1. education
2. alumni and reunions

The
ALUM
NUS
ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
O C T– D E C 2 0 1 4 / I S S U E 9 9
The
GREAT CHAIN of
DISCOVERY
WORLD-CHANGING ACHIEVEMENTS
OF NUS SCIENCE ALUMNI
Contents
First Word
OCT-DEC 2014
ISSUE 99
2 IN THE NEWS 10 COVER STORY OF DISCIPLINE & DESTINY 20 MY WORD A MUSICAL JOURNEY 22 ONCE UPON A MEMORY ONCE UPON A CRAB...
24 CHANGEMAKER MAGIC IS HIS REALITY 26 PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE HOT FOR CHOCOLATE 28 BREAKFAST DIALOGUE MR PIYUSH GUPTA
30 U@LIVE DR YEO SZE LING, MR ZULKIFLI BIN BAHARUDIN 34 ALUMNI HAPPENINGS 44 IN MEMORIAM 45 LOOKBACK 46 CULTURE 48 LAST WORD
10
22
26
CORRIGENDUM
In the Jul-Sep 2014 issue, it was stated in “Making the
Arts Work”, that the NUS Arts Festival is sponsored
by ExxonMobil. That is incorrect. It is the ExxonMobil
Campus Concerts (EMCC) — the longest running arts
outreach programme for the campus, started in 1986 —
that is sponsored by ExxonMobil. The NUS Arts Festival
began in 2006.
The
ALUM
NUS
ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
ONE OF THE CORE STRENGTHS OF THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE
IS ITS CULTURE OF
EXCELLENCE, THE
ACADEMIC STAFF
AIMS VERY HIGH.
PROFESSOR ANDREW WEE THYE SHEN
FORMER DEAN, FACULTY OF SCIENCE
EDITOR
Karin Yeo
(Arts and Social Sciences ’97)
The AlumNUS is published quarterly by the NUS Office of
Alumni Relations. The views and opinions expressed are
those of the authors and do not necessarily represent
the views of the NUS Office of Alumni Relations
or the National University of Singapore. For more
information or to read The AlumNUS online, please visit
www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet.
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Stephanie S Williams - Sivakumar
Copyright 2014 by the National University of Singapore.
All rights reserved. Printed in Singapore by KHL Printing
Co Pte Ltd.
ADVISOR
Assoc Prof Victor R Savage
(Arts and Social Sciences ’72)
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Noreen Kwan
PUBLISHING CONSULTANT
MediaCorp Pte Ltd
CONTACT US
Office of Alumni Relations – National University of Singapore
11 Kent Ridge Drive, Singapore 119244 Tel: (65) 6516-5775 Fax: (65) 6777-2065
Email: oarconnect@nus.edu.sg Website: www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nusoar
DEAR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS,
T
he Office of Alumni Relations (OAR) has had an eventful
2014. We have set a momentum for our engagement
activities with your enthusiastic support. This year over
1,100 alumni attended our Bukit Timah Homecoming in July
and about 4,800 alumni experienced our Kent Ridge Alumni
Family Day in August. We also had equally good turn-outs at our
monthly Movies on the House, U@live sessions with the inimitable Viswa,
and strong attendance for the Canadian Film Festival in March.
Our NUS Alumni Lifestyle Workshop Series continued with a make-up and fashion
workshop which enthralled 200 female alumni, staff and students on 30 July, with
sponsorship by Shu Uemura, Robinsons and L’Oréal. Our younger alumni continued to
network at our popular Thirsty Thursdays sessions. We look forward to your attendance
at our China Film Festival (18 to 21 October at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House). Our
Senior Alumni continue to run their monthly tea and chat sessions with lively exchanges.
OAR continues to provide an integrative role for all alumni groups in Schools,
Faculties and Halls by supporting the varied activities and bringing them together
under one NUS umbrella. We welcome our newest kids on the block – the Lee Kuan Yew
School’s Alumni Group which had its inauguration on 1 August. Our alumni Associate
Directors meet quarterly and this has strengthened the bonds amongst the Faculties,
Schools and Halls.
We have been slowly developing a stronger core group of volunteer alumni who lead
our various interest groups and social activities. We had a very successful Investiture
Ceremony for our Alumni Class Ambassadors on 24 June; they will help to strengthen
and expand Alumni Groups amongst Halls, Faculties and Schools. To strengthen alumni
leadership, over 200 alumni leaders attended the annual Alumni Leaders Forum on
13 September. If you would like to join or form an Alumni Group, please let us know.
Our last issue for the year features the many talents of our Science alumni, in
celebration of the Faculty’s 85th anniversary. Like other NUS alumni, NUS Science alumni
demonstrate their versatility, adaptability and their ability to attain high levels of
achievement in academia, politics, business, and government. Our President of Singapore,
Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, hails from the Faculty of Science.
Let me close by wishing all our Hindu and Sikh alumni a Happy Diwali and to all
our Christian alumni, a Blessed Christmas. And to everyone, a joyful, healthy and
meaningful 2015.
The
ALUM
NUS
ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
O C T– D E C 2 0 1 4 / I S S U E 9 9
The
GREAT CHAIN of
DISCOVERY
WORLD-CHANGING ACHIEVEMENTS
OF NUS SCIENCE ALUMNI
COVER CONCEPT:
Samuel Ng
PHOTO:
Shutterstock
ASSOC PROF VICTOR R SAVAGE
DIRECTOR, NUS OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS
Arts and Social Sciences ’72
OCT–DEC 2014
1
IN THE NEWS
BUKIT TIMAH HOMECOMING
NUS – ASIA’S TOP
UNIVERSITY
AND
ND
22 IN THE WORLD
The University is among world’s top 10
for academic and employer reputation.
M
OVING UP TWO SPOTS from its 24th
position last year, the National
University of Singapore (NUS) is
now placed 22nd in the 2014/2015
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World
University Rankings, retaining its
position as the top university
in Asia.
Ranked the world’s top 10 for academic and
employer reputation, the University has retained
its ninth position for academic reputation,
and clinched the 10th spot worldwide for
employer reputation.
In terms of the number of research papers
published and citations generated, the University
has also improved significantly. Up by four spots
from 17th position last year, Arts and Humanities
is now placed 13th in the world. The other
faculty areas are placed in the following order:
Engineering and Technology (7), Life Sciences
and Medicine (27), Natural Sciences (13), Social
Sciences and Management (9).
Based on academic reputation, employer
reputation, citations per faculty, faculty student
ratio, and proportions of international students
and international faculty, the QS World University
Rankings evaluates over 800 universities in
the world.
2
ALUMNUS
“We are happy and honoured that NUS is
placed again among the very best universities
in the world, and top in Asia. I believe that NUS’
strong and growing international reputation
reflects our singular focus on nurturing,
recruiting and retaining talent, our unrelenting
pursuit of excellence and our commitment to
creating an environment where our faculty,
staff and students can do excellent work of
high impact. We will continue to innovate in
education and research, so that the University
will continue to contribute strongly towards
the advancement of Singapore and the wider
community in the years to come,” said NUS
President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan.
The QS Head of Research Mr Ben Sowter said,
“The relentless progress of NUS in our rankings
signals a resolute long term strategy, sustainable
financial planning, investment in world class
facilities and leveraging Singapore’s increasing
desirability as a place to be”, adding that the
University “has further enhanced its research
profile, strengthened its faculty student ratio
and resonated more strongly with employers
this year.”
“It is heartening that every
year, the event at Bukit
Timah campus is getting
bigger and bigger. It’s a sign
of growing commitment to
this campus. The fact that
more and more [alumni]
are coming is a very good
sign. Shows that people
even as they get older, they
have developed deeper
links with the institution
even though the passage
of time has become bigger.”
PROF KISHORE MAHBUBANI
(ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ’71),
DEAN OF LKY SCHOOL
THE MUCH-LOVED ANNUAL BUKIT
TIMAH HOMECOMING, organised
by the NUS Office of Alumni
Relations, was held this year
on 5 July. The event saw more
than 1,100 alumni and guests
gather at their beloved Bukit
Timah Campus for an evening of
reminiscence and enjoyment.
Co-hosted by the Faculty
of Law and the Lee Kuan Yew
School of Public Policy (LKY
School), this year’s Homecoming
also commemorated the 85th
anniversaries of the Faculty of Arts
and Social Sciences, and the Faculty
of Science; the 55th anniversary of
Raffles Hall, one of NUS’ oldest halls
of residence; the 10th anniversary of
the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public
Policy, as well as the 50th anniversary
of the Class of 1964. Five large cakes
were cut by alumni representatives to
celebrate the various anniversaries.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
To view the full results of the 2014/2015 QS World
University Rankings, please visit TopUniversities.com/
Rankings2014.
OCT–DEC 2014
3
IN THE NEWS
“The event was interesting.
I enjoyed the outdoor
movie the most and
also had fun with body
painting!”
Prof Chesterman, Dean of the NUS Faculty of Law (far left),
with Prof Mahbubani, Dean of LKY School, sharing a lighthearted moment with ‘Cleopatra’ and ‘Marilyn Monroe’.
Guest-of-Honour President Dr Tony Tan (right), with NUS President Prof Tan.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
Guest-of-honour President
Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam (Science ’62),
graced the occasion with his wife,
Mrs Mary Tan (Arts and Social Sciences
’62). VIPs who attended the event
included Chairman of the NUS Board
of Trustees, Mr Wong Ngit Liong
(Engineering ’65); NUS President,
Professor Tan Chorh Chuan (Medicine
’83); and NUS senior management.
Prof Tan kicked off the event
with an opening speech. “Since last
year’s homecoming, the University
has continued to make very
strong progress. Our international
reputation has gone up but even more
importantly, our engagement with our
alumni has grown ever stronger.”
Apart from good food and great
company, alumni and guests were
entertained by a series of performances,
from Singapore’s very own Elvis Presley
aka Mr William David, to alumni singers
and the ‘The All Stars’ band.
“I’m absolutely delighted
to welcome back so many
people from the rich
history that we have on
this campus. It’s a great
opportunity for people to
relive old memories and
a great opportunity also
for me to learn about the
sort of experiences people
had here, so that we can
improve the experiences
of students now and
into the future.”
PROF SIMON CHESTERMAN,
DEAN, NUS FACULTY OF LAW
Kent Ridge Alumni Family Day
4
ALUMNUS
MS YANG XUE JING
(ENGINEERING ’10)
THE NUS UNIVERSITY TOWN BUSTLED with
life on 16 August this year when more
than 4,800 alumni, students, staff
and their families turned up for a day
of non-stop fun at the popular annual
Kent Ridge Alumni Family Day. Organised
by the NUS Office of Alumni Relations,
Kent Ridge Alumni Family Day seeks
to bring together the NUS community
of alumni, students, staff and families
for a day of interaction, networking and
relationship-building.
Guest-of-honour Mr Wong Ngit Liong
(Engineering ’65), Chairman of the NUS
Board of Trustees, thanked friends and
supporters of NUS for attending the
event in his appreciation speech. “This
is a great community where families of
alumni, students [and] staff are able to
gather together to network, to catch up
with friends old and new, as well as to
celebrate the past year’s achievements.
NUS has become a great university. One
of the best in the world! A university
which all of us can be very proud of,”
Mr Wong said.
Other VIPs who turned up included
NUS President, Professor Tan Chorh Chuan
(Medicine ’83); Professor Wang Gungwu
(Arts ’52) and his wife; Emeritus
Professor Edwin Thumboo (Arts ’56);
and Vice Provost of Student Life,
Professor Tan Tai Yong (Arts and Social
Sciences ’85), and his wife.
Participants enjoyed rag floats
display, photo-taking with roving
characters from the movies
Transformers and Frozen, stage games,
performances by award-winning
Singaporean musicians, the Lorong Boys
and a flash mob dance performed by
the students of Temasek Hall and the
College of Alice and Peter Tan. The day
culminated in an outdoor movie
screening of popular children’s movie
Frozen and a grand lucky draw.
OCT–DEC 2014
5
NUS Alumni-Standard Chartered
GLOBAL CONVERSATIONS
IN THE NEWS
ECONOMIC INTEGRATION VERSUS POLITICAL DISPUTES IN ASIA:
WHICH SIDE WILL PREVAIL?
NUS ALUMNI
LEADERS
FORUM 2014
Professor Tommy Koh (Law ’61)
Programme : 11.45am – Registration
14 November 2014, Friday
11.45am – 2pm
12.15pm – Sharing by Prof Tommy Koh
The Westin Singapore, Ballroom 1,
12.35pm – Q&A Session
Asia Square Tower 2,
1.45pm – Networking Lunch Reception
12 Marina View, Singapore 018961
Moderator : Mr Lim Cheng Teck
Chief Executive Officer, ASEAN, Standard Chartered Bank
Date
Time
Venue
:
:
:
Global Conversations is an interactive corporate networking event. The discussions will cover a wide range
of topics related to the financial services and issues pertaining to the regional and global economy, and foreign policies.
WORLD FUTURE
FOUNDATION
(WFF) PHD PRIZE
BACK FOR THE FOURTH YEAR RUNNING,
2014’s NUS Alumni Leaders’ Forum
(ALF) proved to be yet another
successful event, providing alumni
leaders and volunteers a platform
for the exchange of best practices in
alumni relations.
Spearheaded by the NUS Alumni
Advisory Board and organised by the
NUS Office of Alumni Relations, this
year’s ALF was graced by guestsof-honour NUS Deputy President
(Academic Affairs) and Provost,
Professor Tan Eng Chye (Science ’84),
and Professor Wang Gungwu (Arts ’52).
The forum attracted 147 alumni leaders,
student leaders and volunteers from
the NUS Faculties, Halls, Alumni Groups
and Overseas Chapters.
Themed NUS Alumnus – Make A
Difference, the session comprised
three panel discussion groups that
included notable speakers like
Chairman of the Lien Foundation,
Mr Laurence Lien (Business ’00);
and Director of the Chuan Thian Poh
Community Leadership Programme,
Associate Professor Albert Teo (Arts
and Social Sciences ’86). Alumni
leaders and participants engaged over
discussion topics that included new
initiatives, challenges and learning
points for alumni groups, programmes
for engaging overseas alumni and
giving back through social service and
community engagement.
The forum concluded with a
luncheon talk, titled Alumni Angles:
Top, Side and Bottom by Prof Wang,
at the NUSS Kent Ridge Guild House.
6
ALUMNUS
“[Alumni] should be able
to participate in more
alumni activities, join
alumni groups or form
alumni groups. They
should also interact
and mingle...with other
alumni groups, so they
can combine resources.
During these interactions,
they can share their
experiences and also
provide mentorship for
the new graduates.”
MS MAGDALENE KUEH (ENGINEERING ’84),
FORMER PRESIDENT, ENGINEERING ALUMNI SINGAPORE.
The fifth cohort of 10 winners from
NUS and NTU were conferred the
WFF PhD Prize in Environmental &
Sustainability research in July this
year. NUS Vice Provost (Graduate
Education), Professor Mohan
Kankanhalli said, “This year, the five
NUS winners were chosen amongst
164 high quality submissions from
PhD candidates. Our students’
achievements reflect NUS’ strength
in sustainability research, and we are
proud that they have demonstrated
passion, creativity and innovativeness
in developing multi-disciplinary,
sustainable solutions towards solving
environmental problems. The Prize
provides a timely impetus for these
young and talented researchers
to continue to contribute towards
environmental sustainability.”
Organised
Organised by:
by:
FREE ADMISSION. Limited seats available.
Please register early to avoid disappointment. Seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.
Register at: alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/GCnov14 today. For enquiries, please contact Ms Gabriella Nyam at 6516 5771 or email her at gabriella@nus.edu.sg
U@live is a monthly
one speaker 10 minutes
BOUNDLESS
INSPIRATION
speaker series that
showcase outstanding
members of the NUS
community. Apart from
having a live audience,
U@live will also be
29 OCT 2014
I
WEDNESDAY 7.30PM
Ms Indranee Thurai Rajah
webcasted live through a
Law ’86
dedicated website where
Senior Minister of State
Ministry of Law and Education
users can send in real time
comments and questions
directly to the speakers.
U@live Speaker Series are
moderated by Mr Viswa
Sadasivan, Chairman of
Established in 2010, the PhD Prize is
Singapore’s first-of-its-kind prize to
recognise excellence in doctoral-level
(PhD) environmental and sustainability
research. Winners receive an award of
US$10,000 each.
Sponsored
Sponsored by:
by:
26 NOV 2014
I
WEDNESDAY 7.30PM
Dr Yaacob Ibrahim
Engineering ’80
Minister for Communications and Information and
Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs
the U@live Organising
Committee and Member of
the NUS Alumni Advisory
Board.
Reserve Your Seats Now!
Attend the forum live at the
Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Register at www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet
OR
Join Us Online!
www.nus.edu.sg/ualive
IN THE NEWS
CLASS AMBASSADORS
INVESTITURE
SINCE 2008, graduating students
appointed by their respective
Faculties and Schools have been
working closely with the NUS Office
of Alumni Relations (OAR) to build
class connections. Class Ambassadors
help to keep alumni informed of the
latest NUS news, provide leadership
at alumni reunions and events, as
well as share their time and talent
by volunteering as mentors for
undergraduates. To date, OAR has
1,048 Class Ambassadors helping it
maintain a strong alumni network.
On 27 June this year, OAR held a
Class Ambassador Investiture to
formally welcome the 2014 Class
Ambassadors. The event took place
at the Shaw Foundation Alumni
House with approximately 100 newlyappointed Class Ambassadors turning
up. To begin them on their new role,
all participants received a kit
comprising contact details of Alumni
Groups, Overseas Chapters, and Shaw
Foundation Alumni House’s rental rates.
BOOK
CORNER
TROUBLEMAKER is a collection
of Bertha Henson’s (Arts and Social
Sciences ’86) columns from her blog,
Bertha Harian, as well as the nowdefunct Breakfast Network.
