Ng Yong Hao

Ng Yong Hao is a Senior Tutor with the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Department of Social Work. His research and teaching focus on compassionate communities, death and grief literacies, and the systemic and structural dimensions of loss and grief. He examines how these areas intersect with community development and human services to strengthen support for individuals and families navigating experiences of loss.

Through his scholarship, Yong Hao seeks to build the capacity and ability of everyday individuals and communities to respond confidently and compassionately to those experiencing grief in its many forms. He is also interested in everyday ethics within cyber-thanatology, exploring how digital technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence, shape contemporary experiences of loss and grief.

Prior to joining academia, Yong Hao gained frontline experiences as a social worker in Singapore’s community and healthcare settings, where he worked directly with individuals and families facing loss and grief.

Yong Hao holds a PhD from the University of Hong Kong and a Master of Social Work from the National University of Singapore. He is a recipient of the NUS Overseas Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Ministry of Education’s Singapore Teaching and Academic Research Talent (START) award. He is a Registered Social Worker with the Singapore Association of Social Workers, a Fellow in Thanatology with the Association for Death Education and Counseling, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research Interests

• Compassionate communities
• Loss & grief (including “non-death” losses)
• Grief & death literacies
• Systems thinking approaches for thanatological topics
• Cyber-thanatology & ethics