A tribute to excellence
The NUS University Awards, held on 29 April at the University Cultural Centre, honoured nine esteemed individuals for their work and achievements. The annual event recognises members of the NUS community whose commitment and passion have set new benchmarks in education, research and service.
For their years of dedicated contribution to the nation and society, Mr Lee Tzu Yang, Chairman of NUS’ Middle East Institute and The Esplanade Company Limited; Professor Quek Tong Boon, Chief Defence Scientist from the Ministry of Defence; and Professor Tan Ser Kiat, Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at NUS’ Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) and Emeritus Consultant at Singapore General Hospital, were awarded the Outstanding Service Award.
Mr Lee has been Chairman of the Middle East Institute since its establishment in 2007. He was a member of the NUS Council, and later the NUS Board of Trustees, from 2004 to 2010 and was Board Member of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS from 2008 to 2010. “NUS is a much stronger university today and I am very privileged to have been part of the journey,” he said. Mr Lee currently chairs the board of the Esplanade, Singapore’s national performing arts centre. Recently, he was appointed Chairman of the Founders’ Memorial Committee, tasked with gathering views from the public and conceptualising a memorial dedicated to Singapore’s early leaders. Mr Lee formerly spent 35 years with the Shell Companies in Singapore before retiring as its Chairman, and helped to create healthier and safer workplaces during his eight years as Chairman of the Workplace Safety and Health Council.
Prof Quek, an Adjunct Professor at NUS Electrical & Computing Engineering and pioneer in defence science research with more than 35 years of engineering experience, has been involved in the creation of critical technological capabilities for Singapore’s defence. He helped to establish the Temasek Research Fellowship scheme in local universities to attract young researchers to conduct and lead defence research, and initiated the formation of the Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research in 2010 and Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology in 2013. Under his mentorship, NUS staged successful multidrone performances at the Singapore Airshow 2014 and this year’s “The Future of Us” exhibition. A true visionary who supports collaborative work, Prof Quek believes in dreaming big. “Whether it is analytics, robotics, neuromorphics or some other emerging technology, let us aspire to be creators, beyond just being users and consumers,” he encouraged.
Prof Tan was a pioneer Governing Board Member of Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) and laid the foundation for the development of doctors and clinician scientists at the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre. “I’m deeply humbled and honoured by this award and am grateful to NUS for the values and ethos I learnt, which has guided my life and work,” he said. The current President of the Singapore Medical Council has dedicated more than 40 years to public healthcare and served in numerous national-level committees that have helped to shape the local healthcare system. During his 12 years as Group CEO of SingHealth, Singapore’s largest public healthcare group, Prof Tan focused on enhancing patient care and staff development, and improving medical education.
From left: NUS Chairman Mr Wong Ngit Liong; Mr Lee; Prof Tan Ser Kiat; Prof Quek and Prof Tan Chorh Chuan
Honoured with the Outstanding Educator Award for their ability to engage and empower students were Associate Professor Gerald Koh Choon Huat from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH) and NUS Medicine, and Associate Professor Paulin Tay Straughan from the Department of Sociology at NUS Arts & Social Sciences.
Assoc Prof Koh leads the Continuing Professional Education programme of SSHSPH and serves as main academic advisor to the Neighbourhood Health Service project where students offer free door-to-door health screening to residents. Assoc Prof Straughan piloted and conducted the Freshman Seminar to guide incoming students and also established the multidisciplinary Global Studies Major.
Professor Sumit Agarwal from the Department of Finance at NUS Business and Professor Aung Tin from the Department of Ophthalmology at NUS Medicine received the Outstanding Researcher Award for their cutting-edge research contribution.
Prof Agarwal, who also has appointments with the Department of Economics and the Department of Real Estate, translates deep research into concrete actions which policymakers are able to implement for more prudent financial management and decision-making. Prof Aung set up and directed a leading research programme on glaucoma which brought international prominence to NUS. He also led the world’s first team to discover the gene responsible for congenital hereditary endothelial dystrophy.
Receiving the Young Researcher Award were Associate Professor Qiu Anqi from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at NUS Engineering and Associate Professor Christian Nijhuis from the Department of Chemistry at NUS Science. Assoc Prof Qiu and Assoc Prof Nijhuis were recognised for their creative and interdisciplinary research aimed at solving challenging problems in neuroimaging and nanoscale electronics respectively.
The winners of the University Awards 2016 are (from left): Assoc Prof Nijhuis; Assoc Prof Koh; Prof Quek; Mr Lee; Prof Tan; Assoc Prof Straughan; and Assoc Prof Qiu (Not in photo: Prof Agarwal and Prof Aung)
“The strength, talent and dedication of the NUS community have enabled our University to make significant and distinctive contributions to the progress of Singapore, and to the advancement of research and its beneficial application globally. We are truly proud of our award recipients this year. Their passion, creativity, perseverance and outstanding achievements will galvanise NUS’ talented community to be constantly self-surpassing and to achieve and contribute even more in the future,” said NUS President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan.
The event also saw the induction of seven new Fellows into the Teaching Academy — Assistant Professor Swati Suryakant Jhaveri, NUS Law; Assoc Prof Koh; Assistant Professor Alfred Kow Wei Chieh, Department of Surgery, NUS Medicine; Dr Christopher Michael McMorran, Department of Japanese Studies, NUS Arts & Social Sciences; Professor Bryan Edward Penprase, Science (Physics and Astrophysics), Yale-NUS College; Assoc Prof Straughan; and Associate Professor Silke Vogel from Duke-NUS.
See media coverage and the full list of winners in the press release.