They represent her take on the
news of the day, spanning political
and social happenings in Singapore
from the middle of 2012. Sometimes
serious, sometimes hilarious,
Bertha brings her own inimitable
style to news commentary, raising
questions and zooming in on issues
that concern the citizenry.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NUS ALUMNI LIFESTYLE WORKSHOP
THE SECOND IN A SERIES of the NUS
Alumni Lifestyle Workshops launched
earlier this year, the NUS Alumnae
Lifestyle Workshop held on 30 July
proved to be a great success with
200 female alumni turning up at the
Shaw Foundation Alumni House to
learn more about creating positive
8
ALUMNUS
first impressions. Organised by the
NUS Office of Alumni Relations in
collaboration with Shu Uemura, L’Oréal
and Robinsons, professional makeup artists, hairstylists and personal
shoppers showed alumni the tips
and tricks of creating stylish makeup, unique office style and a lasting
impression. Participants were treated
to a buffet dinner before the event
and some lucky alumni walked away
with items from Shu Uemura. The
NUS Alumni Lifestyle Workshop series
seeks to reach out to NUS alumni
from all walks of life with workshops of
different natures that cater to alumni’s
diverse range of interests. The first
in this series was a workshop on art
appreciation that brought together
alumni art enthusiasts under one roof.
Bertha Henson worked in the
Singapore Press Holdings stable
of newspapers for 26 years, her
last designation being Associate
Editor of The Straits Times,
Singapore’s national broadsheet.
In 2012, she left the organisation
to start her own media consultancy,
Newsmakers, and to teach at the
National University of Singapore.
She is journalist-in-residence at
Tembusu College in NUS. She started
blogging at
Bertha Harian
the day after
she left SPH
employment.
She still blogs at
Bertha Harian.
Troublemaker
is available at all
select bookstores.
S$28.89 (with GST).
AD
LIFELONG LESSONS
OF
DISCIPLINE
& DESTINY
PHOTO GETTY IMAGES
I
10
ALUMNUS
FOR 85 YEARS, THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE HAS EDUCATED
GENERATIONS OF STUDENTS, MANY OF WHOM HAVE GONE
ON TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN A SPECTRUM OF INDUSTRIES.
THE ALUMNUS TAKES A LOOK AT ITS HISTORY THROUGH THE
EYES OF ITS ALUMNI AND FACULTY MEMBERS. BY THERESA TAN
T IS HARD TO IMAGINE the
National University of
Singapore Faculty of
Science today being a single
department, but that is
exactly how it began: as a
department of just three
staff members and 10
students in Raffles College in 1929.
The only subjects taught then were
Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.
Today, the Faculty of Science
(FoS) is one of the largest in the
National University of Singapore,
with 4,500 undergraduates, 1,300
graduate students, 500 academic staff
members and 300 administrative
and support staff members. There
are six departments: Mathematics,
Chemistry, Physics, Biological
Sciences, Pharmacy, Statistical
Studies and Applied Probability;
and three programmes: the Special
Programme in Science, Food Science
and Technology and Computational
Biology. A fourth – Environmental
studies – is jointly offered by FoS
and the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences (FASS), and is a multidisciplinary department that
involves seven other faculties,
including Law and Business.
Each department boasts its
own lists of accomplishments,
high achievers and outstanding
alumni. Each, too, is a continuallyevolving entity – new programmes,
initiatives, research projects happen
on a regular basis. Collaborations
between departments, with other
faculties or even universities
take place increasingly often, all
for the advancement of science
and its study.
Departments have even come
and gone from FoS as well. For
example, the Department of Material
Science which was transferred to the
Faculty of Engineering in 2005 and
renamed Department of Material
Science and Engineering. On an
even larger scale, what was the
Department of Information Systems
and Computer Science (DISCS) in
FoS became a stand-alone faculty –
the School of Computing – in 1998.
This year, FoS turns 85. It has the
distinction of being the alma mater
of Singapore’s current head of
state, President Dr Tony Tan
Keng Yam, who graduated with
First Class Honours in Physics from
FoS in 1962, and later returned
to the faculty as a Mathematics
lecturer. FoS alumni can be found in
industries as far and wide as banking
and fast-moving consumer goods,
and from academia to business.
BEING
VERSATILE
“Science is very versatile,” says
NUS Provost and Deputy President
(Academic Affairs), Professor Tan
Eng Chye, who was Dean of FoS
from 2003 to 2007. “Underpinning
Science is critical thinking and
logical thinking. This is quite
essential in everything. We have
alumni in Pharmacy, Mathematics,
Physics and Chemistry who are all
doing well in their own spheres.
Some are in the sort of careers that
you would not imagine a Science
grad being in, but I think they are
very versatile…because the Science
training is good.”
Prof Tan names alumni like
Ms Olivia Lum, who graduated
from Chemistry in 1986 and is the
founder of water treatment company
Hyflux, a billion-dollar public-listed
company that has earned her a spot
on the Forbes Southeast Asia Rich
List, and Mr Foo Hee Jug, a 1990
OCT–DEC 2014
11
LIFELONG LESSONS
returned later to do a part-time MSc
in Statistics. “I love Mathematics,
particularly abstract algebra;
I love the elegance of the proofs
and logical thinking; I didn’t need
a calculator; just the strength of
thought.” His Honours thesis on
Operations Research gave him the
first taste of using mathematics
to solve problems in the real world.
“My Mathematics education in
FoS equipped me with a logical
turn of mind that was well-suited
towards this analytics practice;
it was all about framing and
solving problems.”
However, he was “also very
much into the arts at NUS. I was a
semi-professional musician-singer
and was involved with producing
and performing shows at LT13
in FASS.” This ‘right-brain-leftbrain combination’ proved to be
his passport into Citibank’s elite
management trainee programme.
“That same combination allowed
me to succeed in both creating
value (i.e. generating new
insights) and realising value
(i.e. translating the insights into
creative implementations) through
analytics,” he explains.
Mr Eric Sandosham
OUT OF
THE BOX
Mr Sandosham’s
formula for success is
one that the Provost
has been encouraging
with his idea of a
grade-free first semester
that allows first-year
undergraduates to
pick up a subject from
a different faculty
without fear of doing
poorly (see Holistic
Changes, pg 14). Crossdisciplinary exposure
“WE CAN ADAPT AND
SURVIVE IN PRETTY MUCH ANY
ENVIRONMENT AND DEAL WITH
DIFFERENT RESPONSIBILITIES.”
Mr Daniel Chia
has many benefits, as evidenced by
Mr Sandosham’s experience.
Mr Daniel Chia (Science ’03)
was in the Food Science and
Technology programme at FoS, an
Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) Scholar
and Professor Ang Kok Peng Scholar.
He is currently Human Resource
Manager at Nestle Singapore. His
family was not financially well-off,
so he is grateful for the “lobangs”
presented by the scholarships he
received, which enabled him to
complete his university education.
He was also offered an internship, and
later a full-time job at APB even before
he graduated. He worked as a Brewing
Technologist and Brewing Team
Leader at APB for more than two years
before joining Nestle as a soy sauce
Production Executive. He was then
based in Malaysia as the company’s
Manufacturing Specialist for Infant
Cereals when he was offered a
promotion to Human Resource.
“MY MATHEMATICS EDUCATION IN FoS
EQUIPPED ME WITH A LOGICAL TURN
OF MIND THAT WAS WELL-SUITED
TOWARDS THIS ANALYTICS PRACTICE;
IT WAS ALL ABOUT FRAMING AND
SOLVING PROBLEMS.”
MR ERIC SANDOSHAM
(SCIENCE ’95)
12
ALUMNUS
Mr Liak Teng Lit
MR DANIEL CHIA
(SCIENCE ’03)
PHOTO OF ERIC SANDOSHAM & LIAK TENG LIT: WILSON PANG; PHOTO OF DANIEL CHIA COURTESY OF NESTLE
Mathematics graduate who became
Chief Operating Officer of Singapore
General Hospital at age 37.
Mr Eric Sandosham (Science ’95)
is a fine example of the diverse sort
of graduate that FoS produces. Over
18 years, he rose up the ranks at
financial institution Citibank, and
now runs Red & White Consulting
Partners. The company specialises
in helping organisations optimise
their financial performance,
operations, marketing capabilities
and human resource management
through the use of analytics and
business intelligence.
The 44 year-old, known in
Citibank as “the father of the modern
data warehouse at Citi Asia Pacific”,
was the Managing Director and
Head of the Citibank’s Decision
Management function for Asia
Pacific. He led a team of 330 analysts
embedded across 14 countries,
whose innovative and extensive
business analytics work contributed
to 25 per cent of Citi’s consumer
bank revenues in the region.
The Outstanding Science
Alumnus (2006) majored in
Mathematics for his BSc and
“I was surprised when they
asked me – no one makes such a
career change especially during
expatriation,” he recalls. “When I
asked my line manager why they
would consider a technical guy
like me to head the Education and
Training team for Malaysia and
Singapore, he said it was because of
my attributes: I was adaptable, had
good people management skills and
a problem-solving mindset.”
Today, Mr Chia, 37, is a market
education and training pillar leader
for Nestle’s Malaysia and Singapore
markets, and is a certified trainer and
coach specialising in competenciesbuilding. It is a quite a leap from
his Food Science background, but
Mr Chia points out how it can be an
easy one to make.
“Our three or four years’ stay in
NUS builds that sort of character
in Science graduates,” he explains.
“Through getting group assignments
done, completing an experiment
and participating in internship
programmes, we develop strength of
character – we can adapt and survive
in pretty much any environment and
deal with different responsibilities.”
A PASSION
FOR POSITIVE
CHANGE
Mr Liak Teng Lit (Science ’77) echoes
what Mr Sandosham and Mr Chia
have observed about an education
in Science. “A Science education
– probably more than many other
courses – trains us to think logically,”
he says. “Living in a more connected
world where things seem to get more
complicated can be bewildering.
A scientific, logical mind helps to
clarify issues.”
Mr Liak is the very example
of that scientific, logical mind.
A Pharmacy graduate, he had
originally applied for Medical School
but was offered Dentistry. He chose
Pharmacy because it was
“closer to working in
healthcare”. Unlike many
other Science alumni,
he has spent his entire
career in the same field,
albeit in various roles. His
lifelong mission has been
to change the way hospital
pharmacy services are
provided. “Singapore’s
healthcare system went
from Third World in the
’60s and ’70s to First World
by the late ’80s. I practised
pharmacy at SGH and
later NUH, which were the
most ‘happening’ hospitals
in the late ’70s and ’80s,”
says the 61 year-old who
was named Distinguished
Science Alumnus in 2011
by FoS. “We were very
much the young idealistic
professionals who drove
the transformation of
healthcare and pharmacy
during that period.”
Mr Liak’s next aim was to change
the way hospitals were managed
– so he spent the next 10 years
restructuring management through
different roles at major hospitals: he
was Operations Manager at the then
KK Hospital, Chief Operating Officer
at Singapore General Hospital, and
Chief Executive Officer at Toa Payoh
and Changi General Hospitals.
And now, in his fourth decade in
healthcare, his passion is to “shift
focus from episodic illness care of
body parts to head-to-toe lifelong
anticipatory healthcare of whole
persons,” says the Cluster Chief
Executive Officer of Alexandra
Health System (which includes
Khoo Teck Phuat Hospital).
“We are providing illness
care,” says Mr Liak of the existing
system, “but we need to shift to
“WE WERE VERY MUCH
THE YOUNG IDEALISTIC
PROFESSIONALS
WHO DROVE THE
TRANSFORMATION
OF HEALTHCARE AND
PHARMACY DURING
THAT PERIOD.”
MR LIAK TENG LIT
(SCIENCE ’77)
CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
OCT–DEC 2014
13
LIFELONG LESSONS
Supt Jason Loke
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13
HOLISTIC CHANGES
healthcare. We need to move care
out of hospitals into the community
and homes. The ageing population
will force our hand anyway, but
technology will enable us to do
things in ways that weren’t possible
just a few years ago.”
Mr Lam Pin Woon (Science ’83)
has experienced the best of both
worlds: he has been a maverick like
Mr Sandosham and Mr Chia, and a
purist like Mr Liak. Mr Lam, who
was named Outstanding Science
Alumnus in 2005, has served in
commercial companies like Quaker
Oats and F&N as well as government
agencies like the Health Promotion
Board (HPB), and companies such
as Parkway Health. He is currently
a Director of the Allswell Group of
companies which distributes the Red
Bull energy drink, and develops as
well as markets a range of health and
wellness products in Singapore and
the region.
He considers it fortuitous that he
has enjoyed such a diverse portfolio.
“It was a combination of luck, guts
and toil,” says Mr Lam. “I have
always held the belief that with an
open mind, skills and experiences
are transportable across industries,
sectors – private, public or people –
and territories.”
PROFESSOR TAN ENG CHYE
(SCIENCE ’85) PROVOST AND DEPUTY PRESIDENT (ACADEMIC AFFAIRS), NUS
As NUS’ Provost and Deputy President (Academic Affairs), Prof Tan Eng Chye
is the Chief Academic Officer who oversees and drives strategic educational
initiatives of critical importance. He speaks to The AlumNUS about the changes
he has introduced to enhance the NUS educational experience and the
advantages of a broad-based Science education.
CAN YOU ELABORATE ON THE THREE
BIG AREAS OF CHANGE?
One, how to enhance the NUS
learning experience. UTown is one
example. Another is the mandatory
communications programme (that
teaches communication and writing
so that one’s ideas and initiatives
can be understood by people outside
one’s faculty). By this year, it will
be compulsory for all freshmen.
Our hope is for more elements of
communications and writing to be
incorporated and built into the entire
four-year curriculum for Science
and Engineering.
We are going to implement a new
General Education curriculum in 2015.
The idea is to have a more rigorous way
14
ALUMNUS
WHY THIS INITIATIVE AT THIS TIME?
We are looking at the skills needed for
the 21st century. A few would be
communications and writing, critical
thinking, ability to work in a team, a global
outlook, cross-disciplinary ability and crosscultural competencies.
[This] is what is driving the changes in
our educational framework. One important
piece is how our students fit into the
industry and how can we prepare them to
be industry- and future-ready. That is where
enhanced industry engagement comes in.
That is why it is important to see the whole
set of changes in perspective.
YOU HAVE PUT BROAD-BASED LEARNING INTO
SCIENCE WITH THE GRADE-FREE SEMESTER.
WHY IS THAT IMPORTANT?
When I was a Science undergraduate I never
realised the importance of Humanities,
Psychology and so on. I was only interested
in Math and only took Math. I did not care
then about what was happening elsewhere
in the world. That is fine if you want to be
an academic. But if you graduate with a
Mathematics degree and you go out into the
industry, then it is useful for you to know
things outside of Mathematics.
So the immediate area is how
Mathematics impacts Science, and how
Science impacts Mathematics. That is
important. Then, outside of Science, how
the Humanities impact the Sciences; how
Social Sciences impact Science and viceversa; that is important, too. It is important
for all students to learn and appreciate this.
Mr Lam Pin Woon
PHOTO OF JASON LOKE : MENG CHOON; PHOTO OF LAM PIN WOON COURTESY OF MR LAM
TELL US ABOUT THE CHANGES
YOU HAVE IMPLEMENTED AS PROVOST.
It began with University Town (UTown)
(a cluster of Residential Colleges
and community spaces offering
an intellectual, social and cultural
environment through excellence in
learning and student engagement). That
was just three years ago but it took us
a long time to put it together. Finding
the right Masters and Fellows to be
involved in the college system was the
most challenging part.
We are starting the Ridge View
Residential College this year. The
focus [is more] to expose students to
career options.
they would deserve good grades. That is why
we should adjust our honours classification
to better acknowledge that these are really
good students.
‘First Class’, ‘Second Upper’ and ‘Second
Lower’ do not quite describe students’
accomplishments, so they are now
reclassified as ‘Honours with Highest
Distinction’ and ‘Honours with Distinction’
and so on.
These are the three big directions we
are pushing in, and these changes need to
be seen in a holistic manner.
PHOTO OF PROF TAN ENG CHYE : KELVIN CHIA; INTERVIEW : LIANNE ONG
Prof Tan, 53, has four children — all NUS
or to-be NUS undergraduates. He met his
wife, a Mathematics major like him, in
the Faculty of Science. Before becoming
Provost, Prof Tan was Dean of the Faculty
of Science.
to introduce broad-based learning
to students.
Two, we are building on existing
programmes that enhance engagement
with industry. We have very good
programmes built on internships: we have
the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC), in six
locations around the world. We are hoping
to increase the number of students. Now
there are 150 students involved in NOC
every year – we hope to double the number
in the next few years.
Starting this year, Engineering and
Computing freshmen need to take on a
six-month internship in their third year.
We are working with employers to come
up with internship experiences for our
students. The scale is big: we are talking
about 1,500 students from Engineering and
400 from Computing.
We have established Ridge View
Residential College to sensitise students
and make them career- and future-ready.
We are also repositioning our NUS
Career Centre, which will be renamed
the Centre for Future-ready Graduates. It
now sits as a unit inside the NUS Office
of Student Affairs. We are going to take it
out and establish it as an independent unit
reporting directly to Vice-Provost Professor
Chan Eng Soon in the Provost’s office. We
hope to reposition it so that it can play a
more critical role in engaging the industry
and preparing students. I do not want
to build expectations too high, though
– it is not going to be easy to place 6,500
graduates every year.
The third and last area of change is,
how to better-profile our students. That is
where the honours classification comes
in. Singapore uses an indicator called
the cohort participation rate; that is, the
proportion of 18-year-olds in Singapore
and how many of them would have access
to our five local universities.
The rate will hit 30 percent in 2015,
and 40 percent by 2020 – amounting to the
top 30 percent of our birth cohort. NUS
takes in a majority of the students in the
top 15 percent of the birth cohort.
