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Profile
Joel Ong is currently Research Assistant to Emeritus Professor Robert Beckman and Dr. Tara Davenport, Co-Heads of the Oceans Law and Policy Programme at the Centre for International Law (CIL), a university level research centre at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He read Law at NUS, graduating with a Second Class (Upper) Honours in 2023.
Joel is part of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA)-CIL Oceans Governance Research Programme 2023 funded by the Singapore Maritime Institute. He conducts research on ocean policy and regulation, and currently focuses on green shipping, dark ships, and maritime cybersecurity.
He has presented, published, and taught on the Law of the Sea and International Regulation of Shipping. He is a Teaching Assistant for the “International Regulation of Shipping” course at NUS Law for undergraduate and post-graduate students and has taught on “Climate Change and Shipping” to both NUS students and government officials. Notably, he presented his research to a former President and Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
His recent publication is a journal article ‘Decarbonizing International Shipping at the IMO: Are Alternative Fuels The Way Forward?’ published in Carbon & Climate Law Review. He has also been invited as a speaker to international conferences in Denmark and Malaysia sponsored by the Carlsberg Foundation and the Malaysian Armed Forces and as a peer reviewer for a World Maritime University workshop in Sweden. At CIL, Joel has helped to organize various conferences involving government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private industry, and academia.
He received a scholarship to attend the 2024 Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy in Greece, and was one of two students selected by their peers to give a short address on their behalf at the Awards Ceremony. He also received the Best Oralist Award for attaining the highest grade in the oral exam.