life Sciences.
His journey began after he graduated in 2002 with a Doctor of Psychology degree from Murdoch University, Australia.. From there, Alvin led the Master of Clinical Psychology programme at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia from 2003 to 2012 before leading Sunway University’s Masters of Applied Behaviour Analysis programme. During this time, he was also instrumental in setting up the Malaysian Society of Clinical Psychology in 2010 where he was the Founding President, and was twice the Secretary of the Asian Cognitive Behavioral Therapies Association.
While no longer in clinical practice, Alvin remains active in promoting mental health literacy and supporting the development of clinical psychology in Malaysia. Alongside serving in the Communications Committee of the World Confederation of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies, he has given over 400 talks at both professional and public events and currently has a monthly newspaper column on mental health in children and adolescents. Outside of the academic field, Alvin has been a regular consultant for LiteFM’s Breakfast Mental Health Hour.
Today, his prowess has been honoured widely with awards such as the National Outstanding Educator Award 2017 for Psychology and academic positions at the University of Exeter and University of East Anglia in the UK. Most recently, Alvin was a Jeffrey Cheah Scholar at the University of Oxford in Residence at Brasenose College from early September until early October 2024.
Making an impact to me is positively influencing communities, academia, industry and policy to promote sustained improvements in our collective quality of life. Impact has to address problems identified by the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which includes the promotion of peace.