If they had gone anywhere in the world,
For the quality of Science
graduates that emerges from
the Faculty, Mr Lam credits
the “dedicated teachers and
rigorous curriculum that
trains graduates to analyse
and solve problems,
the fortitude to take on and
overcome challenges, and
the inquisitiveness
to question the status quo.”
Questioning the status
quo was what led him to
introduce initiatives to fight
obesity, promote active
ageing and manage chronic
diseases as Chief Excutive
Officer of HPB from 2005
to 2010. “While the life
expectancy of Singaporeans
has increased over the
years, it is equally important that
Singaporeans are healthy in their
golden years so as to enjoy good
quality of life. It was a humbling
experience to work alongside
so many dedicated colleagues
and to realise that there are
many Singaporeans who need a
helping hand.”
SOLUTIONS
FOR THE
REAL WORLD
The Department of Pharmacy,
which revamped its
curriculum early
in 2014, is gearing
to produce 240
pharmacists by 2020
to meet the Health
Ministry’s Healthcare
2020 initiative. The
traditional four-year
course has been
reduced to three years
of lecture-learning
and six months of
hands-on internship
in the fourth year in institutions
such as hospitals and pharmaceutical
companies.
Effective real-world application
of what one has learned in FoS
is what drives personalities like
Mr Liak and Mr Lam. The same can
be said of Superintendent (Supt)
Jason Loke (Science ’97), who is the
Assistant Director of the Forensics
Department at the Criminal
Investigation Division (CID) of the
Singapore Police Force (SPF). He
joined SPF as an Investigation Officer
after graduating with an Honours
degree in Biochemistry. Before his
current post, he had been head of
the Specialised Crime Investigation
of CID, head of the Anti-Vice Branch
of CID, Commanding Officer of
the Geylang Neighbourhood Police
Centre, and Head of Corporate
Services, among other roles.
Supt Loke, 41, says that his FoS
training has served him well in his
job. It was hard work and “some
luck” that brought him to his present
role. “Two important attributes of a
scientist are the ability to work hard
and remain optimistic, no matter
“I HAVE ALWAYS HELD THE BELIEF
THAT WITH AN OPEN MIND,
SKILLS AND EXPERIENCES ARE
TRANSPORTABLE ACROSS
INDUSTRIES, SECTORS – PRIVATE,
PUBLIC OR PEOPLE – AND TERRITORIES.”
MR LAM PIN WOON
(SCIENCE ’83)
OCT–DEC 2014
15
LIFELONG LESSONS
Today FoS is a behemoth that is
continually-evolving and achieving,
both locally and worldwide.
As the Provost points out, “Our
Science Faculty is very reputable
internationally. If you ask people
in other countries about NUS
Science Faculty, they would be able
to highlight some of our very top
people. Our Centre for Quantum
Technologies, Mechanobiology
Institute, Graphene Research Centre
– these produce some of the research
that is already well-known in
the world.”
Indeed, these Centres have
attracted top minds in the various
SUPT JASON LOKE
(SCIENCE ’97)
fields to the University, putting
Singapore on the world map, says
Professor Andrew Wee, former Dean
of FoS and current Vice President
(University and Global Relations)
for NUS.
The Graphene Research Centre
(GRC) was set up in 2000 and is
helmed by renowned physicist
Professor Antonio Castro Neto; it was
awarded a $50 million grant from
the National Research Foundation.
In fact, the development of 2D
material is progressing so rapidly –
with the discovery of a whole host
of materials that have properties
mirroring graphene’s – that in
July 2015, a new Centre for
Advanced 2D Materials, also to be
directed by Prof Castro Neto, was
announced. Professors from both FoS
and the Faculty of Engineering will
be leading different areas of research,
including Professor Loh Kian Ping,
the Head of the Department
of Chemistry and Professor
Lim Chwee Teck from the
Department of Bioengineering.
Prof Wee also names Professor
Paul Matsudaira, the Head
of Biological Sciences,
whose research in
Mechanobiology,
primarily in the area of
“ONE OF THE CORE
STRENGTHS OF THE
FACULTY IS ITS CULTURE
OF EXCELLENCE, THE
ACADEMIC STAFF
AIMS VERY HIGH.”
PROF ANDREW WEE THYE SHEN
16
ALUMNUS
cell migration on 2D and 3D surfaces,
is globally recognised.
Two of FoS’ scientists – out of eight
scientists from NUS – were listed in
the World’s Most Influential Scientific
Minds 2014 list by Thomson Reuters.
They are Professor Huang Dejian from
the Department of Chemistry and the
late Professor Sodhi Navjot from the
Department of Biological Sciences.
This was a list of the global scientists
with the most number of “hot” ideas
that were quoted in research.
Distinguished Professor
Louis Chen is one of FoS’ most
lauded Professors of Mathematics.
His research interests include the
eponymous Stein-Chen Method of
Poisson approximation, which deals
with the probability of rare events.
This method is widely applied in
many areas including molecular
biology and computer science. A
Fellow of the Singapore National
Academy of Science, Prof Chen has
had a distinguished career marked
by a host of awards and titles. He
was the first Asian to be elected
President of the Bernoulli Society
for Mathematical Statistics and
Probability, a position he served
from 1997 to 1999. He was the
first East Asian President of
the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics from 2004 to 2005.
He also served as Vice-President
of the International
PHOTO OF PROF SHEN ZUOWEI: WILSON PANG
QUEST FOR
EXCELLENCE
“AS SCIENTISTS, WE ARE ALWAYS
PREPARED TO VENTURE INTO
UNCHARTERED WATERS. IT IS
THIS PART OF THE TRAINING
THAT HELPS ME IN MY
CURRENT WORK.”
PHOTO OF PROF ANDREW WEE: TAN KAY HIAN
how things turn out. Although
I enjoyed all my previous postings,
forensics brought me closer to my
first love: the wonderful world
of science and its application
in criminal investigation,” he
explains. “The training provided
by FoS focussed not only on
scientific methodology but also
logical thinking, and inductive and
deductive reasoning – all of which
are important in scientific research
and policing, including crime scene
investigation.”
Using science to solve crime is
a popular formula for television
shows and movies – Sherlock and
CSI are proof – but the reality is
that cases are sometimes extremely
challenging. “My friend once said to
me that as humans, we are always
fearful of the unknown. My response
to him was as scientists, we are
always prepared to venture into
unchartered waters. It is this part
of the training that helps me in my
current work.”
Statistical Institute from 2009
to 2011. A Fellow of the World
Academy of Science, Prof Chen was
awarded the Public Administration
Medal (Silver) in 2002 and conferred
the title of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des
Palmes Académiques by the French
government in 2005 for his services
to education.
Another renowned
mathematician, the Dean of FoS,
Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor
Shen Zuowei is a world leader in
the field of Applied Mathematics.
“I believe that theoretical research
should be driven and motivated
by applications and applied
research should be guided by
theory; I enjoy doing research in
this manner,” says the Suzhouborn scientist. “I am interested in
developing mathematical theories
and numerical methods to solve
real-life problems.” Prof Shen has
developed a theory for redundant
systems, especially wavelet frame
and Gabor frame, and used it
to develop methods in image
processing and analysis which
have wide applications, such as
in biomedical and CT imaging. “I
am glad that my work has been
recognised internationally at the
highest levels,” says Prof Shen,
who was invited to speak at the
prestigious International Congress
of Mathematicians in 2010. He will
also speak at the 8th International
Congress on Industrial and Applied
Mathematics to be held in 2015.
FoS as a whole has played a
significant role in driving NUS’
international ranking – the
University is ranked 22nd in the
world in the Quacquarelli Symonds
(QS) World University Rankings
2014/2015, and number one in
Asia in the QS University Rankings
Asia 2014. As for FoS’ departments,
the department of Pharmacy
ranks 12th worldwide, Statistics &
Operational Research is seventh, and
Mathematics, 13th.
“One of the core strengths of the
Faculty is its culture of excellence,”
says Prof Wee, 53. “The academic
staff aims very high.” He also points
out that FoS and NUS have grown in
tandem since the early 2000s. “NUS
was on the upswing, and structures
were put in place, so we saw a rise
in rankings across the university
and also in the Faculty.” One such
structure was the handing over of
administrative duties
to professional staff.
“The Vice-Deans and
Deans used to do a lot
of the non-academic
work,” he explains.
“Hence when the Office
of Administration took
over human resource,
finance, corporate
communications, we
didn’t have to neglect
our academic work.”
Both the Provost
and Prof Wee himself
are fine examples
of excellence:
Prof Tan was recently
awarded a Public
Administration Medal
(Gold) and Prof Wee, a
Public Administration
Medal (Silver) at the
National Day Awards
in August 2014.
GAMECHANGER
Prof Shen Zuowei
Professor Leo Tan Wee Hin
(Science ’74) has a long string of
awards to his name, including
the President’s Award for the
Environment in 2012 for his work
as Chairman of NParks, and the
Ord Nationale du Merite in 2002
from the President of France for
his contributions in enhancing
cooperation between Singapore and
France in the field of Science.
But when asked which of his
many awards he values the most,
the 69 year-old replies that it is the
Faculty of Science Distinguished
Science Alumni award. Prof Tan is
indeed something of a ‘superman’
not just in the Science fraternity but
in the realm of public service, being
the recipient of a Public Service
Medal and a Public Service Star. A
leading figure in environmental
progress in Singapore, he worked
to get Labrador Park gazetted as
a Nature Reserve, promoted and
conserved the intertidal shores of
Pulau Semakau, and is credited with
Gardens By The Bay.
Prof Tan is a product of FoS who
has gone on to impact society in
myriad ways, and he contributes to
the University by nurturing more
scientists like himself. One example
is Professor Peter Ng, the Head of
the Lee Kong Chian Natural History
“I AM INTERESTED
IN DEVELOPING
MATHEMATICAL
THEORIES AND
NUMERICAL METHODS
TO SOLVE REAL-LIFE
PROBLEMS.”
PROF SHEN ZUOWEI
Museum, with whom he worked for
nearly a decade to make the museum
happen (see Once Upon A Memory,
pg 22).
In 1974, Prof Tan was the first
student in FoS to obtain his PhD
in Zoology (Marine Biology) –
something many tried to dissuade
him from doing. “I was offered a
place in Canada – I wanted to do
tropical marine biology,” he says.
“The Science Faculty was not in
a position to offer a PhD. It didn’t
have a reputation, although it was
a very good undergrad university.”
Despite peers telling him he would
be ridiculed, Prof Leo insisted on
remaining in FoS, working with
a supervisor from the Fisheries
Department “We didn’t have the
OCT–DEC 2014
17
them. Today, it’s called “coral
relocation” and his efforts are
a precursor to the Underwater
World and the SEA Aquarium in
Resorts World.
In 1982, Prof Tan left NUS to
head the Science Centre which
was then regarded as “the dumping
ground for people who couldn’t do
research,” he recalls. “My training
in Science had taught me resilience,
which is doing much with little.
Don’t reject something because it
seems ugly. I was being given an
opportunity.” He gave the job four
years – it turned into 10. By the
time he left, the museum had seen
a million visitors and had become
part of the International Council
of Museums.
Of the lessons he learned at
the Science Centre, he treasures
two: humility (“you may be the
boss but they know the work”)
and budgeting (“I learned to raise
money; I learned the art of begging
“THE CHALLENGE FOR THE NEXT 15
YEARS FOR FoS IS: CAN WE CONTINUE
TO DRAW THE BETTER BRAINS INTO
SCIENCE? IT IS VITAL TO ATTRACT
PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT ATTITUDE
AND ABILITY; WE NEED THINKERS
AND DOERS.”
PROF LEO TAN WEE HIN (SCIENCE ’74)
Prof Leo Tan
and my powers of persuasion
grew.”) Looking back , he says
with a smile :“I had the best 10
years. Now the Prime Minister
calls the Science Centre ‘the jewel’.
The Science Centre gave me a gem
wrapped up in a brown envelope:
it was not to be scoffed at.”
While he was heading the
Science Centre, his beef was
with teachers who brought
their students there, and then
proceeded to the café to relax.
“My friend was at the Institute of
Education and I used to tell him,
it’s the most terrible thing to have
your job, it’s a curse.”
Then Prof Tan was asked
to join National Institute of
Education (NIE) in 1991. “I was an
armchair critic of teachers. Now, I
would be in the thick of it. I would
know what the real problem was,
and I’d have myself to blame if
things didn’t change.” He spent 18
years in NIE as Director, teaching
teachers and transforming the
teaching profession, before
retiring from public service
in 2008.
That was when he was invited
to return to FoS where he works
“half-time” now as Director
(Special Projects). He admits
that one of the conditions for his
return was to revive the Raffles
Museum, which he used to visit as
a student, awed by the suspended
skeleton of the whale that was its
pièce de résistance.
As a lecturer, Prof Tan says
that his greatest accomplishments
were not academic. “My students
don’t remember me for what I
taught them. I treat them as if they
are already scientists. I see the
future they have, not what they
are not today.” Prof Ng is a fruit of
this, having met Prof Tan when
he was just a junior college
student requesting to read a thesis
from FoS, and who showed up in
Prof Tan’s class four years later.
Today, he says, they are “coconspirators” who have made the
Lee Kong Chian Natural History
Museum happen.
THE FUTURE
STARTS NOW
Prof Leo Tan says it is time for the
next generation of scientists to
rise up and run the show.
18
ALUMNUS
PHOTO OF JANE LIM-WEE: WILSON PANG
international standing then, so
that is one of the chief progresses
in the last 85 years,” he says. Today,
FoS boasts 1,300 local and foreign
graduate students.
Prof Tan’s initial ambition was
to become a sea farmer. “I lived on
a kelong for three years, studying
the ecology of mussels. The day
after I packed the setup and left,
the kelong fell into the sea!” he
recounts, adding many other such
structures suffered the same fate.
“The Economic Development Board
gave me a grant to start a business,
but I couldn’t get a loan from a bank
when they heard how risky it was.”
The sea bed in Singapore waters
is too unstable to sustain farming,
so he became an academic. While
doing his PhD, Prof Tan worked
with his supervisor, who was an
advisor to the Sentosa Development
Council, to create a coral aquarium
– transplanting coral from around
Raffles Lighthouse to try to grow
PHOTO OF PROF LEO TAN: AIK CHEN
LIFELONG LESSONS
“The challenge for the next 15
years for FoS is: can we continue
to draw the better brains into
Science? Or will they think it’s
not as highly-paid as Law or
Business? It is vital to attract
people with the right attitude
and ability; we need thinkers
and doers.”
Prof Tan is a big proponent
of multidisciplinary study – he
designed the undergraduate
programme with Professor Paulin
Straughan from FASS for the
Bachelor of Environment Studies.
“Scientists cannot work in silos,”
he says, adding that the strength
in generalist programmes like
Science and the Arts, is that broad
base it builds in the student.
Pride in one’s Faculty is what
will drive FoS into a lasting legacy.
“You must be proud of the Faculty
you came from. Harvard started
400 years ago: its grads were proud
to be from Harvard, and they
came back and gave willingly to
it. Alumni must be nurtured long
before they graduate – I treated
my students as alumni from the
day they joined the university.”
The Provost, Prof Tan Eng Chye,
echoes this. As FoS draws towards
its 100th year, his wish is that “it
will have vibrant community,
staff, students and alumni and
other stakeholders who are proud
to be part it of.”
Mr Lam is a good example
of such a stakeholder. The
Distinguished Science Alumnus
(2014) and Outstanding Science
Alumnus (2005) co-chaired
the committee to raise funds
for the Lucy and Alfred Wan
Pharmacy Fund and made
the founding donation to the
Pharmacy Bursary Fund. “I’ve
been a guest lecturer and then
an Adjunct Associate Professor
at the Department of Pharmacy
for more than 10 years. I make it
a point to put aside some time to
teach and mentor the young. I’ve
always believed in being helpful
without expecting anything in
return,” he says.
“It is an honour to give back
in my small way to FoS, which
has given me a well-rounded
education, nurtured my sense of
curiosity and spirit of enterprise,
and shaped my principles and
values in life.”
SCIENCE IN BUSINESS
MS JANE LIM-WEE
(SCIENCE ’72)
CO-OWNER, WEE HOE CHENG
CHEMICALS PTE LTD
When Ms Lim-Wee had to take over
her family’s business, she relied on
her training as a chemist to give it a
new lease of life.
Ms Jane Lim-Wee (Science ’72) wanted to
pursue Medicine but her father convinced
her to read Science because it was three
years for Science versus seven years in
Medicine. “He didn’t need a doctor in the
family; he needed me to continue the family
business,” she says.
She took up Zoology and Chemistry, an
odd mix of subjects by her own admission
but her favourite two. Given her hectic
37-hour schedule every week, these
classes clashed often: “In Year Two, I did
Biochemistry at SGH with the Medical
students, and would then hitch a ride back to
the Bukit Timah campus for other classes. I
was always leaving early on one side and late
on another. Sometimes it seemed so futile.”
But the training she received has
served her in some ways she could not
have imagined. “It made me think and write
precisely. I am trained to tabulate facts
and points. Consciously or subconsciously, I
approach my situation with the same method
of analysis, problem-solving or decision
making that I used for my experiments in
school: Define objective; experiment or
method; observation; conclusion.
“I also remember doing Qualitative
Analysis where a chemical reaction may
be an extended process in which we
could end up with 20 or more powder
and liquid filtrates. I learnt patience and
the importance of clear labelling and
concentration, which help me filter facts
from meetings with people. This happens
daily, when I was a salesperson and now
when I conduct business,” she says.
Most significantly, her training kicked
in when her father died suddenly in 1981.
“We had just started a contract with HDB
to do earthworks at Bukit Batok. So my
husband Hock Boon and I had to continue
the project.” After five years, Ms Lim-Wee
and her husband, a mechanical engineer,
refocussed the business to “better utilise
our knowledge and skill sets”.
