17
June
2014
|
00:01
Asia/Singapore

The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy appoints US-China relations and Asian studies experts for newly created Lee Foundation and Wilmar International Chair Professorships

With generous donations from the Lee Foundation and Wilmar International Limited, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has created two new Chair Professorships – the Lee Foundation Professorship in US-China Relations and the Wilmar Professorship in Asian Studies.

The LKY School Chair Professorship Search Committee was led by Professor Wang Gungwu. The Committee unanimously recommended Professor Huang Jing as the first Lee Foundation Chair Professor of US-China Relations and Professor Kanti Bajpai as the first Wilmar Chair of Asian Studies. The President and Provost of NUS accepted the recommendations of this committee and approved these appointments.

Professor Huang Jing is an internationally recognised expert on Chinese politics, China's foreign policy, the military, US-China relations, and security issues in Asia-Pacific. His book, Factionalism in Chinese Communist Politics, won the prestigious Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize in 2002. Professor Huang also serves as a Senior Overseas Economic Analyst for China's Xinhua News Agency. Before joining the LKY School, he was a Senior Fellow at the John Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution (2004 to 2008) and taught at Harvard and Stanford Universities. “It is a great honour and privilege to serve as the Lee Foundation Chair Professor of US-China Relations. The interaction between the United States and China, the world's two largest powers, exerts a fundamental impact on global peace and prosperity. As Asia-Pacific has become the central stage for both superpowers, the LKY School has provided an ideal platform for my research and teaching on the most important bilateral relationship and its implications,” said Professor Huang.

Professor Kanti Bajpai is a highly distinguished academic specialising in international security, Indian foreign policy and national security, and international relations and diplomacy. Before coming to the LKY School, he was Professor of International Politics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Professor in the Politics and International Relations of South Asia, Oxford University. From 2003 to 2009, he was Headmaster of The Doon School, India. He taught at the Maharajah Sayajirao University of Baroda and previously held visiting appointments at Wesleyan University, Columbia University, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has also held visiting appointments at the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace, Notre Dame University, the Brookings Institution, and the Australian Defence Force Academy. Most recently, he was appointed Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. Professor Bajpai said, “It is a great honour to be named the Wilmar Chair Professor of Asian Studies at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. The Chair underlines the School's commitment to the study of Asia and will serve as a wonderful platform for my research on Asia's international politics, China-India relations, and India's foreign policy.”

Both professors will continue in their respective capacities and roles at the LKY School – Professor Huang Jing as Director of Centre on Asia and Globalisation and Professor Kanti Bajpai as Vice Dean of Research.

The Chair Professor appointments reflect the outstanding contributions that both have made in their fields of research and their dedicated service to the LKY School and will be for a period of 5 years commencing on 1 July 2014.