Today, Wee Hoe Cheng Pte Ltd is a
wholesaler, importer, manufacturer
and regional stockist of specialty food
and chemical ingredients. The early days of
changing the business focus were difficult.
“It almost bankrupted us as two of our
suppliers sued us for immediate cash
payment,” says Ms Lim-Wee, 65. But things
turned positive that same year when the
company landed a contract in Hong Kong as
the regional agency for polyurethane binders
for use in magnetic tapes. Her background
in Chemistry proved useful in this respect.
“It gave customers the confidence to try
our products which required new formulation
and methodology, but could achieve savings
and improve end-product performance with
reduced powder shed.”
Her other major, Zoology, came in useful
too, 10 years ago, when there was a major
claim against the company due to weevil
infestation of a grain product. “I had the
idea to send live insect samples to [now
Emeritus] Professor Lam Toong Jing, who
was my lecturer, to check if they were a
tropical species. I even reminded my staff
to bring a plastic container with holes
and ensure that the insects were live and
whole, as their appendages were useful in
determination of the species.
“Everything we learn and understand
well stays in our head and surfaces when the
need arises!” (The claim was later dropped).
Two of her four children — one of whom
is an NUS Chemistry Honours graduate who
looks after the Indonesian business — have
joined the business.
Ms Lim-Wee gives back to her alma
mater by “shortlisting 10 percent of FoS
admissions by interviews”. An Outstanding
Science Alumnus (2005), she says, “We enter
FoS to equip ourselves with useful knowledge
and training of the mind, and we are open to
any and all fields of endeavour thereafter.”
OCT–DEC 2014
19
MY WORD
A MUSICAL
JOURNEY
and desperate, or lack performance
opportunities, or because they do not
know the value of their own work.
How does this bode for the future?
Things are slowly changing. I feel
it each time I return to Singapore.
The youth are more enthusiastic
and better-exposed now, and fringe
concert programmes are much more
challenging. I’ve a good feeling that the
scene will be very different in a couple
of years!
What has been a major career highlight?
It is hard to pick just one project.
However, it was a highlight to work
with a motion-gesture team from
IRCAM (L’ Institut de Recherche et
Coordination Acoustique/Musique,
a leading institute of scientific and
musical research in Paris) in 2013. We
used motion-capture devices to control
electronics in a live performance. It
was an ambitious project as I had to do
all the programming and composing.
But I love a challenge!
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE A CAREER IN THE ARTS AND ALSO
LEAD A CREATIVELY FULFILLING LIFE? 30 YEAR-OLD DIANA SOH,
A PARIS-BASED SINGAPOREAN COMPOSER AND GRADUATE OF
THE NUS YONG SIEW TOH CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC, SHARES
HER EXPERIENCES. BY NIRMALA SIVANATHAN
Tell us about the music you write now.
It can be classified as either contemporary
classical or experimental. I am interested
in the physicality of sound and the
correlation between the visual and sonic
realms. I like to use sounds and noises
not usually found in commercial music,
and explore new ways of using traditional
western instruments.
Was the decision to pursue a career in the
arts a difficult one to make?
It was never a ‘dream’ for me – all I wanted
to do was keep on making music! And
eventually, I started getting paid for doing
something I love and it became viable for
me to live off it. But yes, it was a difficult
decision because my parents were initially
against the idea. They knew that pursuing
a music career meant that I’d have to
move overseas eventually. So when my
20
ALUMNUS
dad read that NUS was starting a
music programme in the early 2000s,
he encouraged me to apply. I suspect
it was his way of having me close by
for a little while longer.
What was your time in the Yong Siew Toh
Conservatory of Music (YSTCM) like?
I was in the pioneer batch. Things
were only starting to take shape so
we had to be flexible and inventive.
It is important to know that having
a career in the arts and having an
artistically-fulfilling life are two
different things. Either way, the traits
inculcated in me during my time at
NUS – such as flexibility, resilience
and drive – are important ones.
When did you leave Singapore and why?
I left in 2007 to pursue my PhD in
Music Composition and Theory
at the University at Buffalo in the
United States. It offered me a straight
PhD. This allowed me to be on a
fellowship as well as a scholarship,
so I could focus all of my energy on
compositional studies.
What does Singapore lack for aspiring
professional composers?
There are no perfect situations in any
country! Some countries just have a
longer history and have worked out
how to better support their composers.
That being said, Singapore does not
have the cultural infrastructure to
support local composers yet. To put
it bluntly, there is no market for
art music.
How does being based in Europe help
your career?
Europe remains the centre for
contemporary music creation.
There is enough money and cultural
infrastructure here, and the audiences
are very informed and appreciative of
new concert experiences. Composers
can also live off their craft here, and I
am really blessed to be able to do so.
Is there something missing in terms
of quality?
Local music is not exciting enough.
Most local composers want to play it
safe because they are afraid of losing
their audiences or making mistakes.
They then write what I call ‘middle
ground’ music… [To me] It is music
without integrity. Also, the standard
of work in Singapore is not as high,
mainly because of a lack of exposure to
a wider musical palette.
Could this be due to
financial considerations?
There is also very little financial
support for art music, admittedly. If
there is financial support, it usually
comes with the price: “Please write
me something Asian or with a
Singaporean identity.” Many groups
in Singapore also still ask or expect
composers to compose for free or
for little. And many composers do it
too – either because they are young
What do you think can or should be done
to raise the standard locally?
A lot has changed since I was a student.
Now I see many visiting composers
with great careers guest lecturing at
PHOTO COURTESY OF DIANA SOH
What is your background in music? And when
did you write your first piece?
I started piano lessons when I was four
and began singing in a choir at 13. Later
in my teens, I began individual vocal
training. I was always improvising and
making up melodies but I remember
forgetting to get a birthday present for my
mum when I was 14. So I wrote her a song.
I suppose you could count that as the first
piece I ever composed!
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Music
and other institutions. There is the
School of the Arts, Singapore which
has a great programme. There are
also Music Elective Programmes
being offered at many secondary
schools. However, most music
educators in Singapore stop at
early 20th century music because
they themselves do not know the
21st century canon any better. That
needs to change because we are
leaving out a hundred years of recent
history where the most varied styles,
techniques and ideas have come
about. This limits the students’
imagination and skill sets, and is a
problem that can be traced to the
teachers. So, I would say that some
teachers in Singapore need to be
(re) educated. Also concert
programming needs to be
more exciting. The youth
should be exposed to
quality contemporary
music at all levels of
their education.
the French film director Bertrand
Bonello. The film [is slated to] be
screened at cinemas as well as
at the George Centre Pompidou
Museum in Paris during
September and October.
I am also currently working on
a piece for a Belgian/Italian duo,
a quartet for a Swiss group, and an
orchestral piece for the Orchestre
de Bretagne. In the next three
to five years, I see myself still
composing away. However, my
husband and I are expecting our
first child in January 2015, so that
will totally change the ball game!
What would you
say to others who
are considering
a classical
music career?
Do it only if
you cannot
live without
your art.
And your
plans for 2014
and beyond?
I have just
completed a
project with
THE TRAITS INCULCATED
IN ME DURING MY TIME
AT NUS – SUCH AS
FLEXIBILITY, RESILIENCE
AND DRIVE – ARE
IMPORTANT ONES.
OCT–DEC 2014
21
ONCE UPON A MEMORY
ONCE
UPON A
CRAB...
HEAD OF THE UPCOMING LEE
KONG CHIAN NATURAL HISTORY
MUSEUM, PROFESSOR PETER NG
(SCIENCE ‘83) ALMOST
NEVER BECAME AN ACADEMIC.
P
BY THERESA TAN
ROFESSOR PETER NG, 55,
is the man who will head the highlyanticipated Lee Kong Chian Natural
History Museum, which is slated to
open in 2015 at NUS University Town.
The idea of a Southeast Asian
natural museum was birthed in 2005
by Professor Tommy Koh, then the
Chairman of the National Heritage
Board. He approached Professor
Leo Tan, now the Director for
Special Projects for NUS, and Prof Ng,
but resources – an estimated S$35m
to build a museum – were lacking. But
as the environmental sentiments on
the ground were growing in the 2000s,
says Prof Ng, the idea gained traction.
It also gained a S$10m gift from an
anonymous donor in 2008.
22
ALUMNUS
“It was the poisoned chalice,” says
Prof Ng, then Director of the Natural
History Museum’s predecessor, the
Raffles Museum of Biodiversity
Research. “S$10m is not enough to
build a museum, but S$10m is not
peanuts. That was the straw that
broke the camel’s back.” Professor
Tan Chorh Chuan, the University’s
President, gave Prof Tan and Prof Ng
an incentive: they would have a
piece of land for the museum if they
could raise S$25m in six months.
“Leo is an optimist,” says
Prof Ng. “He said, ‘We will try.’ The
rest? We even got money for the
[skeletons of the] three dinosaurs
[Apollonia and Twinky, a mother
and child pair, and Prince, from Utah].”
“All donations come with a matching
grant, and Prof Tan Chorh Chuan, who
is a man with great foresight, let us
keep those endowments to ensure we
have financial autonomy.”
But Prof Ng is quick to emphasise
that he does not plan to head the
museum for long. His plan is to stablise
operations in a year or two, and return
to his first love: the study of crabs.
As a first year student at NUS
Science faculty, he wanted to rear
lobster babies "just for the fun
of it,” he says. His professors –
Head of Biology Professor Dennis
“Paddy” Murphy and Prof Leo Tan –
humoured him.
IT’S ALWAYS
GREAT FUN TO SEE
THINGS THAT BLOW
YOUR MIND.
ALMOST NEVER
MADE IT
Prof Ng is known worldwide as the
“most prolific Decapod Taxonomist”,
but the irony is, he was not meant
to pursue his PhD at all. He was on a
Public Service Commission scholarship
and, upon graduation with a Science
degree in 1983, was headed for a career
as a schoolteacher.
“I was bonded to the Teaching
Service, and I asked if I could do a PhD,
and the answer was no!” he recalls. But
the self-proclaimed “troublemaker”
experienced a serendipitous turn of
events when he entered teaching.
A Raffles Institution alumnus, he was
posted to River Valley High School
for six years. The principal then,
Mrs Leong Fun Chin, wanted him
to strengthen the school’s Science
performance and "allowed me to
turn things upside down,” he said.
He was the first teacher to take a
secondary school class to the rainforest
in Malaysia.
When he asked Mrs Leong for
permission to pursue his PhD while
teaching, she gave him the green
light. Prof Ng obtained his PhD in the
biology of crabs in 1989, and entered
an academic career at the University,
researching crabs.
His pursuit of crabs began
accidentally. Set on lobster study,
Prof Ng had written to a world
expert on lobsters, Professor Lipke
Holthuis from the world-famous
Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke
Historie in Leiden, Holland.
The Dutch academic sent him
a big envelope containing
his studies, but wrote a “very
encouraging note” to suggest that
the younger man study crabs
instead, since lobsters had been
well-studied but not crabs, and the
two species are similar. “So I started
playing with crabs. And he was
right, they were more fun; there
were more kinds of them.”
Prof Ng was interested in rearing
them to study their behaviour and
structure. The Dutch professor
agreed to help him, as locally,
nobody had done research into crabs.
The first species of crab Prof Ng
discovered was from Pulau Tioman
in 1984. After studying it for a few
months, he shared his findings with
the Dutch professor, who affirmed
it was indeed a new species. The
first animal one finds and records
is special, Prof Ng admits, adding
that now as he looks back on that
paper on the Johora Tiomanensis, he
laughs at its simplicity, calling it a
“boring name”.
In the last few years, Prof Ng
has, with his teams and students,
discovered “several hundred”
species of crabs. “It’s always great
fun to see things that blow your
mind, which tells you that our
planet is horribly, poorly explored.
“Regularly, you see some really
cool critters; nature always surprises
you. It’s the surprise that’s fun,”
he says.
DISCOVERED!
PLEISTICANTHOIDES CAMERONI
“A deep sea crab from over 600m
deep collected off Vanuatu.
My friend Bertrand Richer de
Forges and I named it as it was
shortly after we read about his
descent to the deepest bowels
of the ocean and we wanted to
honour him for the feat.”
PTEROMAJA MAKLAYI
“Named it from Papua New
Guinea – a strange crab from
its frontal view. It was a new
genus and new species outright,
and one of the weirdest crabs
I have found. Named it with
my research fellow from TMSI,
Arthur Anker.”
CHIROMANTES GARFUNKEL
“Worked on this with
my old friend Peter Davie
(Australia) – a new species from
Christmas Island. We wanted
to highlight its wonderful
bright yellow eyes … then the
song ‘Bright Eyes’ came to our
minds at the same time – the
theme song from the movie
Watership Down, sung by Art
Garfunkel. And voila! – we had
the species, named.”
OCT–DEC 2014
23
CHANGEMAKER
MAGIC
IS HIS
REALITY
J C SUM (ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ’00)
HAS CHANGED THE FACE OF MAGIC
IN SINGAPORE AND ASIA. BY WANDA TAN
24
ALUMNUS
year at Victoria Junior College. By
the time Mr Sum enrolled in the
National University of Singapore
(NUS), he was working as much as
he was studying. “Actually it was the
show bookings I was getting that
forced me to have very good time
management and discipline, so that
I could finish my assignments and
tutorial preps [and also] practise and
perform my shows,” he says.
In 1998, while at NUS,
Mr Sum set up his magic production
company Concept:Magic. He
graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor
of Arts degree, with a double major
in English Language and Sociology
and a minor in Philosophy. He could
have pursued a fourth Honours year,
but turned it down to focus on his
burgeoning career. “Financially it
made sense for me to continue with
my business upon completing my
third year, so going full-time was a
natural progression as opposed to a
giant leap of faith.”
Clearly, his entrepreneurial
instincts have paid off for this
highly-regarded illusionist
and businessman. Through
Concept:Magic, Mr Sum not
only produces magic shows to be
performed at corporate events, on
television programmes, on board
luxury cruise liners and at festivals
in Singapore and abroad, he
also manages a roster of artistes.
Chief among them is Singapore’s
‘Magic Babe’ Ning, a former protégéturned-regular stage partner and
now an acclaimed magician in her
own right.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF JC SUM
I
T’S NO ILLUSION THAT Mr J C Sum –
born Sum Jan-Chung – has made
waves in the world of magic.
So far, the illusionist has staged
more than 3,500 shows in over 30
countries. He performs 80 to 100 shows
a year worldwide and also creates his
own illusions. Who can forget his 2007
live mega-stunt when, in front of more
than 9,000 people, he teleported himself
from the ground to the rooftop of a 50storey skyscraper at Raffles Place in just
five seconds?
Mr Sum, 37, has been fascinated
with magic ever since he was a child,
and cites illusionists David Copperfield
and Franz Harary as major influences.
His appetite for the art was whetted
after he received a magic set for his 12th
birthday and bought himself a magic
book around the same time. The more
the young J C learned about the secrets
and tricks behind seemingly-simple
illusions, the more in awe he grew
of the ingenuity and inventiveness
required. What began as a hobby soon
turned into a lifelong passion.
Before he was even 17, he scored
his first professional gig – earning S$80
at a children’s party – while in his first
When asked to name a
particularly memorable show,
Mr Sum singles out his 2011 and
2012 appearances with Ning on
the French television series Le
Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde, one
of the most prestigious variety
shows in the world. “Ning and I
are proud to be the first and only
Singapore artistes to perform on
the show – twice,” he says.
Not content with inventing
and performing his own
illusions, Mr Sum has also
developed secondary streams
of revenue to supplement his
performance earnings. He has
written 10 books and produced
several DVDs on illusion design.
He has also established an
online presence by launching
IllusionBooks.com, a one-stop
resource site for illusionists,
and BackstageBusiness.
wordpress.com, a blog in
which he gives insights to
performing artistes on how to be
commercially successful.
The various platforms also
allow Mr Sum to give back to
the arts community. He says,
“I have consistently pushed
to make the performance of
illusions more modern. I have
advocated that illusionists stop
using dated choreography and
presentations through my books,
websites and performances.”
Indeed, his original, cutting-edge
illusions have been featured
by professional magicians in
countries that include the
United States and Japan.
In 2009, Mr Sum
made history when
he became the first
Singaporean to win a
Merlin Award – the socalled ‘Oscars of magic’
– for ‘Most Original
Illusionist’ from the
International Magicians
Society. More recently,
he and Ning both
received the ‘Patrons of
Magic’ and ‘Outstanding
Achievement and
Contribution to Magic’
awards in 2012 and
2013, respectively, from
the Singapore chapter
of the International
THE SHOW BOOKINGS
I WAS GETTING FORCED ME
TO HAVE VERY GOOD TIME
MANAGEMENT AND DISCIPLINE,
SO THAT I COULD FINISH
MY ASSIGNMENTS AND
TUTORIAL PREPS, PRACTISE
AND PERFORM MY SHOWS.
Brotherhood of Magicians.
He is grateful to his parents
– especially his father – for
supporting him throughout his
career. “My dad’s insights and
advice on the business aspect of
what I do, culled from his years of
experience in the corporate world,
have been invaluable,” he says.
Mr Sum also credits his
university education for equipping
him with the skills needed to
become a successful magician.
“English Language is very useful
for writing modules for business
and electronic media, and for
contextualising languages
in communication.
“Sociology is the study and
understanding of how and why
people as a group think, react and
act a certain way. This is very useful
when designing performances for
different international audiences.
You want to be able to anticipate
and analyse why they respond
and react in a certain way so
you can adjust and modify your
performances accordingly.
“Lastly, Philosophy is about
critical and lateral thinking, logic,
problem-solving and putting forth
arguments. These cognitive skills
help push the envelope for one’s
creativity, especially in an esoteric
field like magic.”
And thanks to Mr Sum,
Singapore’s magic scene has come a
long way over the last few decades.
“When I first started [performing
commercially], there were only
three professional magicians in
Singapore, all of whom performed
only at shows for children.
“I was the first local magician to
perform exclusively for adults and
tried to bring a more sophisticated
edge to magic in Singapore. Today,
[there are] almost three dozen
performing magicians in Singapore,
with almost half that number
making a full-time income from
magic. While most still perform for
general audiences, such as kids’ and
family shows, dinner-and-dance
events, etc., the standard is much
higher than before.
“I like to think that I helped
raise the mainstream perception
of local magic and raised the
standard of magic from what it
was before.”
OCT–DEC 2014
25
PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE
S
IXTEEN YEARS AGO, the first
Awfully Chocolate store
opened along a little alley in
Katong. Customers did not
have a choice – the counter
store only offered one kind of
chocolate cake. And no, you could
not buy a slice or two. It had to be
the whole cake or nothing.
Audacious? Perhaps. But
the strategy paid off for its
four founders, one of which is
NUS alumnus Lyn Lee. Today,
Awfully Chocolate has 10 outlets
across Singapore and is also in eight
cities in the region including
Hong Kong and Shanghai. These
offer an extensive list of chocolate
desserts – tarts, ice-cream, crepes,
truffles, and chocolate beverages.
Plus, of course the original whole
chocolate cake which remains a
bestseller to this day.
The cake was created after a
year of weekend experimenting
to get it just right for local taste
buds. “A European or an American
would prefer their [chocolate] cakes
to be rich and rather decadent.
Here we like a light taste so we can
eat it with tea or coffee – at least
I do!” says Ms Lee, 41.
Awfully Chocolate’s true
recipe for success could be
Ms Lee just trusting her gut instinct
and holding firm to what she
just really wants to sell. “I have
no interest in desserts that look
like grand sculptures but taste
horrible, nor do I want to sell what’s
considered trendy or popular. I just
wanted to offer something that
people would want to keep going
back for,” she says.
There are more than 12 types
of chocolate desserts on offer in
each of her stores, but despite “a
very capable baking and creative
team”, no item appears on the
menu before passing Ms Lee’s taste
test. She knows exactly what goes
into each dessert too – the names
of ingredients roll easily off her
tongue should curious customers
want to know. “We use only one
kind of chocolate, which we created
ourselves, in the whole chocolate
cake. But other desserts are usually
made with an intricate blend of
Belgium chocolate and other types
of chocolate including French and
Swiss,” she discloses.
Time and circumstances were
on her side when the business
started. “We were very lucky to
have started this business in 1998
when the business environment
was a lot more conducive. It has
given us room to feel our way
through, experiment and hone our
business strategies.”
Present day challenges include
high rental costs and restrictions on
foreign staff.
“The current business climate
can hamper dreams, especially
those of bright-eyed youths, of
turning ideas into something
tangible. It kills the freedom to be
creative and enterprising. That just
doesn’t seem right,” says Ms Lee
who left her job at a law firm to
pursue her chocolate dream.
“The lawyer in me comes up
every now and then,” she says with
a chuckle. A cause she is “fighting”
and will keep pursuing like a “crazy
crusader” (as she deems herself to be
at times), is the welfare of her staff
and of others who work in malls.
“I find it absolutely ridiculous
that the management of most
malls do not switch on the airconditioning for just half an hour
prior to opening hours [for the
benefit of] tenants [and workers]
preparing to get their shops, café
and restaurants up and running,”
she says. “It’s unkind and I will
continue talking about it until
something is done.” Her “battle
plan” involves rounding up
signatures from other tenants
for a petition, and getting into
repeated discussions with the
mall management.
Regard for employees extends
to their career growth as well.
The latter has resulted in the
opening of restaurant Everything
With Fries in 2009 (it now has three
outlets across Singapore), as well as
a vintage-themed café Sinpopo at
Joo Chiat Road. Both were proposed,
set up and now run by some of
Ms Lee’s more entrepreneurial
staff, under the guidance and
IT’S BEEN A GREAT
JOURNEY AS WE
CONTINUE TO LEARN
AND TRY TO GROW
THIS BUSINESS. I AM
DEFINITELY IN
MY ELEMENT.
A BASIC INGREDIENT FOR THE CONTINUED SUCCESS OF
CHOCOLATE CHAIN AWFULLY CHOCOLATE IS THE UNFLAGGING
PASSION OF ITS CO-FOUNDER LYN LEE (LAW ’96). BY FAIROZA MANSOR
26
ALUMNUS
PHOTO BY MARK LEE
HOT FOR
CHOCOLATE
sponsorship of herself and
her partners.
“I encourage staff who have a
business idea to propose it. Together
we’ll discuss its potential and
viability,” says Ms Lee. “I’m very
happy and proud of how [some of
them have] stepped up, made these
projects their own and turned their
ideas into reality.”
This constant desire to tap into
a potential idea is what keeps
Ms Lee, a mother of three children
aged nine, 10 and 13, going. With
her partners, she is looking
into developing fast-moving
consumer goods (FMCG) under the
Awfully Chocolate brand, to be sold
in supermarkets or convenience
stores. Market research and initial
groundwork to explore the viability
of this expansion involves frequent
overseas trips, to Switzerland
primarily, where Ms Lee is hoping
to set up a factory to manufacture
the new product line.
“With this FMCG, we aren’t
targeting Singapore or the
surrounding region, but the world’s
largest chocolate consumption
markets which are the United
Kingdom and Europe,” she says.
“It’s been a great journey as we
continue to learn and try to grow
this business. The push feels natural
for me especially as I’ve always
loved chocolates, and everyone
who knows me, knows that I’m a
chocoholic. I am definitely in
my element.”
OCT–DEC 2014
27
NUS ALUMNI-GREAT EASTERN LIFE BREAKFAST DIALOGUE
IF YOU TAKE A RISK
THAT DOESN’T
WORK OUT, ACCEPT
AND LEARN FROM
YOUR FAILURE AND
RE-PLOT YOUR
ACTION PLAN.
SIX STEPS TO
GREATNESS
How young professionals can
proactively manage their careers was
the focus of the talk given by DBS
Group head honcho Piyush Gupta.
BY WANDA TAN
BS BANK IS VERY MUCH a
women’s business.
In fact, women make up
about 50 to 60 percent
of the overall intake in the financial
services industry, although there is
a massive dropout among women in
their 30s [because many of them give
up their jobs to become homemakers
once they have children].”
This admission by Mr Piyush
Gupta, Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) and Director of DBS Group,
may have come as a surprise to
the 100-odd National University
of Singapore (NUS) young alumni
and undergraduates who were at
the recent NUS Alumni Breakfast
Dialogue. The event – which featured
Mr Gupta as the guest speaker –
was held on 29 August 2014 at The
National University of Singapore
Society’s Suntec City Guild House.
Although not an NUS alumnus
himself, Mr Gupta, 54, has forged
close ties with NUS since joining DBS
in 2009. For instance, the bank makes
a contribution to the University’s
bursary fund for needy students each
time alumni spend on their DBS
NUS Alumni Credit Cards. DBS also
routinely hires a large number
of fresh NUS graduates, many of
whom were at the dialogue session.
Under Mr Gupta’s leadership,
DBS has grown from strength to
strength over the last five years.
By overhauling its corporate culture
from a bureaucratic, state-runtype organisation to one with an
entrepreneurial bent, Mr Gupta
has helped the bank achieve steady
growth in revenue and market share.
In fact, DBS posted a record full-year
net profit of S$3.5 billion in 2013,
and is now Southeast Asia’s largest
financial services group with assets
“
28
ALUMNUS
D
of over S$400 billion.
In a nod to Facebook COO Sheryl
Sandberg’s famous book Lean In,
Mr Gupta’s talk was titled “‘Leaning
In’ Is Not Just A Woman’s Agenda”.
As exhorted in Ms Sandberg’s book,
he noted that women can and do
occupy important roles at DBS. A case
in point is Ms Eng-Kwok Seat Moey,
Head of DBS’ Capital Markets Group.
But, Mr Gupta said, the idea of
‘leaning in’ is not gender-specific to
women. Rather, everyone – male or
female – should step up to the plate
and take the initiative to ensure a
successful career.
To help young professionals in
their endeavours, Mr Gupta laid out
a six-point plan of action based on
his own experiences in the corporate
world. “The first step involves
plotting and planning,” he said. “You
need to have a broad sense of what
you would like to be doing in your
40s or 50s, and then work your way
back from that. Let’s say you want to
become the CEO of a company. Ask
yourself, ‘What job should I have
now to reach my objective? What job
should I have next to add value to my
long-term career plan?’”
After all, Mr Gupta was not made
CEO of DBS out of nowhere. Prior
to that, the former Indian nationalturned-Singapore citizen had spent
27 years rising through the ranks of
Citibank. He began his career in 1982
as a Management Trainee at Citibank
India and went on to hold more than
20 different roles in various Asian
countries, culminating in his 2008
appointment as Citibank’s CEO
in Southeast Asia, Australia and
New Zealand.
Second, one should “network
with a purpose”. Mr Gupta explained,
“People generally give jobs to people
they know, not because of nepotism
or favouritism but because they
feel more comfortable dealing
with someone they already know.
It’s not about making friends, but
winning respect.”
It was through networking that
he landed his first of many overseas
postings. Whilst serving as Chief of
Staff to the Head of Citibank India
in the late 1980s, Mr Gupta made
a conscious effort to connect with
colleagues in different countries.
This wider pool of contacts
eventually led to his 1991 move
to Singapore as Chief of Staff to
Citibank Asia’s Head.
Third is the idea of coat-tailing.
“Much like networking, coat-tailing
tends to have negative connotations.
But I consider it similar to mentoring,
provided you align yourself with a
good boss,” said Mr Gupta, who
had followed his boss in climbing
up Citibank’s corporate ladder and
now mentors potential successors
at DBS.
The fourth point relates to the
need to have one’s ‘elevator pitch’
ready, or the ability to make a
positive impact on one’s superiors
within a short space of time. The key
is to keep perspective and carry a ‘big
picture’ conversation. “You must be
able to step back and understand the
big picture, as well as reflect on your
role in it.”
The fifth requirement for a
successful career is the ‘Triple E’
concept – experience, exposure and
education. In particular, Mr Gupta
touched on the valuable experience
and exposure garnered throughout
his time at Citibank. “Working with
different people in different countries
on a variety of subject matters helped
to boost my visibility among senior
managers in the company.”
Lastly, one should have an
appetite for risk and be willing
to step out of one’s comfort zone.
Mr Gupta’s revamp of DBS’ corporate
culture was a daunting undertaking,
but one that has clearly paid off.
With an eye on the future, he is
also spearheading a push into digital
banking by launching customerfriendly technologies such as
mobile applications.
Of course, not all risks are
rewarded. “In 2000, I quit Citigroup
to start up a dot-com company
together with a media house in
India. But after one year, I pulled the
plug and went back to Citigroup,” he
said. “If you take a risk that doesn’t
work out, you need to accept and
learn from your failure and replot your action plan. Sometimes
this involves [temporarily] taking
backward steps.”
PUTTING
WORDS INTO
PRACTICE
Here’s what some participants had
to say about the Breakfast Dialogue:
“Listening to Mr Gupta made
me realise that it’s up to me
to shape my own career. After all,
nobody cares about my career
more than I do!”
Ms Roseline Li, a Master of
Computing student.
“I will use Mr Gupta’s six
points to help me progress in
my career from now on. I wish I’d
known about them earlier!”
Mr Kelvin Han, a Master of
Technology in Knowledge
Engineering graduate who now
works in risk management.
Let's
showing
Admission is FREE
Venue: Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Time: 7.30pm
Register at: www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet
For enquiries, please contact Mr Kyaw Win Shwe at
kyawwinshwe@nus.edu.sg or 6516 5769.
27 November 2014
(PG-13)
Chill
Out!
U@LIVE
ONE SPEAKER. 10 MINUTES.
BOUNDLESS INSPIRATION.
U@live is our monthly guest speaker series that showcase NUS alumni who have a passion
for making a difference. Hosted by Alumni Advisory Board member and veteran TV
presenter Mr Viswa Sadasivan (Arts and Social Sciences ‘83) at the Shaw Foundation Alumni
House, the one-hour session is also streamed live on the U@live website. To register for
future U@live events, visit www.nus.edu.sg/ualive.
MY IMPAIRMENT,
LIKE IT OR NOT,
IS A PART OF
ME SO I HAVE
TO ACCEPT IT.
DR YEO SZE LING (SCIENCE ’01)
NO STOPPING HER
Seeing may be believing but not being able to see has
not stopped A*STAR research scientist Dr Yeo Sze Ling
from believing in herself.
@live moderator
Mr Viswa Sadasivan, who
has been hosting the
programme since 2011, was moved
to call the session with Dr Yeo Sze
Ling “the most inspirational one”
ever. The night’s speaker however
looked slightly abashed and even
jittery as she stood before the fullcapacity audience.
Definitely not the typical
seasoned public speaker that
U@live usually presents, the
visually-impaired Dr Yeo joked
that she might activate the text-tospeech feature on her laptop to do
the talking, should the butterflies
in her stomach get the better of her.
But Dr Yeo need not have
worried. She had everyone’s full
U
30
ALUMNUS
attention. And all she did was
relate her life story thus far. The
soft-spoken 36 year-old took her
audience back to when at four,
her parents were told that she had
glaucoma, a condition that causes
damage to the eye’s optic nerve. The
diagnosis, she said, seemed at that
time harder for her parents to accept
than it was for the young girl.
But growing up, the young
Dr Yeo felt self-conscious when with
the help of a cane, she navigated her
way around, especially to school
and back home. “I’d always imagine
people staring at me,” she said,
clearly disconcerted by the memory.
“So everyone, please use your vision
wisely; don’t just stare at people who
are different from you.” Her latter
sentence had the audience erupting
with laughter.
The education Dr Yeo received
was from both special needs and
mainstream schools. She attended
the School for the Visually
Handicapped (now known as
Lighthouse School) where she
took her PSLE, then Bedok South
Secondary School and Serangoon
Junior College before enrolling
in the National University of
Singapore (NUS).
In 2001, Dr Yeo, a middle
child with an older brother and a
younger sister, graduated with first
class honours in Mathematics. She
received her PhD in Mathematics in
2006 on an A*STAR scholarship.
Currently an adjunct assistant
professor at Nanyang Technological
University, Dr Yeo’s decision to go
on to university was not an easy
one to make. “I was led to believe
– from society and even television
shows – that being visually impaired
meant I was destined
for jobs [such as being] a masseuse
or a telephone operator, so there
was no need to get a degree,”
she said. “I asked myself what
[going to university would] lead
to, and if I [wanted] to go through
all the trouble?” Eventually,
Dr Yeo opted for a tertiary
education, but not without doubt
and apprehension.
“I was warned that in university,
the students would be self-centred.
[They] would hog library resources,
[that] no one would help me. But
thankfully, they were not like that
at all. I was so blessed,” she said.
For every module of her studies,
there was always someone to help
her along, especially to read notes
or textbook excerpts aloud. Dr Yeo
would also record lecture sessions,
which she would then transcribe
into Braille.
That was how she got through
eight years of university life and
three thesis submissions – a feat
she considers to be a miracle. But
for all Dr Yeo’s achievements and
accolades – which include the
Singapore Youth Award 2012,
and a mention in Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally
2013 speech – she maintains that she
is far from exceptional. She attributes
her accomplishments to friends, family
members and volunteers. And although
there have been instances which
have left an indelible impression, an
anecdote that has stuck out the most for
Dr Yeo was when a tutor in the junior
college she attended learnt Braille so
that he could draw up the Statistical
Tables (a chart of Mathematical
formulas) and teach those to her.
But there have been nay-sayers
too. “I think it’s normal for people
to say that the road is going to be
difficult for someone like me, but I feel
that I don’t need to be reminded of
the things I cannot do,” she told her
audience. A self-professed introvert,
she prefers finding ways to circumvent
or manage challenges that arise. “But
I also realise that people are not being
discouraging out of ill-intention, they
just cannot imagine being without
sight. For a visually-impaired person
to support herself is [a] bonus, not
what’s expected; that’s the general
perception of the society at-large.”
When a member of the audience
asked if society in Singapore and the
Government should do more
for people with disabilities,
Dr Yeo’s reply was that society is
still maturing, and there is still
room for improvement. The lack
of government policy specially
formulated for the visually-impaired
has interestingly enough, worked
well for her, Dr Yeo said. She cited
China and Taiwan, which she has
visited, as countries with such
policies in place to help the blind
to be “experts” in the massage and
music industry.
“So although there might not
be a policy to help me, I’m thankful
also that there’s no policy to stop
me from doing what I enjoy, and so
I could pursue Maths.”
But the mindset that had to
change was ultimately hers. “My
impairment, like it or not, is a part
of me so I have to accept it. Everyone
has their shortcomings, some more
obvious than others. Rather than
allowing the shortcoming to be a
hindrance, I’ve learnt to challenge
myself to overcome this obstacle
and not just choose the convenient
way out,” said Dr Yeo, who currently
mentors five blind students at junior
college and polytechnic level.
“There is a tendency to group all
visually-impaired people together,
as if we are all driven by the same
thing. The last thing I want is for
people to assume that all visuallyimpaired people are keen on and
should do Maths.
“Blind or not, we all have
different interest and passions,”
she said. The session ended with a
standing ovation, with some in the
audience moved to tears.
BY FAIROZA MANSOR
DR YEO SPOKE ON 28 MAY 2014.
U@LIVE
MR ZULKIFLI BIN BAHARUDIN (DESIGN AND ENVIRONMENT — REAL ESTATE ‘84)
THE ‘ANTI-HERO’ HERO
Mr Zulkifli Bin Baharudin, Chairman of Indo-Trans Corporation,
believes that reaching out to those in need should stem from
a sense of moral obligation.
ormer Chairman of
Mercy Relief Mr Zulkifli
Bin Baharudin signalled
very early into his passionate
address that he had not returned
to his alma mater, as the speaker
of this U@live session, to be a
crowd-pleaser. The audience
members did not seem to mind his
opinionated assertiveness – they,
in fact, appeared to expect no less
from Mr Zulkifli, now Chairman
of Indo-Trans Corporation,
a logistics and supply chain
F
WHAT’S LIFE IF YOU
CAN ONLY PLAN
FOR SOMETHING
YOU CAN ACHIEVE?
HOW THEN CAN YOU
TRANSFORM AS AN
ORGANISATION, AND
AS A NATION, IF YOU
STAY WITHIN YOUR
COMFORT ZONE?
32
ALUMNUS
company. And Mr Zulkifli – who
is also an Independent Director
of Singapore Post Limited, Ascott
Residence Trust Management
Limited, and data centre company
Securus – disclosed that throughout
his varied career, he has never been
interested in being the popular guy.
Of his days at Mercy Relief
as its first chairman, when the
humanitarian charity organisation
was still in its infancy, Mr Zulkifli
said he is certain that the four
employees under his management
then were not fond of him.
It could be that he was constantly
reminding them that being paid
staff did not make them “heroes”.
Not one to mince his words,
Mr Zulkifli proceeded to point
out that as a society, we must not
think we have done exceedingly
well just because we do what is
right and good. “That would be an
impediment to greatness. We would
be preventing ourselves from being
exceptional and as a result, be our
biggest enemy,” he said.
Harsh? Perhaps, but this stern
advice comes from a personal
principle that having wealth
or financial stability brings
responsibilities to help those in
need. “We help not to feel good
but because it is our duty to help,”
said Mr Zulkifli, who was awarded
the Public Service Medal in 2005
and Public Service Star Medal
in 2011. In the context of Mercy
Relief, Singapore – as a developed
nation – and its people need to
automatically reach out and assist
its neighbours when they are in
trouble such as when they are hit by
natural disasters.
For any humanitarian or charity
organisation to excel, it needs to
move beyond bureaucracy and
not be trapped by it, Mr Zulkifli
said, expressing a disdain for
organisational structures which
place trust only in those at the
top of the hierarchy. “If we don’t
trust every member in the team,
we can’t empower him or her –
whether a leader or a volunteer –
to be great, and a great organisation
depends on members who want
to do extraordinary things,” he
said emphatically. In his opinion,
Singapore needs to work towards a
more trust-based structure.
Another quality trait that
Mr Zulkifli strongly advocates
is having the courage to take
risks and not be content with
navigating within set boundaries.
A self-professed risk-taker who
rocks the boat sometimes when
he makes a decision that unnerves
his colleagues – like when he
transformed Mercy Relief from
a Muslim-only group to an allinclusive organisation – Mr Zulkifli
said Singaporeans need to be brave
to fail and to do things they have
never done before. He asked, “What’s
life if you can only plan for something
you can achieve? How then can you
transform as an organisation and as
a nation, if you stay within your
comfort zone?”
The slightly sombre, pensive
atmosphere in the auditorium then
turned into a lively debate when
moderator Mr Viswa Sadasivan
challenged Mr Zulkifli with this: “You
make [the concept of reaching out
from a sense of duty] sound like an
obligation, but shouldn’t we help our
neighbours simply because it’s the
right thing to do?”
While Mr Zulkifli agreed with the
notion [that providing assistance to
our neighbours is the right thing to
do], he emphasised that Singaporeans
should not adhere to what is deemed
“right” out of guilt or to feel good.
“As a country we are bound by a
collective moral obligation to do
all we can to provide aid to our
neighbours when they are in need,
and so we should be driven by this
obligation,” he said, asserting that
Singapore, although an island,
cannot exist alone.
Currently Singapore’s NonResident Ambassador to the
Republic of Uzbekistan and
Kazakhstan, Mr Zulkifli went
on to share that people he meets
overseas appear to respect
Singapore for what it has achieved,
but do not admire it. This, to him,
is a problem.
“So we do good in order to be
admired?” challenged Mr Viswa.
“For projecting the right values,
yes, and not just respected as the
wealthy kid on the block,” was
Mr Zulkifli’s response.
Responding to Mr Zulkifli’s
views on the limitations of a
bureaucracy and how it can cause
one to underachieve, audience
member and Director of the
National University of Singapore’s
(NUS) Office of Alumni Relations,
Associate Professor Victor R Savage,
said he could commiserate.
Most Singaporeans have been
raised based on a Confucian system
– not questioning the rules that
have been set. “Even among the
students, there is a culture of
conformity. And I too find myself
encouraging them to not simply
subscribe to the standard textbook
answers, but to argue those
theories if they have an opposing
viewpoint,” said Assoc Prof Savage,
who is from the university’s
Department of Geography,
highlighting the unwillingness of
Singaporeans to veer away from
a tried and tested structure in the
context of the university.
Mr Zulkifli is grateful to NUS
for his education but he left with
a word of advice – that no amount
of education can prepare anyone
for the challenges ahead if he or
she is not tackling the future
with fearlessness.
BY FAIROZA MANSOR
MR ZULKIFLI BIN BAHARUDIN SPOKE ON
27 AUGUST 2014.
NUS Alumni-Great Eastern Life
BREAKFAST DIALOGUE
Andrew Kwan
Rotary ASME ‘Entrepreneur of the Year - 2004’
Serial entrepreneur and founder of Commonwealth Capital Group.
His portfolio spans Singapore’s largest Italian QSR chain ‘Pastamania®’,
Helvetican themed ‘SwissBake®’ cafés, authentic American ‘NYC Bagel Factory®’
as well as food production entities ‘SwissTreats’ and ‘Zac Meats & Poultry’.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A VIEW FROM THE TRENCHES
The talk is a no holds barred account of the triumphs and tribulations experienced by an entrepreneur. It attempts to demystify the
romance of starting one’s own business, the realities of what it takes to scale the heights of one’s aspirations and the rewards that might
come along the way.
12 November 2014 (Wednesday), 7.30am
Marina Mandarin Ballroom (Level 1)
Students – S$10 , Alumni – S$20
is the oldest and most established life insurance group in
Singapore and Malaysia, with operations also in Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei,
as well as a joint-venture in China and a representative office in Myanmar.
Named Life Insurance Company of the Year by Asia Insurance Review in 2011
and 2013, it has been rated “AA-” by Standard and Poor’s since 2010, one of
the highest among Asian life insurance companies.
Register at: alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/BDnov14
PROGRAMME
7.30am Breakfast & Networking
8.30am Sharing by Mr Andrew Kwan
Q&A Session (Moderated by Assoc Prof Tan Tin Wee)
9.45am End
Organised by:
This session will be moderated by: Associate Professor Tan Tin Wee, Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS
For enquiries, please contact Ms Lin Shushan at 65166428 or email her at shushan@nus.edu.sg
Sponsored by:
ALUMNI HAPPENINGS GIVING
GETTING LESSONS
FROM THE WORLD’S
BEST CLASSROOM
A GIFT TO
REMEMBER
Mr Benny Lee (Business ’76) hopes to give
NUS students a headstart on expanding
their horizons in a globalised world.
Happy times at NUS inspired
Mr Foo Check Woei (Business
’90) and Ms Theresa Tan
(Business ’90) to pay it forward.
34
ALUMNUS
a gift to bursaries in support of
financially-disadvantaged students.
Alumni such as Mr Foo and
Ms Tan find this initiative interesting and refreshing and have been
spreading the word to their friends
to generate more awareness for
the Fund. To them, it is also a more
direct way of giving back “as we
know specifically how the money
Are you a campus couple?
Would you like to support
the NUS Campus Couples
Bursary Fund? For more
information about the
NUS Campus Couples
Bursary Fund, or to make
a gift, please contact
kjyeo@alumni.nus.edu.sg
“WE HOPE OUR BURSARY
WILL HELP A STUDENT WITH
FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES TO
ACHIEVE HIS OR HER GOALS AND
BE ABLE TO HAVE A FULFILLING
UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE.”
MR FOO CHECK WOEI
will be used to help the
next generation”.
In addition to celebrating a successful marriage
as a campus couple, the
gift is also dedicated to
their two sons. “The boys
are the best gifts to us and
like all parents, we are
very thankful for the joys
they bring to our lives.”
The couple also
wanted to instill an
important value in their
children. “We feel that
the gift is a good ‘pay it
forward’ message to pass
along to our two boys. It
will remind them to never
forget the breaks we have
been given in our youth
and we should give back
by creating opportunities
for generations to come,”
says Mr Foo.
“Though our Bursary
is small by today’s
standards, we hope that
it will make a difference
to a student with financial
difficulties to achieve
his or her educational
goals and be able to
have a fulfilling
university experience.”
A
ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES
F
For their special 20th
wedding anniversary celebrations,
Mr Foo Check Woei
(Business ’90) and
Ms Theresa Tan
(Business ’90) went
on a romantic trip to Spain. But a
trip down memory lane was far
more significant, when they made
a gift to the National University of
Singapore Campus Couple Bursary
Fund. Giving back as a Campus
Couple took them back to the time
they lovingly shared while studying
at the NUS Business School.
“We knew each other from
our BBA (Bachelor of Business
Administration) days since the
first year but only became a
couple in our third year when
we both stayed at Temasek Hall,”
reminisces Mr Foo. He remembers
fondly the friendships and bonds
forged during those years. “Among
the guys, we called ourselves the
‘Oysters’ group. My wife became
buddies with the other ‘Oysters’,
and through all the fun times we
had hanging out together, we eventually fell for each other. We, the
‘Oysters’ and our wives ‘Oysterettes’
remain extremely close friends to
this day,” he shares.
The NUS Campus Couple
Bursary Fund is part of an alumniled NUS Alumni Bursary Fund
Campaign which encourages couples who met on campus to make
The NUSBSAA Student
ccording to
Experience Fund was set up in 2011
Mr Benny Lee
to allow undergraduate students
(Business ’76),
facing financial difficulty to go
a National
on exchange programmes with
University
prestigious partner universities and
of Singapore
help them defray overseas expenses
Business School
such as costs of accommodation
(NUSBS) alumnus, travelling at
and daily necessities.
the age of 20 is a totally different
Having gone on two internaexperience from travelling at 40.
tional programmes during his
More importantly, travelling as a
undergraduate days at the NUS
university student on an exchange
Business School, Mr Lee is
programme makes an invaluable difference to
one’s education.
“GETTING THAT PRECIOUS
And because he
CHANCE TO SEE THE WORLD
believes so deeply in
the value of a cross-cul- WHEN STUDYING AT THE
tural experience, the
former President of the UNIVERSITY CAN OPEN EYES
THAT NO TRADITIONAL
NUS Business School
Alumni Association
CLASSROOM TEACHING CAN.”
(NUSBSAA) not only
MR BENNY LEE
started the NUSBSAA
convinced that time spent abroad
Student Experience Fund, he also
can broaden young minds. He had
made a generous gift to the Fund
the rare privilege to be exposed to
to ensure that more students can
the culture of Japan when he was
expand their horizons.
“It is important for Singaporean one of two students from the NUS
Business School to be awarded a
students to see our little red dot in
Japan Airlines Scholarship to spend
the global context – being a small
country with all the challenges this a semester at Sophia University
in Tokyo.
engenders. It is crucial for them to
“We were stumped by how
realise, even at a young age, how
advanced Japan was at that time
the world is truly our oyster with
compared to Singapore. And seeing
which we must do business to surhow polite and civil they were with
vive! Getting that precious chance
one another, whether at home or in
to see the world, when studying at
the subway, was also eye-opening
the University, can open eyes that
for many of us from Southeast
no traditional classroom teaching
Asia. It really made us sit up and
can,” he expresses.
take notice and, of course being the
good students we all were, debate
on how we could change Singapore
to achieve such a high level of
social cohesion,” he reflects.
Doing a market research
project at Caterpillar Far East in
Hong Kong while on the Aiesec
International programme led
Mr Lee to his present career in
international marketing, something
he is still engaged in after 37 years.
“The two experiences made a
deep impact on me and I felt that
students who qualify for exchange
programmes should not be deprived of doing so despite being
financially-challenged,” he says.
The businessman attributes his
successful career in international
marketing (he has since set up his
own business in advising and managing the distribution networks of
major American manufacturers in
the Asia Pacific region) to “the seeds
of interest planted during his NUS
undergraduate days” and hopes
that more alumni will give back
to their alma mater.
“I'm truly blessed by the
opportunities I had at NUS
and I
hope students will
treasure the
For information on making a
once-in-agift to NUS, please contact
1800-DEVELOP
lifetime op(1800-338-3567) or email:
portunities
askdvo@nus.edu.sg
presented
If you have a story to
to them,”
share, please contact
he adds.
whatsyourstory@nus.edu.sg
OCT–DEC 2014
35
ALUMNI HAPPENINGS EVENTS
NUS MBA EXPLORE SINGAPORE
TOUR AND NETWORKING DINNER
Jointly organised by the MBA Alumni – NUS and the Global Alumni Network
Office (GANO), the annual NUS MBA Explore Singapore Tour and Networking
Dinner was held on 31 July 2014.
The day began with the Explore city tour when MBA students were
introduced to Singapore. This was followed by a networking dinner at the
NUS Business School’s Mochtar Riady Building. It was an evening that saw
an encouraging turnout of 200 students and alumni who mingled and networked
through the night over dinner and drinks.
Ms Ng Pheck Choo (Business ’84), Director, NUS Business School GANO
FASS Mentorship and
Family Host Programme
Combined Dinner
The Faculty of
Arts and Social
Sciences (FASS)
held a combined
annual dinner for
the Mentorship and
My FASS Family
Host Programmes on
20 August 2014. This
year, the Mentorship
Programme enters
its 9th cycle with
A light moment, with FASS Dean Prof Brenda Yeoh (second from right),
65 alumni career
interacting with alumni, staff and students.
mentors guiding 97
students; the Host Programme enters its 6th cycle with 33 Hosts befriending
63 international students.
Alumnus Chanthirasekar Kalimuthu (Arts and Social Sciences ’08) finds
his mentees very aspirational and wishes to “make a difference” in shaping
their perceptions of the working world. For Ng Qiu Rong, a mentee, the dinner
provided a “wonderful opportunity” to interact with friends from FASS and
also FASS alumni. More importantly, FASS alumni mentors can share their
experiences in the working world and guide mentees on what working life is
all about.
For someone who has been overseas for a few summer and exchange
programmes, alumnus Pam Chia (Arts and Social Sciences ’12) from the Host
Programme recognises the difficulty of “[being] alone in a foreign country”, and
hopes to make students feel at home.
NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, External Relations and Student Life Team
36
ALUMNUS
FASS COMMENCEMENT
CELEBRATIONS 2014
With Commencement in July, departments in
the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)
organised celebrations to mark graduating
students’ achievements and welcome them
into the FASS Alumni family.
Some departments held quizzes and even
treated graduates to a session of poetry reading.
Graduates also took the opportunity to showcase
their talents with performances and video
montages. The History Department held its
famous customary event – Mad Hatters! –
with graduates sporting interesting hats.
Faculty members from the Geography
Department mingled with happy parents and
family members of graduates over canapes and
drinks. Each commencing student was given
a 2014 Geography class umbrella, a symbol
of the Department’s sheltering presence over
every alumnus.
Dean’s Office, NUS Faculty of Arts and
Social Sciences
Celebrating Words:
A Symposium of Poetry Readings
by ELL Alumni and Friends
It was a gathering of an all-star cast
of Singapore poets and writers
at the recent Celebrating Words:
A Symposium of Poetry Readings
by English Language and Literature
(ELL) alumni and friends. With guests
including Emeritus Professor
Edwin Thumboo and author and poet
Mr Felix Cheong, the event was a
celebration of ELL’s literary scene
and offered proof of the vibrancy and
creativity of Singapore’s literary minds.
Held on 23 August 2014 in NUS,
in celebration of the 85th Anniversary
of the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences, the event saw three panel
sessions where the poets shared their
experiences and answered questions
from approximately 200 eager
students and members of the public.
The 14 prominent poets, all alumni
and friends closely associated with
the Department of ELL, were
Mr Felix Cheong (Arts and Social
Sciences ’90); Mr Elangovan and
Dr Gwee Li Sui (Arts and Social
Sciences ’95); Ms Heng Siok Tian
(Arts and Social Sciences ’86);
Mr Aaron Lee and Dr Lee Tzu Pheng
(Arts and Social Sciences ’68);
Dr Oliver Seet (Arts and Social Sciences
’60); Dr Kirpal Singh (Arts and Social
Sciences ’72); Mr Paul Tan (Arts and
Social Sciences ’95); Emeritus Prof
Thumboo (Arts ’56); Mr Eric Valles
and Dr Cyril Wong (Arts and Social
Sciences ’02); Mr Wong Phui Nam
(Arts and Social Sciences ’59); and
Mr Yong Shu Hoong (Computing ’90).
Summing up the event, Mr Tan said that
it was very meaningful to come back to
NUS and to see familiar and friendly faces.
“I hope NUS, especially ELL, will continue to
engage and include the Singapore writers,
many of whom trace their formative writing
years to the department and who are more
than willing to give back.”
Ms Sue-Ann Tan, NUS Literary Society
MEM TRIP TO
KOTA KINABALU
The History Department’s Mad Hatters event.
LKYSPP SINGAPORE ALUMNI
CHAPTER KICKOFF
To better appreciate nature and understand eco-tourism,
MSc in Environmental Management (MEM) alumni
organised a five-day trip to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah,
Malaysia in May 2014. Five MEM alumni and students were
part of the 20 nature-loving participants for this trip.
Two months of intensive training, hiking at the
Bukit Timah and the MacRitchie Reservoir trails prepared
participants for the challenge. Apart from the climb,
participants trailed the mangrove forests of the Kota
Kinabalu Wetlands and took a cruise along the Mengkakong
river estuary at sunset. They also witnessed the lifestyle
and culture of the indigenous water gypsy tribes.
The trip challenged participants’ willpower and
highlighted the importance of safeguarding the
environment for future generations.
Ms Zhang Wen (MEM ’13) and Mr Bu Fan (MEM ’04)
More than 80 Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP)
alumni and students gathered at College Green on 1 August 2014
as part of the Singapore Alumni Chapter kickoff, which coincided
with the School’s 10th Anniversary celebrations.
Addressing the crowd, NUS Office of Alumni Relations
Director, Associate Professor Victor R Savage shared anecdotes
of the rich personal relations established when he was a
student at the old Bukit Timah campus and encouraged all
present to take advantage of the NUS and LKY School alumni
support services. The Singapore Alumni Chapter committee
comprises Mr Bernard Oh (LKYSPP ’11), President; Mr Kevin Teh
(LKYSPP ’10), Vice President; Ms Eti Bhasker (LKYSPP ’10),
Treasurer; and Mr Jonathan Lee (LKYSPP ’10), Secretary.
Mr Bernard Oh (LKYSPP ‘11)
MEM alumni Albert Sin (MEM ’05) (left), and Bu Fan (MEM ’04) tackle Mount
Kinabalu in the name of loving nature.
EUSOFF HALL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION’S
AGM WITH A TWIST
About 60 alumni and residents of Eusoff Hall
were present at the Eusoff Hall Alumni
Association’s Annual General Meeting (AGM)
and Durian Fest on 2 August 2014. They were
treated to a feast of tropical fruits such as
longans, mangosteens, rambutans, freshlychilled coconuts as well as Mao Shan Wang and
D24 durians.
Dinner was followed by the AGM. Outgoing
President Mr Vijay Liew (Arts and Social
Sciences ’10) presented the introduction and
reported that support was sought for the new
changes to the administrative reorganisation of
the Alumni Association.
Mr Guy Ming Wayne (Engineering ’10)
The event was attended by almost 200 students from schools and
universities, as well as members of the public.
OCT–DEC 2014
37
ALUMNI HAPPENINGS EVENTS
ALUMNI HAPPENINGS REUNIONS
Faculty of Dentistry’s
85th Anniversary Gala Dinner
The 85th Anniversary celebrations of the
Faculty of Dentistry culminated in a gala
dinner organised by the Faculty at the
Pan Pacific Hotel on 30 August 2014.
Guest-of-Honour Mr Heng Swee Keat,
Minister for Education, graced the event.
Other distinguished guests included
Mr Wong Ngit Liong (Engineering ’65),
Chairman of the NUS Board of Trustees
(BOT); Professor Tan Chorh Chuan (Medicine
’83), NUS President; and Professor
John Wong (Medicine ’81), Chief Executive,
National University Health System.
Apart from entertaining performances
that captivated the audience, a total of
12 cakes were cut to celebrate the 5th
year anniversaries of classes present.
The evening also saw Prof Tan and Minister
Heng presenting medals, scholarships and
Long Service awards to deserving recipients.
To commemorate the 85th Anniversary,
two paintings depicting the College of
Medicine building by renowned artist
Mr Ong Kim Seng was put up for sale,
with proceeds going to the Faculty’s
Development Fund. The Class of ’85 raised
a total of S$102,000 to purchase the oil
painting. The water-colour painting was
auctioned to the highest combined bid
of S$85,000 by Mr Wong and Prof Tan.
The Class of ’85, Mr Wong and Prof Tan
extended their philanthropic spirit
by donating the respective paintings
REUNION
OF ENGLISH
LITERATURE
CLASS OF 2014
On 3 July 2014, NUS English Literature
graduates of the Class of 2014 came together
for a night of reminiscing and celebration
at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House.
The event and venue were sponsored by
the NUS English Language and Literature
Department and the NUS Office of Alumni
Relations. The atmosphere was heartfelt,
with alumni wishing one another the very best
for the future while feasting on delicious fare.
Mr Yip Guanhui (Arts and Social Sciences ’14)
Guest-of-Honour and distinguished guests join hands to cut the Faculty’s birthday cake.
From left to right: Prof John Wong (Medicine ’81), Chief Executive, National University Health System; Prof Tan Eng Chye
(Science ’85), NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost; Mr Wong Ngit Liong (Engineering ’65), Chairman,
NUS Board of Trustees; Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Education; Assoc Prof Grace Ong (Dentistry ’79), Dean, Faculty
of Dentistry; Assoc Prof Keson Tan (Dentistry ’85); and NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan (Medicine ‘83).
to the Faculty. A letter from an anonymous
donor who had pledged S$250,000 to
the Faculty’s Endowment Fund was read
by the Dean, who conveyed the message
of an alumnus appreciative of the Faculty’s
contributions, towards his/her current
achievement.
Mr David Lee (Arts and Social Sciences ’94)
Class of 2014 English Literature alumni enjoying their first reunion.
MEDICAL DINNER 2014
THIRSTY THURSDAYS
ALUMNI HAPPENINGS ANNOUNCEMENTS
NUS CHINESE STUDIES
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
Founded in 2001, the NUS Chinese Studies
Alumni Association organises and coordinates
various activities with its alma mater for
alumni, students and faculty.
Apart from on-campus activities with
other NUS alumni groups, the Association
organises off-campus activities such as
monthly morning walks and the occasional
overseas trip. Recent months have seen trips
to Batam, Tangat and MacRitchie Reservoir.
The Association actively recruits new
graduates while appealing also to long-lost
alumni to get in touch with them. The Chinese
Studies Alumni Association can be reached
through the Chinese Studies Department link
at www.fas.nus.edu.sg/chs/eng/outreach/
alumni.html.
NUS COMPUTING
CELEBRATES COMPUTING
THROUGH THE AGES
To commemorate its 100002 (16th) anniversary,
the School of Computing (SoC) invites all DCS/
DISCS/SoC alumni and friends to its Gala
Dinner on 24 October 2014.
Join your SoC classmates
and professors to celebrate
16 Years of Computing Power.
Reminisce the good times,
rekindle friendships, network More information
on the event and
with your seniors in the
registration can be
industry and connect with
found at gala2014.
comp.nus.edu.sg
current students!
VALENTINE’S NIGHT WITH
NUS CAMPUS COUPLES
ALUMNI GROUP
Members of the Medical Class of 1964
Member of the Class of ’85 posing beside the oil painting with Chairman, NUS Board of Trustees, Mr Wong Ngit Leong (fifth
from left) and artist Mr Ong Kim Seng (sixth from left).
38
ALUMNUS
2014 Class Ambassadors had a
chance to make new friends when
the NUS Office of Alumni Relations
(OAR) welcomed more than 100 of
these soon-to-be alumni on 19 June
this year at OAR’s popular Thirsty
Thursdays event. Held at The Mad
Poet Gastrobar, these new Class
Ambassadors got to know one another
better over good food and fine wine.
The first Medical Dinner was held at Marina Mandarin on 3 July 2004, a decade
ago. The commemorative event is a reminder of the day Singapore’s first medical
school was established as the Straits Settlement and Federated Malay States
Government Medical School in 1905. It was also the start of a tradition for
graduating classes to get together to celebrate their five years as students in
the Medical School.
This year’s dinner not only included graduating students but members of
four alumni classes as well, who came back to celebrate their milestone years
with the School. The Medical Classes of ’84, ’69, ’64 and ’59 celebrated their
milestone anniversaries of 30, 45, 50 and 55 years respectively, and everyone
had a great time reconnecting with fellow classmates, seniors and juniors.
Dean’s Office, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
To celebrate Valentine’s day, The NUS Campus
Couples Alumni Group invites all campus
couples who have met on
campus to come together
to commemorate their
marriage. Five couples
from each Hall and Faculty
RSVP to
are invited to form a table
campuscouples@
alumni.nus.edu.sg by
of 10, and to join in this
celebration to reminisce and 30 December 2014.
A VIP campus couple
share their love stories on
will be invited to
13 February 2015 at the NUSS grace the event as
Kent Ridge Guild Hall.
Guests-of-Honour.
OCT–DEC 2014
39
Your complimentary AlumNUS Card entitles you
to a host of benefits and privileges!
For AlumNUS Card application and to find out more about the latest
privileges and promotions, log on to alumnet.nus.edu.sg/alumnuscard.
NUS OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS
Enjoy 15% discount off venue rates for event bookings
at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Venue booking: T 6516 7700 E sfahvenues@nus.edu.sg
Participating Merchants
ARTS SHOWCASE
Singapore Lyric Opera
20% discount off during early bird promotion period,
15% discount off thereafter for all SLO ticketed events.
Lehar’s The Merry Widow
24 & 25 October 2014, Friday & Saturday, 8pm
26 October 2014, Sunday, 3pm
Esplanade Theatre
All Things Bright and Beautiful - Choral Concert
13 December 2014, Saturday, 7.30pm
Esplanade Concert Hall
W: www.singaporeopera.com.sg
We Need A Hero
- 20% discount off first haircut, shave,
brow or wax.
- 10% discount off all package purchases.
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FOOD & BEVERAGE
ilLido
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Jean Yip Hairdressing & Hair Spa
Hair Cut and Colour (All lengths) at S$68.
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- NEW customer - Free first Trial Award-Winning
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- 15% discount off any Package purchased.
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*S.E.A. Aquarium
MEDZS
Jean Yip Loft
20% + 5% discount off any Beauty and
Slimming Programme purchased.
W: www.jeanyipgroup.com
Complimentary USD100 on-board credit
awarded for minimum cruise fare of
USD2,000 per person.
W: www.stamfordtravel.net/cruise
40% discount off One-Day Pass.
Adult: S$23 (usual S$38)
Child: S$18 (usual S$28)
BEAUTY & WELLNESS
Jean Yip Beauty & Slimming
Stamford Discovery Cruise Centre
15% discount off total food bill.
W: www.il-lido.com
15% discount off total bill for minimum
S$80 spent.
W: www.foodjunction.com/brands/
restaurant/medzs/
- 25% discount off all a la carte Spa and
Wellness Services.
- VIP Spa Retreat at S$60 (usual at S$269)
inclusive of:
* 60 mins Full Body Massage
* 20 mins Dry Body Polish or Ear Candling
* Tea and Dessert at Relaxing VIP Lounge
W: www.jeanyiploft.com
LIFESTYLE & LEISURE
10% discount off total Food and Beverage bill.
W: www.sons.com.sg
Oceanspoon Dining
10% discount off Food and Beverage bill with
minimum spend of S$50.
Imperial Feast
10% discount off Food and Beverage bill
with minimum spend of S$50.
Mimart
- 23% discount off Angkor Grains Cambodian
Jasmine Fragrant Rice at S$12.15
(usual S$15.80) with free home delivery.
- 24% discount off Angkor Grains Cambodian
Premium Fragrant Rice at S$10.35
(usual S$13.70) with free home delivery.
- 22% discount off Angkor Grains Cambodian
Premium AAA Rice at S$8.50
(usual S$10.90) with free home delivery.
W: www.mimart.sg
30% discount off One-Day Pass.
Adult: S$25 (usual S$36)
Child: S$20 (usual S$26)
*Universal Studios Singapore™
15% discount off One-Day Pass.
Adult: S$63 (usual S$74)
Child: S$46 (usual S$54)
* All three attractions to book via
guest.globaltix.com.
Enter username: alumnus@globaltix.com
and password: alumnus.
Purchase and print confirmation email.
Star Cruises
30% discount off Korean
“NANTA At Sea” Cruises on
SuperStar Gemini School Holidays Special:
Selected 14 November – 31 December 2014
departures.
W: www.starcruises.com
WTS Travel & Tours
- 12% discount off Legoland Theme Park
(code: ALU2014)
- 5% discount off Legoland Theme Park +
Water Park Package
(code: SPLASHINGDEAL)
Key in promotion code on payment page.
W: http://legoland.wtstravel.com.sg/
EDUCATION & SELF ENRICHMENT
Taylor & Francis
20% discount off all print books.
W: www.taylorandfrancis.com
Epigami
15% discount off first month tuition lessons
and educational workshops.
W: www.epigami.sg
RETAIL & OTHER SERVICES
Eagle Eye Centre
Corporate rates for Eye Care Services.
W: www.eagleeyecentre.com.sg
Certis CISCO
20% discount off first year retail price on
safe deposit box (all sizes).
Offer valid from 1 October 2014.
W: www.certissecurity.com/safedeposit/
Footin®
10% discount off regular priced items only.
W: www.foot-in.com
Terms and Conditions apply. The NUS Office of Alumni Relations and the AlumNUS Card merchants reserve the right to amend the terms and conditions
governing the offers at anytime. All information is correct at press time.
ALUMNI HAPPENINGS OVERSEAS CHAPTERS
London Overseas Chapter
Celebrates Singapore’s National Day
Alumni from the NUS London Overseas Chapter gathered at Westminster Abbey on 8 August 2014 to celebrate Singapore’s 49th year of Independence.
KUCHING OVERSEAS
CHAPTER REUNION
XIAMEN OVERSEAS
CHAPTER
The NUS Alumni Group (AG) Network is a collective of 58 groups from faculties/schools,
halls and varied interests. Each group caters to NUS alumni and aims to enrich their lives
and strengthen ties among them through social and professional activities.
Alumni from the NUS Xiamen Overseas Chapter gathered at Shangri-La Hotel,
Xiamen on 22 August 2014 to celebrate Singapore’s 49th birthday.
A group of NUS alumni from the NUS Kuching Overseas Chapter,
along with their families, gathered at Santubong Resort Hotel on
19 July 2014 for a reunion.
It was a fruitful weekend as alumni reconnected over great
food and discussed business networking plans with one another.
Mr Ambrose Tan (Arts and Social Sciences ’85),
Member, NUS Kuching Overseas Chapter Committee
SHANGHAI
OVERSEAS CHAPTER
NEW DELHI OVERSEAS
CHAPTER REUNION
The NUS New Delhi Overseas Chapter met on 26 July 2014.
The event was held at a newly-opened whisky bar called Dramz.
Alumni connected with new friends and reconnected with old
contacts. Theatre group Kaivlya Plays performed a number of
impromptu activities to entertain the alumni participants.
42
ALUMNUS
Alumni from the NUS Shanghai Overseas Chapter gathered at the JW Marriott Hotel
at Tomorrow Square in Shanghai on 8 August 2014, to celebrate Singapore’s 49th
year of Independence.
IN MEMORIAM
LOOKBACK
A tribute to
A LEARNING CURVE
Mr Koe Khoon Poh
ON 14 JULY 2014,
the NUS alumni
community learned of
the passing of a friend;
an inspirational and
extraordinary man,
Mr Koe Khoon Poh.
The late Mr Koe’s work
and life have helped and
touched many around
him, and will continue to
do so even today.
Mr Koe graduated
from the School of
Pharmacy, University of
Singapore in 1966. He
founded ICM Pharma Pte
Ltd and its related group
of companies in 1970.
Over the subsequent
four decades, Mr Koe
transformed this
trading enterprise into
a top pharmaceutical
products manufacturer in Singapore. He
was awarded many prestigious awards and
accolades for his outstanding contributions
to society, including Entrepreneur of the
Year (2008), the Singapore Prestige Brand
Award (2009), and the Enterprise 50 Award
(2009). In 2011, Mr Koe received the NUS
Faculty of Science’s Distinguished Science
Alumni Award and more recently, the Gold
Medal Award from the Alumni Association
(2013) and the NUS Distinguished Alumni
Service Award (2013).
Mr Koe was actively and passionately
involved with the Pharmacy profession;
he served as the President of the
Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore (PSS)
for four terms (1979 to 1981 and 1991 to
1993) and was conferred Fellow of the PSS
in 1986. He also helped shape the Pharmacy
profession by serving selflessly in many
pharmacy and health-related committees,
and giving generously to numerous healthrelated community projects, both locally
and overseas.
Despite his illustrious career, Mr Koe
remained a humble man with a strong
affinity for NUS and its alumni. He
served tirelessly as a member of the NUS
Alumni Advisory Board since 2009, and
as the Chairman of the Medical Alumni
Association Southern Branch for two
terms in 2009/2010 and in 2011/2012.
During his term, he helped raise huge
funds for numerous charities and worthy
causes, notably securing S$1 million for
the Chee Phui Hung Bursary Fund, which
is administered by NUS for the benefit of
deserving Medical, Dental and Pharmacy
students. To date, this Bursary has enabled
eight students to pursue their dreams
and aspirations.
Mr Koe remained active and committed
to alumni, even during his later years when
his health started failing.
Former Head of Department for English, Mr Maurice Baker
talks about his autobiography The Accidental Diplomat.
BY THERESA TAN
prevailed at the time in terms
of our political thinking and
strategy. As for my personal
life, I felt it would be good to
take a candid approach as
long as it was not within the
offensive boundaries of the
Censorship Board and did not
offend my dear wife when all
was divulged!
The AlumNUS: You call yourself
“The Accidental Diplomat”.
However, it appears you were more
than well-equipped for your role and
adjusted to it quickly and smoothly.
What do you think it was about your
personality and/or the fact you were a
teacher of English and later, University
Professor of Literature that served you
well during your diplomatic missions?
Mr Maurice Baker: The key thing that
helped me was the fact that I was as
a rookie diplomat, willing to listen
to the advice of senior diplomats
particularly in my first posting.
It did help that with some of the
diplomats that I subsequently met
as well as ministers in the countries
like the Philippines, that we shared
a common love for literature and
literary works which often helped
“break the ice”. I believe
that this made things easier
to discuss and helped me in
the learning curve through
the years.
“ Maurice Baker is from my generation and his autobiography
reflects the life and times that I went through. ”
Lee Kuan Yew
The
Accidental
Diplomat
HAVE A VISION, BE DIFFERENT AND GO FOR IT!
WORK HARD, PERSEVERE AND BE PRAGMATIC. TREAT
ALL SETBACKS AS PART OF [YOUR] LEARNING PROCESS.
KOE KHOON POH
44
ALUMNUS
The Autobiography of
Maurice Baker
:RUOG6FLHQWLÀF
The Accidental Diplomat
is published by World
Scientific and retails for
S$28 (paperback) and
S$48 (hardcover) (before
GST) in select bookstores.
You are very candid in your
book — about past lovers, about
personal relationships between
political heads. Did you selfcensor while you were writing
this book? Why or why not?
There was no need to selfcensor too much other
than to be “diplomatic” in
putting forth some ideas that
Having been ambassador to
India, Nepal, Malaysia and the
Philippines — in which of these
countries did you face the most
difficulty, and why?
I think India, being the first posting,
was the most difficult as it was
the start of the learning curve of
diplomacy for the newly-independent
Singapore. Our foreign office was
not fully conversant with diplomatic
protocol and how to budget for
foreign missions and cost of living
etc.. One must remember that up
until that time, Malaysia had done
all the diplomatic representation
and so it was a fresh start off the
starting blocks for Singapore as well
as its new ambassadors. So having
to manage diplomacy, family life and
cost of overseas living all at once was
a great challenge for me.
You wrote in your book that “it is a great
pity that in a highly competitive setting
many schools have dropped literature
simply because it is very difficult to
score such high marks as in mathematics
or scientific subjects. Literature deals
with life — the joy and sorrow of love,
the virtues and vices of men. But all
this seems of little account in Singapore
these days.” If you could, what would you
do to change this?
Well, I think the obsession with
scholastic achievements and grades
has left the benefits of the life stories
that literature has to offer well
behind. There is little that one can
do to change this as it is in the hands
of the educators to see its benefits.
FOREIGN MUSINGS
Mr Maurice Baker’s
winsome lyrical style that
reflects his deep love for literature
— punctuated with sharp and
unapologetic witticisms — makes
this volume a tremendously enjoyable
read. The story begins in 1942 when
his English father had gone into
internment during the Japanese
Occupation. The reader is taken
through Mr Baker’s exciting years
as a teenager — from his first sexual
encounter, an experience he paints by
way of a John Donne poem — to the
moment he found his father at the
end of the Japanese Occupation.
Among the friends of his
youth was Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who
would later usher Singapore into
independence. Although this book
largely covers Mr Baker’s diplomatic
career, some of his liveliest writing
happens on the pages where he talks
about being a teacher. One of his
first postings upon returning from
the United Kingdom was to Victoria
School as an English teacher.
His most famous student was
Sunny Ang, who was sentenced to
death in 1965 for killing his girlfriend
during a dive trip for her insurance
money. Mr Baker remembers him
as “intelligent, above average in
studies… He had an enigmatic smile.”
Mr Baker also has fond
memories of NUS’ predecessor,
Raffles College, where he was a
student before the Occupation.
In 1955 he returned as a lecturer. He
even takes on issues that still draw
a certain amount of criticism today,
such as the ratio of expatriate
lecturers to local lecturers. He
returned for six short years from
1971 to 1977 to head the Department
of English as an Associate Professor.
However, as time passes, many
more of the younger generation
will rise to prominence without
even reading or acknowledging the
lessons from great writers, and as
this trend continues, fewer people
will see the need for the humanities
and its “stories of life”. Will our
current school generation remember
Shakespeare in 50 years’ time?
Perhaps not in Singapore.
OCT–DEC 2014
45
LANXESS SNYO Classic 2014
CULTURE
THE RIGHT
NOTES
Fans of classical music will have
Above: Shut Up And Dance —
A Dancer’s Journey
NUSS – YSTCM Music
Appreciation Series
MOZART AND COMPANY:
A REVOLUTIONARY START-UP
(1783-84)
not to be missed.
TALES
By NUS Chinese Orchestra
8pm, 7 October 2014 (Tuesday),
UCC Theatre
“Just one”, says the grandfather
as he coaxed his grandson to sleep.
”Once upon a time”… the grandfather
begins his mesmerising tales from
Chinese folklore.
The young boy is now captivated,
he wants more from this dreamy
and imaginative landscape where
everything seems so magical
and possible.
Tales will evoke your imagination
through suspenseful chamber pieces
performed by members of the
NUS Chinese Orchestra interwoven
with the retelling of stories handed
down to us from our ancestors.
ENCOUNTER
By NUS Chinese Drama
8pm, 15 October 2014 (Wednesday),
UCC Dance Studio
Cultural differences. Are they all it
takes to cause a rift between people?
In Encounter, NUS Chinese Drama
looks at how conflicts are created by
culture and history using “Reversible
Theatre”, a form that shows that there
are different causes for every problem.
Come and watch how situations and
46
ALUMNUS
7pm, 15 October 2014 (Wednesday),
Suntec City Guild House
Fee applicable. For more information and
registration, please visit www.nuss.org.sg
or call Delphina Tan at 6586 3774.
Mozart’s move permanently to Vienna
in the early 1780s sparked not only a
period of compositional creativity but
also in him a new way of thinking about
the position and role of a musician in
society. This presentation explores
some of the issues Mozart faced as a
newly married entrepreneur starting
up, by exploring the consequences
of his development as evident in
movements from two ensemble works
from the period, the Piano Concerto in
Eb, K449 and the Quintet for Piano &
Winds, K452 performed by students
from YSTCM.
Martin
Söderberg
society can be changed, if only one
single thing was different in the story.
UN VIAJE MUSICAL —
A MUSICAL JOURNEY
With Pianist Martin Söderberg (Spain)
8pm, 22 October 2014 (Wednesday),
UCC Theatre
Journey through Spain and
Latin America with Spanish pianist
Martin Söderberg through this fresh
presentation of classical piano music.
Experience the fiery passion of Latino
infused pieces. Söderberg is your
tour guide on this jaunt, pointing out
the wonders of each piece, inviting
“travellers” past the barrier of just
notes into a more complete, meaningful
and satisfying listening experience.
Un Viaje Musical is an educational
and fun ride that will keep audiences
fully entertained throughout the trip.
Performances by CFA Arts Groups
SHUT UP AND DANCE —
A DANCER’S JOURNEY
By NUS Dance Blast!
8pm, 12 October 2014 (Sunday),
UCC Hall
S$22, S$20
Email suad.ticketing@gmail.com
for ticket enquiries
The Shut Up And Dance series is NUS
Dance Blast!’s biannual production
aimed at presenting the freshest talents
in dance and choreography discovered
and groomed in NUS. Under the artistic
direction of Resident Choreographer
Patrick Loo, each production is a
delightful showcase of different forms
of street dance and hip-hop pulled
together with a special theme each year.
Encounter
This year, Shut Up And Dance —
A Dancer’s Journey follows the separate
but intertwined lives of three young
and talented dancers and the joys and
frustrations they encounter in their
drive to pursue their passion in dance.
Told entirely through the language of
popping, locking, funk and jazz, more
than 120 dancers will take to the stage
a show which will have audiences
cheering and energised.
Shut Up And Dance — A Dancer’s
Journey also features NTU’s MJ,
SMU’s Eurythemix and BreakinNUS as
well as the dedicated alumni of NUS
Dance Blast!
NUS Centre For the Arts
University Cultural Centre
50 Kent Ridge Crescent
National University of Singapore
Singapore 119279
Tel: [65] 6516 2492
Fax: [65] 6778 1956
Nearest MRT: Clementi, Kent Ridge
Website: www.nus.edu.sg/cfa
Email: cfamarketing@nus.edu.sg
Facebook: www.facebook.com/NUSCFA
Twitter: www.twitter.com/NUSCFA
All information correct at time of print and is subject to change without prior notice.
Please visit www.cfa.nus.edu.sg for updates.
ExxonMobil Campus Concerts
Free Admission
Tickets available at the door (on a
first-come-first-served basis) one hour
before showtime. The audience capacity
at University Cultural Centre Theatre
(UCC) is 400. Limited to two tickets
per patron.
much to look forward to in the
months ahead.
Homecoming Series
MELVYN TAN &
CONSERVATORY STRINGS:
ALL ABOUT MOZART
MELVYN TAN, piano
CONSERVATORY STRINGS
with
LESLIE TAN, cello
MOZART
Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K414
(chamber version)
MOZART
Divertissement No. 1 in D major, K136
MOZART
Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major, K271
7.30pm, 21 October 2014 (Tuesday),
Conservatory Concert Hall
Internationally-renowned pianist
Melvyn Tan will lead the Conservatory
strings in a night of Mozart. Beginning
and ending with two of Mozart’s highly
regarded piano concertos, performed
on the fortepiano and the modern
piano, the concert also presents one
of Mozart’s well-loved divertimento.
This evening, indulge yourself in
classical works rich and distinct in their
ingenuity and egalitarianism.
Melvyn Tan
Conservatory Orchestra Series
EROICA!
GÁBOR TAKÁCS-NAGY, conductor
WANG QIYING, piano
BEETHOVEN Egmont Overture
RACHMANINOVPiano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor,
Op. 1
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major,
Op. 55, “Eroica”
7.30pm, 14 November 2014 (Friday),
Victoria Concert Hall
Tickets at S$15 from SISTIC
Renowned musician Gábor TakácsNagy, founder of the esteemed
Takacs Quartet and music director
of the Verbier Festival Chamber
Orchestra and Manchester Camerata is
the Conservatory’s Ong Teng Cheong
Professor of Music 2014. He will
conduct Beethoven’s dramatic
Egmont Overture, Op. 84 and the
Eroica Symphony. The concert also
features Wang Qiying, prizewinner of
the Conservatory Concerto Competition
2014 performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano
Concerto No. 1. Join the Conservatory
Orchestra as it performs for the first
time in the newly-reopened Victoria
Concert Hall.
Faculty Recital Series
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
KERIM VERGAZOV, piano
IGOR YUZEFOVICH, violin
GUENNADI MOUZYKA double bass
7.30pm, 21 November 2014 (Friday),
Conservatory Concert Hall
Accompanying Russia's rich diversity is
their long history of music. Ornamented
by folk songs, sacred music, local ritual
music and highlighted by the rise of
nationalism and 20th century music,
Bernard Lanskey
Gábor Takács-Nagy
Russian music dominates a significant
position till today. This evening, we
present to you a variety of popular
Russian favourites, be sure to catch this
showcase of pieces from silvery tunes of
arias to broadway musicals.
LANXESS SNYO Classic 2014
presents:
“MUSICAL VIRTUOSOS”!
NATALIE CLEIN, cello, guest soloist
JASON LAI, guest conductor
IN COLLABORATION WITH YONG SIEW TOH
CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
SAINT-SAËNS Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33
FAURÉ Élégie for cello and orchestra, Op. 24
7.30pm, 27 November 2014 (Thursday),
Esplanade Concert Hall
Tickets at $9 from SISTIC
Be dazzled by acclaimed British
virtuoso cellist Natalie Clein in SaintSaëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1 and Faure's
Élégie, accompanied by young virtuosos
from the Singapore National Youth
Orchestra.
The concert opens with the
dashing music of The Roman Carnival
orchestrating Berlioz’s brightest
colours and closes with Carmen Suite
by Bizet, the Parisienne composer and
piano virtuoso.
Held in collaboration with the
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music,
following a weeklong orchestral camp
hosted by the Conservatory, guest
conductor Jason Lai leads the orchestra
in an all-French programme, promising a
delightful evening of great musical élan!
All information correct at time of print and is subject to change without prior notice.
Please visit www.music.nus.edu.sg for updates.
ON WITH
THE
SHOW!
Mesmerising performances
Tales
OCT–DEC 2014
47
LAST WORD
THE NUS FACULTY OF SCIENCE has had a busy year
innovating and researching ways to a better life for us all.
Here are some:
TURNING LIGHT INTO MOTION
A TEAM LED BY AN NUS PROFESSOR
HAS UNRAVELLED THE CHEMICAL
REACTION RESPONSIBLE FOR
PROPELLING MICROSCOPIC CRYSTALS
OVER DISTANCES UP TO HUNDREDS OF
TIMES THEIR OWN SIZE WHEN EXPOSED
TO UV LIGHT. THIS RARE PHENOMENON
MIGHT PROVIDE A NEW WAY TO
HARNESS LIGHT TO POWER DEVICES.
GETTING TO THE BOTTOM
OF PARKINSON’S
Researchers have created the
first highly-sensitive small
molecule fluorescence probe
which can quickly determine an
individual’s risk for Parkinson’s
disease. This paves the way for
the development of cheaper,
non-invasive technologies and
devices to help monitor the
risk and progression of the
degenerative disease.
48
ALUMNUS
Dates to
REMEMBER
Researchers have developed
the first fluorescent sensor
to detect the “date rape”
drug GHB. When the sensor
is mixed with a GHB-spiked
beverage, the concoction
soon changes colour. It is
hoped that this breakthrough
will help to prevent drugfacilitated sexual assaults.
OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 2014
OCTOBER
18, 20 & 21 OCT SAT, MON & TUE
China Film Festival 2014
ADMINISTERING PAINLESS
COLLAGEN INJECTIONS
8pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/cnff2014
Enquiries: Ms Gabriella Nyam at gabriella@nus.edu.sg
An NUS team has invented
a new way to administer
collagen injections or the
painkiller lidocaine. Using
an adhesive topped with
microscopic needles, collagen
or lidocaine are delivered into
the skin painlessly – a boon
for patients with diabetes or
cancer in home-care settings,
or for cosmetic purposes.
29 OCT WED
U@LIVE featuring
Ms Indranee Thurai Rajah
7.30pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Register at www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet
Enquiries: Ms Josephine Chow at josephine@nus.edu.sg
30 OCT THU
Senior Alumni Tea and Chat
4pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Enquiries: Ms Irene See at irenesee@nus.edu.sg
OPENING THE DOOR TO
SMALLER, BETTER THINGS
Scientists have developed
a technique that will shed
light on the properties that
arise when materials are
combined. Scientists can
now more easily tweak the
resultant properties,
opening doors to
enhanced solar cells,
superconductors
and storage drives.
All information is correct at time of print and is subject to change without prior notice.
DISCOVERY
EXPOSING DATE RAPE
DRUG IN SECONDS
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
A Year of
ALUMNI
EVENTS
NOVEMBER
12 NOV WED
NUS AlumniGreat Eastern Life
Breakfast Dialogue
with Mr Andrew Kwan
7.30am, Marina Mandarin Hotel Ballroom, Level 1
Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/BDnov14
Enquiries: Ms Lin Shushan at shushan@nus.edu.sg
14 NOV FRI
NUS AlumniStandard Chartered
Global Conversations with
Professor Tommy Koh
11.45am, The Westin Singapore, Ballroom 1,
Asia Square Tower 2
Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/GCnov14
Enquiries: Ms Gabriella Nyam at gabriella@nus.edu.sg
20 NOV THU
Thirsty Thursdays
NUS PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION ACT
(PDPA)
2 JANUARY 2014
In line with Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act
(PDPA) Do Not Call (DNC) Registry, you may indicate your
preference for receiving marketing messages from NUS on
your Singapore telephone number via the various methods.
If you wish to make changes to your preference, you can
update at https://myaces.nus.edu.sg/DNC/index.do.
2 JULY 2014
In view of Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA),
the NUS Office of Alumni Relations would like to inform you
that NUS will continue to engage you as an alumnus through
the following ways:
• Providing you information about the University and
alumni-related initiatives and activities.
• Sending you invitations to NUS- and alumni-related
events.
• Requesting you to update alumni information.
• Sending you invitations to participate in alumni surveys.
• Sending you alumni-related communication collaterals.
If you wish to withdraw your consent to be contacted,
please visit https://myaces.nus.edu.sg/PSR/index.do.
6.30pm, iDarts Halo
Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/TT2011
Enquiries: Ms Gabriella Nyam at gabriella@nus.edu.sg
26 NOV WED
U@LIVE featuring
Dr Yaacob Ibrahim
7.30pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Register at www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet
Enquiries: Ms Josephine Chow at josephine@nus.edu.sg
27 NOV THU
Senior Alumni Tea and Chat
4pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Enquiries: Ms Irene See at irenesee@nus.edu.sg
27 NOV THU
MOVIES ON THE HOUSE
The Hobbit – The Desolation
of Smaug (PG13/VIOLENCE)
7.30pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/MMnov14
Enquiries: Mr Kyaw Win Shwe at
kyawwinshwe@nus.edu.sg
7 Ways to be an active
As an NUS alumnus, there are many ways to stay connected
to your alma mater. Here are 7 ways to get you started!
!
ttend an Office of Alumni Relations (OAR) event.
Come network with fellow alumni at any of these popular and often
complimentary OAR events.
NUS has over 55 Alumni Groups and over 15 Overseas Chapters. Join a group today
to stay in touch and build closer ties with fellow alumni and the University.
ead or join an alumni group.
sse your AlumNUS Card.
C
Check
out exclusive offers and benefits for alumni at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/alumnuscard
ake your way down to the Shaw Foundation Alumni House!
Your Home on Campus and an ideal meeting place for alumni events, seminars,
reunions and gatherings.
urture the giving spirit in you.
Step up to the role of class ambassador or come home to volunteer as an alumni mentor
for the undergraduates. Find out how at www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet
pdate your contact details with us!
Stay connected to NUS. Update your contact information with us at
alumnet.nus.edu.sg/updatemyparticulars
tay connected through our numerous
communication platforms!
• Read the quarterly magazine — The AlumNUS — that gives you the latest on NUS
and our alumni community at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/alumnusmagazine
• Check out AlumNET at www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet, your one-stop alumni web resource!
Download AlumNET from Google Play or Apple Store to view upcoming alumni events!
• Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nusoar
• Enjoy AlumMAIL, your NUS Lifelong Email Account.
www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet