1. education
2. alumni and reunions

The
ALUM
NUS
ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
JAN–MAR 2015 / ISSUE 100
The Art and Science
of Medicine
A SALUTE TO THE MEDICAL FACULTY’S
110 YEARS OF ACHIEVEMENTS
Celebrating
years
of
110
N S
and
Alumni Connection
DISTINCTION
DEDICATION
AMONG THE WORLD’S TOP 10
FOR ACADEMIC AND
EMPLOYER REPUTATION
ALUMNI WHO
CONSISTENTLY GIVE BACK
The
ALUM
NUS
ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
JAN–MAR 2015 / ISSUE 100
The Art and Science
of Medicine
A SALUTE TO THE MEDICAL FACULTY’S
110 YEARS OF ACHIEVEMENTS
Celebrating
years
of
110
N S
and
Alumni Connection
DISTINCTION
DEDICATION
AMONG THE WORLD’S TOP 10
FOR ACADEMIC AND
EMPLOYER REPUTATION
ALUMNI WHO
CONSISTENTLY GIVE BACK
HIGHLIGHTS OF 110 YEARS OF DISTINCTION AND DEDICATION
1823 An idea to establish a Singapore institution of higher
studies with a scientific department as well as literary
and moral departments for different races was discussed by
Sir Stamford Raffles and sinologist missionary, Dr Robert Morrison.
1903 Representatives of the Chinese communities, led by
Chinese Legislative Councillor Mr Tan Jiak Kim, and other
communities in Singapore, petitioned for the establishment
of a medical school.
1905
The Straits Settlements and Federated
Malay States Government Medical
School was founded with donations of S$87,000 raised
by the Chinese community.
1910 The pioneering class, comprising seven young men,
graduated from the Medical School with a Licentiate in
Medicine and Surgery (LMS).
DR CHEN SU LAN
(1885 – 1972) was one of
Singapore’s first local Medical
graduates. He was also an antiopium campaigner, philanthropist
and social reformer. He served
in a number of important
committees including the
Tan Tock Seng Hospital
Management Committee.
DR BENJAMIN SHEARES was
Singapore’s second President from
1971 until 1981 when he passed away. In
1923, he enrolled into the King Edward
VII College of Medicine. He worked as
an obstetrician in the Kandang Kerbau
Hospital and was a professor at
the University of Malaya. He
was appointed Head of the
Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Department at the King
Edward VII College of
Medicine in 1948.
1981 President Mr Devan Nair became the Chancellor after the demise
of President Sheares on 12 May.
Professor Lim Pin succeeded Dr Tony Tan as Vice-Chancellor on 1 June.
1988 The Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library was officially opened by First
Deputy Prime Minister Mr Goh Chok Tong in January.
1991 The Medical Faculty undertakes a much-needed review of
its curriculum, leading to the setting up of new departments and the
reorganisation of the five-year medical course into three
distinct blocks.
1993 President Mr Ong Teng Cheong became the new
Chancellor of the University.
The NUS Centre For the Arts (CFA) was established to
give greater focus for the development of cultural
activities on campus.
The
ALUM
NUS
ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
1911 The Tan Teck Guan Building
at 16A College Road was opened
to add to the existing facilities of
the Straits and Federated Malay
States Government Medical
School. It was gazetted as a
national monument in 2002.
1955
Nanyang University or Nantah was built
from contributions and resources pooled
from the Chinese community.
1959 The University of Malaya began to function
as two autonomous divisions, with one located
in Singapore and the other in Kuala Lumpur. The
University of Malaya was re-named the University
of Malaya in Singapore.
The University of Malaya in Singapore admitted its
first batch of 40 students from Chinese vernacular
schools into a one-year pre-University course as a
precursor to joining the Faculty of Science.
The Faculty of Medicine operated as the Faculty
of Medicine of the University of Malaya in Singapore.
1997 NUS was voted one of the top
10 universities in the Asia Pacific
region. It ranked fourth in a survey
of 50 top universities in Asia and
Australia. In ratings by academic
reputation, NUS was placed second
by its academic peers in Asia and
Australia.
President Mr S R Nathan succeeded
Mr Ong Teng Cheong as the new
Chancellor.
2000 Professor Shih Choon Fong
succeeded Professor Lim Pin as NUS’
new Vice-Chancellor.
1961 The University of Singapore admitted graduates
of Nanyang University and other Chinese universities
for degrees leading to the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor
of Science with Honours, or Diplomas in Education or
Social Work.
1962
The two
divisions of the
University of Malaya became
two separate entities and the
University of Malaya in Singapore
was re-designated the University
of Singapore.
DR YONG LOO LIN
graduated as a medical
doctor from the University
of Hong Kong in 1923. The
Kuala Lumpur-born doctor
established himself as a
successful businessman in
Hong Kong and was a strong
advocate of education.
Dr Yong passed away in 1959
and the Yong Loo Lin Trust
was established by his family.
Copyright 2015 by the National University of Singapore.
All rights reserved. Printed in Singapore by KHL Printing
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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
1940 The Colonial Development and
Welfare Bill was passed to support more
rapid development in the colonies.
Dr Raymond Priestly, Vice-Chancellor of
Birmingham University, later recommended
the creation of a university college
in Malaya.
1947 A commission led by London School
of Economics Director Sir Alexander
Carr-Saunders began the study of the
possibility of establishing a University
College in Singapore.
Raffles College was officially
opened. The College granted
diplomas in English, History and Economics,
Geography, Education, Physics, Chemistry
and Mathematics.
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Stephanie S Williams - Sivakumar
PUBLISHING CONSULTANT
MediaCorp Pte Ltd
1926 A new three-storey Medical College
building was completed in Outram Road.
1929
EDITOR
Karin Yeo
(Arts and Social Sciences ’97)
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Noreen Kwan
1921 The King Edward VII Medical School’s name
was changed to the King Edward VII College of
Medicine.
1928 The first 43 students were admitted
to Raffles College.
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.
ADVISOR
Assoc Prof Victor R Savage
(Arts and Social Sciences ’72)
1912 The name of the Medical School was
changed to King Edward VII Medical School.
1948 The Carr-Saunders Commission
proposed the formation of a full-fledged
university with degree-granting powers
rather than a university college.
DR TOH CHIN CHYE was a lecturer at the Department
of Physiology in the University of Malaya,
and from 1958 to 1964, a reader in
Physiology in the University of Singapore.
Dr Toh also served as Singapore’s Minister
for Science and Technology from 1968 to
1975 and was appointed Vice-Chancellor
of the University of Singapore.
He prompted the move of the University
from Bukit Timah to Kent Ridge
and initiated the setting up of the
National University Hospital.
2003 The Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, an
alliance with the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins
University, admitted its first batch of students to its
four-year Honours programme in Music.
2004 The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
(LKYSPP) was launched as an autonomous school for
study and research in public policy, in particular the
study of public policy in Asian societies.
The Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) was
established as an autonomous research institute of
the University.
2005
The NUS School
of Medicine
celebrated its Centennial. It
was renamed the Yong Loo Lin
School of Medicine.
2006 The first of April marked the beginning of a
new chapter in NUS’ development as Singapore’s
global university.
NUS hosted the inaugural IARU Presidents’ Meeting on
14 January to officially launch the International Alliance
of Research Universities (IARU).
2008 The Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine joined the NUS
Faculty of Dentistry and the National University Hospital to
form the National University Health System (NUHS).
The groundbreaking ceremony for University Town was
officiated by Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong on
31 January 2008 at the former Warren Golf Course.
Professor Tan Chorh Chuan succeeded Professor
Shih Choon Fong on 1 December 2008 as NUS’
fourth President.
The
ALUM
NUS
ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
JAN–MAR 2015 / ISSUE 100
The Art and Science
of Medicine
A SALUTE TO THE MEDICAL FACULTY’S
110 YEARS OF ACHIEVEMENTS
ALUMNUS JanMar15 Cover FA.indd 1
COVER CONCEPT: Samuel Ng
PHOTO: Corbis
1971 The President of Singapore, Dr Benjamin Sheares, became
the new Chancellor of the University of Singapore after the
passing of the previous Chancellor Yusof Bin Ishak.
The three-semester system beginning in May was changed to a
two-semester system beginning in July to enable all first-year
students to complete part of their National Service commitments.
The Singapore University Press, with a full time-editor, was
established to take over the activities of the Singapore branch of
the University of Malaya Press.
2009 NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan launched the
University’s new Vision and Mission. With a Vision of “A leading
global university centred in Asia, influencing the future”, it is
hoped that NUS will be recognised as a key authority on Asia that
could influence the future of the region.
2011 Singapore’s President His
Excellency Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam
succeeded Mr S R Nathan as NUS’
ninth Chancellor.
Singapore’s Prime Minister
Mr Lee Hsien Loong launched
Yale-NUS College, the first liberal
arts college in the country.
S and
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The governments of the
Federation of Malaya
and Colony of Singapore
appointed a Committee
to review the future
of University medical
education.
VII College
of Medicine
amalgamated with
Raffles College to
form the University
of Malaya.
1968 Dr Thio Su Mien became the first woman in the history of
the University to be elected Dean of the Faculty of Law.
The Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
Singapore (Duke-NUS) was officially opened
by Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong.
1953 A new University
Library building was
completed and formally
opened by Mr Tan Lark Sye,
one of the largest
subscribers to the
University Endowment Fund.
1949
The King Edward
1965 The University of Singapore and Singapore Polytechnic
accepted recommendations of Colombo Plan experts to develop
the Polytechnic into an institute of advanced technology with
schools of Engineering, Accountancy and Architecture for the
award of degrees of the University of Singapore.
Contents
years
of
1952 The Dunearn Road
hostels were completed.
DR LEE CHOO NEO
made history in June
1920 when she became
Singapore’s first woman
medical practitioner.
Her breakthrough
remained a rare feat,
as only five other
women graduated
from medical school
in the decade that
followed.
1972 Dr Toh Chin Chye officiated at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new University of
Singapore campus site at Kent Ridge.
1980
The Singapore government
announced the National
University of Singapore Act.
Dr Tony Tan was appointed the first Vice-Chancellor
of the National University of Singapore. The Halls
of Residence, Kent Ridge Hall and Raffles Hall,
were opened.
The University of Singapore
merged with Nanyang
University to form
the National University of
Singapore (NUS) at Kent Ridge
on 8 August 1980.
2012 The NUS Bukit Timah
Campus was among the five
conservation sites to be
presented with the Architectural
Heritage Awards 2012 by the
Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore.
2013 The Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum
held its groundbreaking ceremony graced by Guest-ofHonour Professor Tommy Koh, Singapore’s Ambassadorat-Large and Honorary Chairman of Singapore’s National
Heritage Board.
NUS University Town was officially opened by Singapore
Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong on 17 October 2013 .
2015
The NUS School of Medicine – and by
extension the University – turns 110.
JAN - MAR 2015
ISSUE 100
2 IN THE NEWS 5 COVER STORY SEAMLESS CONTINUUM 16 FEATURE STORY HISTORY IN THE MAKING 22 MY WORD AN EYE OPENER
24 ONCE UPON A MEMORY OFF TO A FLYING START 26 PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE SCIENCE OF HIS SUCCESS 28 BREAKFAST DIALOGUE
MR KWEK LENG JOO, MR ANDREW KWAN 32 U@LIVE PROF HSIEH TSUN-YAN, MS INDRANEE THURAI RAJAH
36 GLOBAL CONVERSATIONS PROF TOMMY KOH 38 ALUMNI HAPPENINGS 45 IN MEMORIAM 48 LAST WORD
12/18/14 7:20 PM
First Word
DEAR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS,
015 is an auspicious year for a double celebration of NUS
and Singapore. While NUS welcomes its 110th anniversary,
Singapore enjoys 50 years of independence. We have
much to be proud of as alumni and Singaporeans. We hope
that you will be part of the festivities for these key milestones, whether
you are in Singapore or overseas.
Singapore’s development over the last 50 years has been intertwined
with the history of NUS and the institution’s previous incarnations. Our
faculty and alumni have served Singapore well in various roles as ministers, politicians,
government bureaucrats, professionals, corporate titans and employees in every sector
of Singapore’s economy, as well as in public services.
Given that NUS’ genesis arose from the Medical College which began in 1905,
the spotlight for this issue is on our Medical faculty alumni. Our doctors, dentists
and pharmacists have much to be proud of, and particularly because the Medical
faculty has produced a strong alumni base – loyal, cohesive, active and generous.
Indeed, without the Singapore doctors who managed and ran the General Hospital
in the absence of their colonial medical superiors during the Second World War, the
change from College (Raffles) to a University (Malaya) would not have taken place. In
post-WW2, the Colonial government realised our medical alumni were well-trained,
responsible, reliable and competent – and so our ‘University’ status became a reality.
For NUS alumni, the Carpenters’ song, ‘Yesterday Once More’ will resonate with
special meaning and nostalgia in 2015. It says something about the times we shared
as students on different campuses: our friendships, love, experiences, pranks,
disappointments and challenges. These form our vivid recollections or perhaps, fading
memories of campus days, varsity life and bonds with our alma mater. For some the
campus was the grounds of courtship, cementing lifelong partnerships which alumnus
Mr Yeo Keng Joon (Business ’85) celebrates in his ‘Campus Couples’ initiative. At the
Office of Alumni Relations, we treasure all forms of relationships to the University
and hope you can join our reunion celebrations at the Bukit Timah Homecoming on
4 July 2015, and the Kent Ridge Alumni Family Day on 15 August 2015.
I wish everyone a Happy and Healthy 2015. To all our Chinese, Vietnamese and
Korean alumni, I wish you a very Joyful, Peaceful and Prosperous Lunar New Year in
the year of the Goat. May you stubbornly keep your sustained relationships to your
alma mater alive!
ASSOC PROF VICTOR R SAVAGE
DIRECTOR, NUS OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS
Arts and Social Sciences ’72
JAN–MAR 2015
1
IN THE NEWS
STATE OF THE
UNIVERSITY ADDRESS 2014:
REFORMULATE
SUCCESS TO
INFLUENCE
THE FUTURE
A
T THE STATE OF THE
UNIVERSITY ADDRESS 2014
held on 10 October,
NUS President Professor
Tan Chorh Chuan
(Medicine ’83) said that
the existing NUS formula
has been successful
but the University
must make adjustments to take its
progress further.
S$35 million will be invested by
the University for education, research
and entrepreneurship initiatives when
it augments its existing blueprint for
success, which focusses on talent,
educational innovation, building
global research peaks and strategic
partnerships. Using the analogy of
a three-part Chinese ink painting of
mountain peaks, forests and lush
terraces which he completed, Prof Tan
outlined three strategic thrusts
that would help NUS use its present
strengths to “paint the future”.
More than 300 guests including
former Singapore President
Mr S R Nathan, NUS Pro-Chancellors,
Board of Trustees, senior
administrators, donors, staff and
students attended the annual Address,
where Prof Tan shared his views
with the campus community on the
direction for the year ahead.
“As we continue to build on these,
it is also true that we must make
strategic adjustments to other parts
of the NUS formula, to give fresh
impetus to our progress and further
steepen the trajectory of our growth,”
Prof Tan said.
Referring to the NUS Vision
– A leading global university centred
in Asia, influencing the future – Prof
Tan said that it was now time to put a
transformative focus on “influencing
the future”.
To begin with, NUS will further
strengthen its emphasis on preparing
2
ALUMNUS
The University will build on its existing formula for success, which focusses on strategic
partnerships, talent, educational innovation and building global research peaks.
NUS President Prof Tan with former Singapore President Mr Nathan.
future-ready graduates. Prof Tan
highlighted several initiatives that are
already in place, such as the grade-free
first semester system and expanding
the use of technology-enhanced
learning among others. The recent
repositioning of the NUS Student
Career Office, which was renamed the
Centre for Future-Ready Graduates,
and the extension of project-based
learning and internships across campus
signify the University’s commitment
to better prepare students for the
working world ahead, he said.
Increasing the vibrancy of the
University’s enterprise ecosystem
and making NUS a key contributor to
Singapore’s global aspirations in this
area is the second strategic move.
The University will add two new
NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) to its
current six and raise the intake for
the NOC programme to 300 students
a year. To establish the NUS-Block
71@Silicon Valley in San Francisco,
WE MUST MAKE
STRATEGIC
ADJUSTMENTS TO
OTHER PARTS
OF THE NUS
FORMULA, TO
GIVE FRESH
IMPETUS TO OUR
PROGRESS AND
FURTHER STEEPEN
THE TRAJECTORY
OF OUR GROWTH.
NUS PRESIDENT PROF TAN CHORH CHUAN
in addition to the existing NUS
Launchpad@Silicon Valley; and grow
the NUS Launchpad@Suzhou out of
the NUS (Suzhou) Research Institute,
NUS will partner with SingTel Innov8
and the Infocomm Development
Authority of Singapore.
NUS will also increase incubator
capacity on campus to house a student
entrepreneurial community of more
than 2,500, while expanding the
existing space at Block 71 to cater to
the rising number of start-ups.
NUS will translate and apply
its research in transformative ways,
especially in strategic areas for
Singapore. To boost the translational
impact of NUS’ research, the
University will continue to work
with local partners and industry
to develop major clusters of
translational programmes.
Prof Tan highlighted a new
translational programme – the
Centre for Healthcare Innovation and
Medical Engineering – which will be
established with an initial funding
of S$15 million. Anchored by the
Schools of Medicine and Computing,
the Faculty of Engineering, and the
National University Health System,
the Centre will develop healthcare
technologies that address the issues of
functional ageing.
Prof Tan also cited two recent
initiatives by the NUS Risk Management
Institute (RMI) that depicts NUS’
success in translational impact.
The first is the International
Monetary Fund (IMF)’s intention to
adopt RMI’s stress-testing system,
which centres on its corporate default
prediction model and database, into
IMF’s Financial Sector Assessment
Program. The two entities will soon
sign a formal research agreement.
RMI has also developed a “public
good” Credit Research Initiative, which
provides the probabilities of default
for more than 60,000 companies in
106 economies on a daily basis, with
results freely accessible. This initiative
has influenced work in this field and
attracted collaborations with several
financial institutions.
In closing, Prof Tan announced
that NUS will mark its 110th anniversary
together with Singapore’s 50th
anniversary as a sovereign nation in
2015. The direction he has charted is
in line with the two themes that have
defined the University since 1905.
The themes are: the commitment
and tradition of service to the
advancement of the country; and the
unwavering dedication to excellence
and aspirations to global prominence.
“Today, we are well-poised to make
use of our considerable strengths to
paint exciting new parts of the future,”
he said.
23rd NUS Alumni and
Friends Golf Tournament
ENTERING ITS 23RD YEAR, the highly-anticipated
NUS Alumni and Friends Golf Tournament – organised
by the NUS Office of Alumni Relations (OAR), in
collaboration with the NUS Society (NUSS) –
once again delighted NUS alumni golf enthusiasts.
152 players gathered at the Raffles Country Club, Lake
Course on 1 October for the tee-off. Guest-of-Honour
NUS Pro-Chancellor Mr Po’ad Mattar (Accountancy ’71)
graced the tournament with his presence.
The NUS Faculty of Science emerged as the
champions of the NUS Inter-Faculty Vice Chancellor
Trophy after hours on the green and NUS Business
School was the runner-up. The event rounded off
with a dinner and prize presentation ceremony held
at the Della and Seng Gee Guild Hall of NUSS
Guild House.
OAR Director Assoc Prof Victor R Savage (2nd from right) with the champions of the NUS Inter-Faculty Vice Chancellor Trophy.
JAN–MAR 2015
3
110 YEARS OF MEDICINE
IN THE NEWS
CLOSE TO 1,200 GUESTS TURNED UP at this
year’s China Film Festival (CFF) held
at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House
from 18 to 21 October.
Organised by the NUS Office
of Alumni Relations (OAR), in
collaboration with the Embassy of
the People’s Republic of China in
Singapore and the Singapore China
Friendship Association, this year’s CFF
celebrated a third consecutive year
of success these three parties have
had in bringing the best of Chinese
films to alumni audiences. Much to
their delight, award-winning movies
were featured this year. They included
martial arts drama The Grandmaster
2013, perennial classic The Monkey
King and winner of the Golden Bear
at the Berlin film festival thriller
Black Coal, Thin Ice.
In his welcome speech, NUS
President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan
(Medicine ‘83) shared the beginnings
that led to the realisation of the film
festival. Stemming from an idea first
mooted by Dr Phua Kok Khoo who – in
his role as President of the Singapore
China Friendship Association –
felt that he could facilitate cultural
and scientific exchanges between
China and NUS, the CFF was
inaugurated in November 2012 as
a collaborative event between the
Embassy of China, the Singapore
China Friendship Association and
NUS OAR. Prof Tan expressed his
gratitude to the collaborating parties,
thanking Ambassador Duan of the
Embassy of China for his advice and
support and for the Embassy’s strong
partnership in planning and putting
together this year’s Festival. He also
extended his thanks to Associate
Professor Victor R Savage, Director
of OAR and colleagues from OAR,
on working hard to bring the event
onto campus.
At the end of each screening,
four lucky winners walked away with
sponsored tea pot sets and
special-edition wallets, courtesy
of the Embassy of the People’s
Republic of China in Singapore, and
Xiaomi phones, courtesy of Suntech
International Group Pte Ltd.
EDITOR’S
PICK
He’s been anointed the ‘Godfather of
Singapore fashion’ and hailed as ‘Singapore’s
Fashion Royalty’ but Daniel Boey (Arts ‘89) is
not a fashion designer.
On the cusp of his 50th birthday and
several months shy of his 25th anniversary
in fashion, we take an unabashed, noholds-barred look at his colourful life in the
industry. From his clueless early days as a
shy kid through the time he picked up his first
fashion magazine, his early dalliances with
fashionistas, packing his bags for an uncertain
future in the West, to his rise into the realms
as a feared industry personality and eventual
mentor to many of Singapore’s top fashion
labels and models, Daniel takes us on a dizzy
roller-coaster ride through his tumultuous time
in a tough, unforgiving, unpredictable and often
superficial industry.
With forewords by Singapore’s top
couturier, one of the nation’s most beloved
actors, two of Singapore’s most popular radio
personalities and a bevy of supermodels,
this book is a fantastical journey of one
singular sensation.
ALUMNUS
THE PRESENT-DAY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
BEGAN AS SINGAPORE’S FIRST MEDICAL SCHOOL — THE
110 YEAR-OLD FACULTY HAS GRADUATED THE MAJORITY
OF SINGAPORE’S PHYSICIANS. BY THERESA TAN
F
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniel Boey is a fashion director, lifestyle
curator and television personality who was
hailed as “one of the Singaporeans who matter
most in 2009” by CNN.Go. His extensive
portfolio includes work in most of the world’s
fashion capitals, for high-profile clients like
Vivienne Westwood, Christian Dior and Louis
Vuitton. He served as creative director and
has designed experiences for fashion events
worldwide and is also a governor on the board
of the Asian Couture Federation, Fashion
Consultant to the DesignSingapore events in
London, Beijing, Shanghai and Milan, and sat
on the panel of the Haute Couture symposium
in 2012 with Suzy Menkes. His television
credits include appearing as the fashion
director in the inaugural season of Asia’s
Next Top Model.
The Book of Daniel
is available at all
select bookstores and
retailing at S$46.70
(before GST).
4
SEAMLESS
CONTINUUM
THE BOOK OF DANIEL:
ADVENTURES OF A FASHION
INSIDER
IMAGE: CORBIS
CHINA FILM
FESTIVAL 2014
rom the time it began, when
the first school for the study
of medicine was set up by
the government following
a 1903 petition led by the
Chinese Legislative Councillor
Mr Tan Jiak Lim, the Medical
School has seen 110 years of great
development in medical research
and education.
Within the many buildings and
campuses that the Medical School has
moved in and out of throughout its rich
history, lies the true heart of the School
– the doctors it produces and the impact
they create.
For 11 decades, the School of
Medicine has been faithfully producing
physicians who are taught to honour
their public mission to serve Singapore,
to value their patients and accord them
their best care. Many of these medical
graduates have gone on as doctors to
change lives and some, society.
The late Dr Benjamin Sheares
(Medicine ’29) was one such
forerunner. He achieved distinctions
in his final examinations in Obstetrics
and Gynaecology, and worked as an
obstetrician at the then Kandang
Kerbau Hospital, and a professor at the
University of Malaya.
Dr Sheares sowed back to his
alma mater – he entered King Edward
VII College of Medicine in 1923 and
JAN–MAR 2015
5
110 YEARS OF MEDICINE
returned to teach in the faculty
between 1946 and 1960, first in
Midwifery, then in 1950 as Professor
of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
From 1971 to 1981, Dr Sheares was
the President of Singapore. Over the
course of his life, he healed people,
taught people and served people.
Over the years, for all the
technological and medical advances
that have happened, the people
factor has not changed, says
Associate Professor Low Cheng Ooi
(Medicine ’80), an orthopaedic
surgeon who is currently the Chief
Medical Informatics Officer at the
Ministry of Health.
“Our undergraduate learning
then [in the ’70s] was really
grounded on apprenticeship;
learning by being close and
observing closely how our teachers
and mentors worked, how they
thought, how they interacted with
their patients, how they interacted
with their colleagues, physicians as
well as nurses, and their students.
Learning by observing, listening,
touching and with empathy were
all that we had – there was not
much in technology then,” he says.
“There is certainly a difference
in how the medical students are
wired up mentally [now], compared
to students in the 70s. They are
faster in acquiring knowledge and
better in multi-tasking,” Assoc Prof
Low notes.
But the human touch – the
learning that can only be gained
through interaction – has not been
touched by technology, he says.
“Students respond universally to
teachers who care for their patients,
who passionately teach and mentor
their junior colleagues. They need
to develop their moral compasses
and work ethos from such senior
colleagues. Apprenticeship still
has a place in today’s learning
environment.”
Medicine is a people-centred
profession – a doctor’s genuine
concern for and connection with his
patient is key to success. Associate
Professor Quah Thuan Chong
(Medicine ’76), Head and Senior
Consultant, Division of Paediatric
Haematology and Oncology at
the National University Hospital
(NUH), is renowned for his work
in paediatric oncology, and for his
role as an educator, for which he
was awarded the National Medical
Excellence Awards 2013 for National
Outstanding Clinician Mentor.
Assoc Prof Quah credits his
love for pediatrics to his
housemanship training under
Emeritus Prof Wong Hock Boon
(Medicine ’52) at the Singapore
General Hospital (SGH)’s Paediatric
Department. “That was when I
realised that I love interacting with
kids, and when I learned how to
carry babies,” he says. Prof Wong
taught him that “if you want to
do paediatrics, you’ve got to live
paediatrics, eat paediatrics, sleep
paediatrics” – no doubt a lesson
Assoc Prof Quah passes down to the
medical students he mentors.
His work brings him into
contact with children with cancer
and their families, and he admits
that concern for them is an
occupational hazard. “Right now,
I’m worrying about some patients
who have not responded well to
treatment. This is always a constant
challenge – we can do better for
many patients now, but there are
always some who don’t do so well.
“But the challenge is not only
medical. Children with cancer and
their families face many problems
– psychosocial, financial etc, and
I’m glad we have an excellent team
of doctors, nurses, CCF (Children’s
Cancer Foundation) staff, etc who
I’M CONSTANTLY ENCOURAGED BY
PATIENTS AND FAMILIES WHO COME
BACK TO SEE ME. THEIR KINDNESS
AND GENEROSITY CAN ONLY SPUR
US TO WORK HARDER!
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR QUAH THUAN CHONG (MEDICINE ’76)
6
ALUMNUS
STUDENTS
RESPOND
UNIVERSALLY TO
TEACHERS WHO
CARE FOR THEIR
PATIENTS, WHO
PASSIONATELY
TEACH AND
MENTOR
THEIR JUNIOR
COLLEAGUES.
HONOURING
THE PAST
In 1905, the Straits Settlement and
Malay States Government Medical
School was officially opened at
Sepoy Lines, following a petition
led by Chinese Legislative Councillor
Mr Tan Jiak Kim.
The school offered a full-time
five-year course to train doctors
in medicine, surgery and midwifery.
Seven young men graduated in
1910 with a Licentiate in Medicine
and Surgery (LMS).
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR LOW CHENG OOI
(MEDICINE ’80)
work as a team to help them.
“I’m constantly encouraged by
patients and families who come
back to see me – including some
families whose children succumbed
to their cancers. Their kindness
and generosity can only spur us to
work harder!”
Assoc Prof Quah says the cases
that are most heart-breaking are
those “where the patients or their
families opt to abandon therapy
because of financial reasons –
usually foreign patients – or other
reasons, especially when we know
that their cancers are curable.”
Professor Tan Huay Cheem
(Medicine ’87) is Senior Consultant
Cardiologist at NUH, the Director
of the National University Heart
Centre and Associate Professor
at the Yong Loo Lin School of
Medicine (YLLSoM). His entry
into Cardiology was inspired by
his mother.
“I had always thought that I
would be an obstetrician and a
gynaecologist because I topped
the subject in my class,” he says.
“However, something happened
in my life that changed my initial
plan. My mother had sudden death,
presumably from a heart attack
when I was serving my National
Service as a medical officer. I found
her collapsed in the bathroom
on my return [home] one day,
and I started cardiopulmonary
resuscitation on her till the
ambulance arrived.
“She did not make it and died
shortly after. It was a shocking
experience for me and it changed
my life completely. My mother
was only 55 when she passed away.
She was simply too young to have
died! I then decided that I would
take up Cardiology, and specifically
interventional cardiology, so that
I can make a difference to heart
attack patients in future. Although
I could not save my own mother, I
hoped to be able to save someone
else’s parent or spouse.”
Having performed nearly 10,000
cardiac catheterisation procedures
both locally and overseas over the
last 20 years, Prof Tan has made
an impact on many people’s lives.
“For that, I am grateful to Professor
Maurice Choo (Medicine ’74), then
Chief of the Cardiac Department
In 1911, Mr Tan Chay Yan, a rubber
tycoon, donated S$15,000 to the
School for the creation of the Tan
Teck Guan Building, named for
his father. Tan Teck Guan Building
was opened to add to the existing
facilities. It housed various offices,
a library, a reading room, a lecture
room and a pathology museum.
In 1912, the Chair of Physiology
was established. That same year,
the School was also renamed the
King Edward VII Medical School.
By 1916, the General Council of
Medical Education of Great Britain
accorded official recognition for
the King Edward VII School of
Medicine’s Licentiate of Medicine
and Surgery Diploma.
In 1921, the School was renamed
King Edward VII College of Medicine.
Chairs of anatomy, medicine,
midwifery and gynaecology,
clinical surgery and surgery were
also created.
By 1926, a new building — the
Medical College — had been erected
on Outram Road. The College had
also received, in 1925, S$350,000
from the Rockefeller Foundation
to establish chairs of bacteriology,
biochemistry and biology.
Continued on page 9
JAN–MAR 2015
7
110 YEARS OF MEDICINE
A LASTING LEGACY
(MEDICINE ’83) PRESIDENT, NUS
Alumnus and Former Dean of the
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
(YLLSoM), Prof Tan speaks to
The AlumNUS about teaching, and
being a medical student today.
WHAT ARE SOME MEMORABLE
CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE
MEDICAL FACULTY?
Many distinguished alumni have gone
on to serve not just in the medical
profession but in other areas in
Singapore and around the world; for
example, Dr Andrew Chew (Medicine
’55), who was the head of the Civil
Service. Another lasting legacy is
the strong tradition of excellence
in teaching and research which has
filtered through to the rest of the
University. Most important though
is the tradition of service which
has become an integral part of the
University’s ethos.
HOW HAS TEACHING EVOLVED?
The pedagogy of 30 years ago was very
academically compartmentalised –
students had a lot of instruction in the
basic medical sciences, without much
8
ALUMNUS
reference to its relevance to
medical practice. Over the
years, there has been much
greater integration between
subjects so that students learn
across traditional disciplines
in Medicine.
In the late 1990s,
problem-based learning
was introduced as a way to
expose students to clinical
issues and problems, [and] to
stimulate their interest
in understanding basic
science subjects.
The School has always
been known for its focus on
clinical training and bedside
learning. What’s happened
in recent years is a
strengthened focus on
professionalism, which
covers ethics and the practice
of medicine, and this is
distributed throughout the
course. This is augmented
by a great deal more experiential
learning – a large proportion of
students spend a significant amount
of time participating in community
health screenings or other
engagement events.
Recently, there has been added
focus on communication with
patients and peers, and teamwork.
And more focus has been added to
the “global” experience, which is very
much tied to NUS’ overall thrust
as a global university. For medical
students, this means experiencing a
broader range of practise conditions,
as well as a wider range of patients
and disease presentations.
WHAT STEPS IS NUS TAKING TO
FOSTER A CLIMATE CONDUCIVE TO
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT?
Our research impact has risen very
sharply in recent times, and I would
say that research here is highly
competitive internationally. We
strongly encourage this for several
reasons: Research is not a luxury
that doctors should only do in their
free time; it is integral to making the
at NUH, who accepted me as a
Cardiology trainee when the
training positions then were highly
limited and competitive.”
Having served at NUH for the
past 27 years, Prof Tan still sees
many patients who are on followup with him after 15 years. “While
I am definitely not the richest
doctor around, I am wealthy with
the showers of gratitude and
thanks which many of my patients
bestow on me,” he says. “Recently
in Jakarta, I was hosted to a banquet
by 26 of my Indonesian patients and
their families. It was such a heartwarming experience! That, to me, is
the best gift.”
advances in medicine that are important
and necessary for Singaporeans and
the populations in this part of the
world. Secondly, it helps to retain
talented doctors and specialists in our
public sector because it differentiates
the type of opportunities, fulfilment
and contribution that they can make,
as opposed to pure clinical practice.
Thirdly, it supports the Singapore
Biomedical Sciences Initiative and
helps to fully realise its potential. It is
really important for the doctors, the
faculty, YLLSoM and the Duke-NUS
Graduate Medical School (Duke-NUS)
to pursue high-quality research because
it drives improvements in health and
treatments for Singaporeans, as well as
economic development.
IMPACTING A NATION
Then there are the School of
Medicine graduates who help
people on a larger scale. Professor
Ivy Ng (Medicine ’82), Group
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of
SingHealth is one. “In SingHealth,
we’ve made everything revolve
around the patient. The biggest
challenge is really how we can
improve patients’ lives, ” she says.
Prof Ng oversees the largest
healthcare group in Singapore
comprising two of Singapore’s
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME A
MEDICAL STUDENT TODAY?
Medicine is a difficult course that
requires a deep understanding of a
large range of subject matter, so
academic capacity is necessary – but
not sufficient. Students intrinsically
need to be interested in people and
have a sense of wanting to help. At the
end of the day, the practice of medicine
is not about the technical delivery of
care; it is also about delivering that care
with compassion and empathy in ways
that connect and comfort patients and
their families.
I would say that, because the field of
medicine is itself changing quite rapidly,
we are also looking for people who are
curious about the future and who are
interested in contributing innovations
and new ideas.
WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR
MEDICAL GRADUATES GOING OUT
INTO THE WORLD?
Be as multi-dimensional as you can –
Medicine is one of those all-consuming
disciplines that can easily occupy
all your time and conversations. It is
very important for our students to
explore, develop and discover different
dimensions of their personality so as
to develop their full potential. In the
longer term, this helps them to become
better doctors and leaders.
PROF TAN’S INTERVIEW: AMIR ALI
PROFESSOR TAN CHORH CHUAN
Continued from page 7
Professor Tan Huay Cheem
ALTHOUGH
I COULD
NOT SAVE
MY OWN
MOTHER,
I HOPED TO
BE ABLE TO
SAVE SOMEONE
ELSE’S PARENT
OR SPOUSE.
PROFESSOR TAN HUAY CHEEM (MEDICINE ’87)
flagship hospitals – SGH and KK
Women’s and Children’s Hospital
(KKH), five national specialty
centres, nine Polyclinics and
a community hospital. It also
partners Duke-NUS in its Academic
Medicine journey to drive the
transformation of healthcare and
provide affordable, accessible,
quality healthcare (see ‘Childhood
Ambition’, page 14).
Professor Leo Yee Sin
(Medicine ’83) is the head of the
Institute of Infectious Diseases
and Epidemiology of Tan Tock
Seng Hospital. She is also Clinical
Director of the Communicable
Diseases Centre (CDC). Her work
in public health includes the
comprehensive HIV programme
she started at CDC in 1995, and
Prof Leo continues to devote
her efforts to improving HIV
management as well as the general
well-being of those infected and
affected by the disease.
She is a legend in the medical
community, being an infectious
diseases expert who has led her
team in battle against a series of
outbreaks in recent years: the Nipah
virus (NiV) in 1999; SARS in 2003;
the Chikungunya virus in 2008;
and the Pandemic H1N1 Influenza
outbreaks in 2009; as well as the
surge of dengue cases since 2013.
“Public health actually didn’t
come into the equation of my
training or practices in my earlier
HONOURING
THE PAST
(continued)
In 1929, the School of Dentistry
in Medical College saw its first
enrollment of seven students for
its four-year course. A public clinic
was opened at the King Edward VII
College of Medicine.
200 pre-World War II medical
students resumed their studies at
the King Edward VII College of
Medicine in 1946. The British
Medical Council recognised the
College’s Dental Surgery degree.
In 1949, the University of Malaya
was formed, amalgamating Raffles
College with King Edward VII College
of Medicine, which now became the
Faculty of Medicine in the University.
In 1959, it became necessary
for there to be two autonomous
campuses, one in Kuala Lumpur and
one in Singapore. The Faculty of
Medicine was located in Singapore. In
1962 the two campuses became two
separate entities. The University of
Malaya in Singapore was redesignated
the University of Singapore.
In 1964, the School of Post-graduate
Medical Studies was established.
In 1965, the Faculty celebrated
its diamond jubilee. The Medical
Progress Fund was started and aimed
to raise S$4,750,000 to build an
Institute of Medical Specialities and
a library extension to the Medical
Faculty. In 1966, the Department of
Dentistry departed from Medicine
and became a faculty on its own.
In 1970, the School of Postgraduate
Medical Studies began a new
degree, the Master of Medicine, for
specialisations in surgery, internal
medicine, paediatrics or obstetrics
and gynaecology. The School of
Post-graduate Dental Studies was
also announced.
JAN–MAR 2015
9
110 years of medicine
years,” says Prof Leo. “Sadly, it was
something remote to the kind of
infectious diseases (ID) training I
received locally as well as abroad. I
was trained as an acute ID person:
solve the immediate infection and
move on, case closed.
“However, soon I realised
when I started running the
HIV programme that providing
treatment opinions or pushing my
pen writing out prescriptions was
merely a small fraction of what
the patients need in totality. The
huge unmet demands from social
psychological aspects brought on
more suffering than the illness in
many instances. Something about
disease prevention then lingered in
my mind.”
What changed things for
Prof Leo was the first challenge of
an outbreak of NiV. “The ground
was totally unprepared and
disconnected. Cases were drained
to CDC, public health aspects such
as contact tracing, epidemiology
was done then by the Quarantine
Epidemiology department in the
Ministry of Environment, food
control and operation by the
Ministry of National Development.”
From that first encounter with
NiV, Prof Leo drew ammunition.
“Much of the immediate responses
we put in place for SARS were in
fact lessons learned during the
Nipah outbreak. We were the first to
institute triage, a one-stop screening
clinic, the health monitoring of
healthcare workers, for example,
temperature monitoring, etc.”
For her outstanding work
against SARS, Prof Leo was
conferred the most prestigious
national award, The Public Service
Star, in 2003. She reflects now
that what was not good was “our
inability and lack of capacity to do
research during an outbreak.” But
overall, the lessons learned have
been valuable.
“Every outbreak tells a story
and every outbreak provides new
learning points,” she says. “For
every outbreak we’ve been through
will enhance and add on to our
knowledge and capability. We
are as ready as where the current
knowledge allows, there will be
new things and fresh challenges
ahead. It is prudent the system is
flexible and responsive. I believe we
have come a long way since Nipah
and SARS – and the system in place
will support us through future
challenges.”
Today, Prof Leo is overseeing
the setting up of the upcoming
infectious disease hospital, the
National Centre for Infectious
Diseases (NCID), which opens
in 2018, and which is already
making waves for its state-ofthe-art technology.
“The primary objective of
NCID is to ensure Singapore has
the healthcare capacity and ability
to swiftly respond to an outbreak.
The building is designed to be
fully equipped and self-contained,
with the full suite of care facilities;
a screening centre, outpatient,
inpatient isolation beds, intensive
care, imaging, laboratories, etc.
“The principles of the design
of NCID take in several factors:
flexibility, that is, to design a
I realised when I started running
the HIV programme that providing
treatment opinions or writing out
prescriptions was merely a small
fraction of what the patients need in
totality... Something about disease
prevention then lingered in my mind.
Professor Leo Yee Sin (Medicine ’83)
10
ALUMNUS
Honouring
the past
(continued)
building effective during an
outbreak and good for regular
routine day to day use; scalability,
that is, to scale the capacity that
was modelled after SARS where
over 300 beds were used during the
height of the outbreak; and as and
where needs arise able to expand
its capacity. Last but not least, to
ensure safety to the users within
the building and safety to the
environment,” she says.
RISING TO THE NEED
According to the Ministry of
Health’s statistics, Singapore had
10,953 doctors in 2013. In 2012, thenMinister Mentor Mr Lee Kuan Yew
pegged the number of foreign
doctors at around 2,000. Back then,
Singapore was producing 250
doctors a year which he pointed out
was insufficient for the nation.
For some time now, consistent
efforts have been made to increase
the number of doctors in Singapore,
although the crunch will probably
only be eased as the years progress
and greater numbers of medical
students graduate. YLLSoM’s
current intake is 300 a year.
Two other medical schools have
been set up in the past decade to
meet the manpower crunch: the
Duke-NUS in 2005 – with an intake
of about 60 graduate students each
year – and the Lee Kong Chian
School of Medicine at the Nanyang
Technological University in 2013
– with a first intake of 50.
YLLSoM remains the chief
producer of doctors for Singapore’s
healthcare system, a fact that
SingHealth’s Prof Ng is proud
of. “The majority of us (doctors)
graduated from the School of
Medicine,” she points out. “The
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine’s
greatest accomplishment is being a
strong talent pipeline of physicians
for Singapore.”
What sets YLLSoM apart, says
its Dean, Associate Professor
Yeoh Khay Guan (Medicine ’87),
is its history and tradition, and
the fact that it is homegrown.
“Our School wears its heritage
proudly as Singapore’s first medical
school, a uniquely Singaporean,
home-grown institution that has
produced the great majority of
doctors in our country, whose
work and achievements compare
with the best in the world. Today
NUS Medicine is internationally
recognised as one of Asia’s leading
medical schools,” he points out.
“Our educational philosophy
emphasises both the mind and
the heart, imparting both a strong
foundation of clinical skills as
well as nurturing values of public
ethos and reminding our students
of our public service mission. We
remind our students that we look
after Singaporeans.”
YLLSoM’s curriculum and skills
training is now enhanced by the
In 1972, a new renal unit in the
Department of Clinical Medicine
to treat kidney patients was
opened. The Unit on Human
Reproduction was set up by
the Department of Obstetrics
and Gynaecology (O & G), and
was opened at the Kandang
Kerbau Hospital for Women. The
hospital was designated one of
the 10 World Health Organization
(WHO) Clinical Research Centres
on Human Reproduction. The
Department of Psychological
Medicine was introduced to the
Faculty in 1979.
In 1982, the Department of
O & G became one of the few
medical centres in Southeast
Asia to have an active in-vitro
fertilisation programme which
attracted researchers worldwide.
1985 saw the momentous move
of the Faculty of Medicine from
Outram Road to Kent Ridge,
the new site of the National
University of Singapore. Full
relocation was completed
in 1987.
In 1988, the Department of
O & G achieved a successful
microinjection pregnancy using
a technique called MicroInsemination Sperm Transfer
(Mist), a world’s first.
In 1991, there was a review
of the Medical curriculum,
which led to the setting up of
new departments and the reorganisation of the five-year
medical course. In 1994, the
National University Medical
Institutes — today these include
the National University Cancer
Institute and the National
University Heart Centre —
were established.
Jan–Mar 2015
11
110 YEARS OF MEDICINE
COMPASSION IS THE MOST IMPORTANT
QUALITY FOR A DOCTOR AND IS WHAT
PATIENTS EXPECT MOST FROM A
DOCTOR... WE WANT OUR GRADUATES
TO BE DOCTORS WHO ARE BIG IN
HEART AND SKILLED IN THE ART AND
SCIENCE OF MEDICINE.
HONOURING
THE PAST
(continued)
In 2002, the one-third quota of
females being admitted to Dentistry
was lifted, after the Association of
Women Doctors Singapore - formed
in 1998 - successfully lobbied for it.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR YEOH KHAY GUAN (MEDICINE ’87)
latest pedagogies and simulation
training which gives its students
intensive hands-on training and
experiential learning, and allows
for repeated practice in a safe and
realistic environment to enhance
their skills. Says Assoc Prof Yeoh,
“We emphasise awareness of
global health issues as the world is
more inter-connected and interdependent than ever before, and
the majority of our students enjoy
overseas elective attachments and
actively participate in overseas
community improvement projects
Associate Professor
Yeoh Khay Guan
In 2004, Sweden’s Karolinska
Institutet (KI), one of Europe’s
largest medical universities, set up
an office at the Faculty. This, KI’s
first overseas office, helps facilitate
existing programmes such as the
NUS-KI Joint PhD Programme in
Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology
and promote new initiatives
between KI and NUS.
in the region.”
It is no small feat grooming
medical graduates year upon year,
decade upon decade, who not
only emerge from the University
with the tradition, dedication and
compassion that their predecessors
have graduated with, but who
are ready for a world in which
technology and communication
have redefined the way medicine is
practised and studied.
Infrastructural changes to
prepare the faculty for new
challenges in the new millennium
HAPPY 110 , YLLSoM!
DR YEO
SIANG KHIN
(DENTISTRY ’89)
A dental surgeon
at Thomson Dental
Centre, she was a
founding member
and current exco
member of the
Association of
Women Doctors
in Singapore.
12
ALUMNUS
TOWARDS
HOLISTIC CARE
TO KEEP
IMPROVING
“The Faculty of Dentistry attained
its own status as a full-fledged
Faculty in 1966 with Professor
Edmund Tay (Dentistry ’52) as
the first dean. My first year was
Prof Tay’s last as Dean, though he
stayed on many years longer as a
favourite teacher.
The spirit of the School remains
strong and cohesive... I hope to
see Singapore’s medical industry,
through our doctors, provide
holistic care for children and their
families. To work to maximise
each child’s potential, for both
‘well’ children as well as those with
chronic medical illnesses. To look
not just at curing diseases, but also
at disease prevention.”
“NUS School of Medicine has
a long history of pioneers in
various fields; people with the
desire to do the best for their
patients, the tenacity to keep
going and being bold to do
and try things that no one else
had done before. I think this is
something that the School of
Medicine has, whether this is
in patient care, or in education
for our future generation of
doctors; the constant desire
to keep improving, not being
satisfied with status quo, always
on the look-out for how to do
things better.”
ASSOC PROF
MARION AW
(MEDICINE ’92)
Senior Consultant,
Division of Paediatric
Gastroenterology,
Hepatology and
Nutrition at Khoo
Teck Puat-National
University Children’s
Medical Institute at
NUH, and Associate
Professor at YLLSoM.
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
TH
began in 1991 with a review of the
Medical curriculum, which led to
the setting up of new departments
and the re-organisation of the
five-year medical course. In
1994, the National University
Medical Institutes – today these
include the National University
Cancer Institute and the National
University Heart Centre – were
established with the primary
objectives of boosting medical
research and developing facilities
and expertise for top-level research
into the 21st century.
Assoc Prof Yeoh emphasises
that through YLLSoM’s current
curriculum – which includes
cross-disciplinary exposure in
every medical student’s first year –
students receive an education at the
School that prepares them to bring
their training and their unique
gifts to the world in a way that
is beneficial.
“Compassion is the most
important quality for a doctor and
is what patients expect most from
a doctor. That is why we look for
students with qualities that will
make them good doctors. These
include intrinsic motivation,
a genuine desire in wanting to
help others in need and to make a
difference. We want our graduates
to be doctors who are big in heart
and skilled in the art and science of
medicine,” he says.
“To be a good custodian of
people’s health, the 21st century
doctor needs to be a good
communicator, able to build
rapport with patients and combine
knowledge and technology with
wisdom and compassion. The
School places great emphasis on
nurturing values such as empathy,
professionalism and good
communication skills.”
Nurturing these values begin in
the first week of school in a ‘White
Coat Ceremony’, where teachers
assist students in donning white
coats as a symbolic gesture of
passing on the values and attributes
of professionalism. Students are
given the opportunity to reflect on,
discuss and sign a “Statement of
Commitment to Professionalism”
within their first week of school.
In 2005, the NUS School of
Medicine turned 100, and it received
a birthday gift of S$100 million from
the Yong Loo Lin Trust. The School
was bestowed its current name, the
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
(YLLSoM) that year.
In 2008, the National University
Health System (NUHS), an academic
health science centre set up as
a joint venture between NUS
and MOH Holdings Pte Ltd, was
established. NUHS groups NUH
with YLLSoM, the Faculty of
Dentistry and the Saw Swee Hock
School of Public Health under a
common governance structure
in order to develop and promote
academic medicine.
A S$148 million Singapore Centre
for Nutritional Sciences, Metabolic
Diseases and Human Development
was jointly established in 2013
by YLLSoM and the Singapore
Institute for Clinical Sciences under
Singapore’s Agency for Science,
Technology and Research. The
Centre aims to be the leading
hub in Asia for research into the
connections between nutritional
sciences, metabolic diseases and
human development.
JAN–MAR 2015
13
110 YEARS OF MEDICINE
I ENJOY THE
INTERACTIONS
WITH STUDENTS.
IT IS A PRIVILEGE
TO SHARE
EXPERIENCES
WITH THEM.
PROFESSOR IVY NG (MEDICINE ’82)
one speaker 10 minutes
“The teaching and assessment
of professionalism and ethical
practice are integrated throughout
the five years through a
longitudinal Health, Ethics, Law
and Professionalism (HELP) track
led by our School’s Centre for
Biomedical Ethics,” says
Assoc Prof Yeoh.
“The School nurtures empathy
by helping students understand
how patients manage their disease
in the context of their everyday life.
The School also encourages and
supports student involvement in
community service programmes,
especially those targeted at the
underserved communities. Such
community involvement projects
give students deep insight into
the communities they serve and
empower them with the knowledge
that they can give back to society
and make a difference.”
Assoc Prof Yeoh says his
proudest moment is “the annual
Commencement Ceremony when
our students formally graduate.
As an educator, the greatest
gratification comes from seeing
our students master their skills
and take their place in the world
as confident, competent and
compassionate doctors.”
CHILDHOOD AMBITION
A NEIGHBOURHOOD GP’S CARE AND COMFORT SPURRED
PROF IVY NG TO PURSUE MEDICINE
BOUNDLESS
INSPIRATION
U@live is a monthly
28 JAN 2015
WEDNESDAY 7.30PM
speaker series that
showcase outstanding
Tan Sri Dr M Jegathesan
members of the NUS
Medicine ’67
The Flying Doctor in Malaysia
community. Apart from
having a live audience,
U@live will also be
webcasted live through
25 FEB 2015
WEDNESDAY 7.30PM
a dedicated website
where users can send in
PROFESSOR IVY NG
(MEDICINE ’82)
O
ne lasting memory
Professor Ivy Ng has of
her childhood is going
to the neighbourhood general
practitioner’s clinic with her mother
whenever she fell sick. “He had this
big wooden bed, and on the side
was this little drawer,” she recalls.
“And in that drawer, he would
keep sweets.
“The whole memory of being
sick and being comforted by the
care of a physician — that was the
basis of me entering medicine. It
was my childhood ambition.”
Prof Ng graduated from the
National University of Singapore’s
School of Medicine and went on
to do her houseman training at
Singapore General Hospital (SGH).
“I did Paediatrics as an intern
and enjoyed my time there the
14
ALUMNUS
most,” she says, explaining her choice
of specialty. “I love kids, and Paeds is
one of the few specialties in which the
ability to see your patients recover well
is higher.”
She worked in the Department of
Paediatrics in SGH until 1997 when she
joined the newly-rebuilt KK Women’s
and Children’s Hospital (KKH). In
2002 she became KKH’s head of the
Paediatrics Department, Chairman of
its medical board in 2003, and Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) in 2004.
She served as Deputy Group CEO of
SingHealth from 2008 until 2012 when
she became its Group CEO.
The mother of four, who met her
husband – politician and surgical
oncologist Dr Ng Eng Hen (Medicine
’82) – when they were both undergrads,
chose Genetics as her sub-speciality
two decades ago. She is renowned for
her work on Thalassemia and in genetic
counselling, and is currently also Senior
Consultant in the Genetics Service,
Department of Paediatric Medicine
at KKH and Director of the National
Thalassaemia Registry.
“Genetics helps us to understand
disease better, and it improves the
potential for precision medicine.
Genetics helps you to tailor customised
therapy for a patient,” she says.
“The patient is at the heart of
all we do,” she says, echoing the
motto of SingHealth. It is not a vain
proclamation: Prof Ng is known for
her patient-centric focus, which
helped her to establish KKH as a
respected women’s and children’s
hospital. Under her leadership and
emphasis on service quality, KKH
received the WHO-UAE Health
Foundation Award in 2009 for
outstanding clinical outcomes achieved
through its integrated perinatal care
programme. Prof Ng is also an active
member of the KKH Health Endowment
Fund which provides medical and other
support for needy patients.
Prof Ng credits her former School of
Medicine tutor Professor Tan Cheng Lim
(Medicine ’64), a paediatric
haematologist who is Emeritus
Consultant at KKH, for showing her
what it means to be a great physician.
“I have very clear memories of how he
demonstrated what it was like to be a
compassionate and caring doctor,”
she says. “He was also very patient
with us students.”
Prof Ng is herself an inspiring
educator. She is Clinical Professor
at YLLSoM, a role she clearly enjoys.
“I enjoy the interactions with students.
It is a privilege to share experiences
with them. There is real fulfilment in
teaching them — it’s truly an honour.”
Mr Jack Sim
real time comments and
LKYSPP MPA ’13
Founder of Base of the Pyramid Hub &
the World Toilet Organization
questions directly to the
speakers.
U@live Speaker Series
25 MAR 2015
WEDNESDAY 7.30PM
are moderated by
Mr Viswa Sadasivan,
Ms Rani Singam
Law ’94
Chairman of the U@live
Vocalist, Recording Artist, Lyricist,
Founding Member and Director of the
Musicians’ Guild of Singapore
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
JAN–MAR 2015
15
NUS 110 FEATURE
HISTORY
IN THE
MAKING
Tan Chay Yan – was added to the
existing facility in 1911, serving as
the administrative block housing
offices, a library and lecture room.
(This handsome brick building has
since been designated a National
Monument and stands near the
College of Medicine Building, built
in 1926.)
The school was founded on
endowments, and so this would
continue. In 1912, the King Edward
VII Memorial Fund gave a gift of
S$124,800 for the endowment of a
professorship of Physiology. This
led to the school being renamed the
King Edward VII Medical School in
honour of the gift.
In 1916, the Licentiate of
Medicine and Surgery Diploma
offered by the school was recognised
by Great Britain’s General Council of
Medical Education. Having gained
significant renown, the college
did not just benefit Singapore but
students from Malaya, as well, so
in 1916 the Government of the
Federated Malay States built a
hostel that housed 72 students at
Sepoy Lines.
The College of Medicine Building – now home to the Ministry of Health – is an elegant
reminder of the early days of medical education in Singapore.
HOW THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
OF SINGAPORE GREW FROM
A TINY MEDICAL COLLEGE INTO
A WORLD-CLASS INSTITUTION.
V
ISITORS TO
THE SINGAPORE GENERAL HOSPITAL
compound may not even notice
it, but at 16 College Road stands
the quietly handsome colonial-era
College of Medicine Building, its
imposing 12-column façade a proud
symbol of its longevity. Though
literally overshadowed by taller
and newer edifices, the gazetted
National Monument – now home
to the Ministry of Health – stands as
a reminder of how far the National
University of Singapore (NUS) has
come since it started life as a medical
college 110 years ago, in a former
lunatic asylum nearby…
16
ALUMNUS
A MODEST START
It was 1903 and Singapore was
already a bustling port, with a large
number of immigrants contributing
to unprecedented economic
prosperity. There was thus a growing
need to provide modern healthcare
to a growing population. Seeing this
for himself, Chinese businessman
and philanthropist Tan Jiak Kim led
a petition alongside representatives
of other communities for the
establishment of a medical school
in Singapore.
In the end, some S$87,000 was
raised by the Chinese community,
with S$12,000 of that coming
from Tan himself. These monies
culminated in the foundation of the
Straits Settlements and Federated
Malay States Government Medical
School in 1905.
In the years hence, many a joke
has been made about the fact that
the Medical School started life in
a former female lunatic asylum
at Sepoy Lines, not far from the
College of Medicine Building, near
the intersection of Outram and
New Bridge roads. Singapore’s current
Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen
(Medicine ’82) once quipped that
“This may explain why some within
our medical fraternity have been
egregiously mistaken for
raving lunatics.” All jokes aside,
though, NUS’ Medical School
has gone on to become one of the
premier medical faculties in the
world – at one point being ranked
first in Asia (education consultancy
Quacquarelli Symonds placed it just
behind the University of Tokyo’s
Faculty of Medicine in the 2014
rankings) and 21st place globally.
Just 23 students made up the
pioneering cohort of students of the
Straits Settlements and Federated
Malay States Government Medical
School at Sepoy Lines. These
students would spend five years
training as doctors, surgeons and
midwives. In May 1910, seven men
graduated with a Licentiate in
Medicine and Surgery, with another
six following in December.
Admissions soon grew. The
Tan Teck Guan building – donated
by another local businessman,
PHOTOS: WIKIPEDIA AND PICTURESG
BY AMIR ALI
MEDICAL
EDUCATION
CAME TO A HALT
AFTER JAPANESE
FORCES INVADED
MALAYA IN
1941. ONLY FIVE
DOCTORS AND
FIVE DENTISTS
GRADUATED
JUST BEFORE
THE IMPERIAL
ARMY ARRIVED
IN SINGAPORE
IN EARLY 1942,
DUE TO EXAMS
BEING BROUGHT
FORWARD.
A PERMANENT HOME
With its reputation on the rise, the
Medical School’s name was again
changed in 1921 to the King Edward
VII College of Medicine, to better
reflect its status as an institution of
university standard.
A new building was needed and
the College of Medicine Building –
with its splendid Doric colonnades
and bas-relief eagle greeting visitors
– was a fitting (and lasting) reflection
of the grandeur of the institution.
For 60 years from its completion in
1926, the building was the centre
of medical education in Singapore.
“There are few buildings which
feature as significantly in the history
of medical education in Singapore as
the Tan Teck Guan Building and the
College of Medicine Building,” said
Dr Kwa Soon Bee, then Permanent
Secretary for Health and Director of
Medical Services in a book published
in 1987.
In 1929, the first cohort of
students to complete the now
six-year medical course graduated.
Among these graduates was
Dr Benjamin Sheares, who would go
on to become the second President
of Singapore. That was also the year
that Raffles College was opened at
a campus on Bukit Timah Road.
With medical education the
preserve of King Edward VII College
of Medicine, Raffles College was
intended as a college for higher
education in the arts and sciences.
THE WAR YEARS
Medical education came to a halt
soon after Japanese forces invaded
Malaya in 1941. Indeed, a lucky five
doctors and five dentists managed
to graduate just before the Imperial
Army arrived in Singapore in early
1942, due to final exams being
brought forward in anticipation of
this event.
The College of Medicine
was closed by the Japanese on
16 February 1942. The occupying
forces used the facility as a base
for their medical corps to receive
casualties of war. The building
would soon be used by the Japanese
as a serum and virus institute.
Meanwhile, students of the King
Edward VII College of Medicine
were all accepted by the new Syonan
Medical College, established by the
Japanese Military Administration
at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. (These
200-odd students learned nothing
medical at this College and were
instead taught Japanese songs
and customs.) At the same time,
Raffles College was requisitioned
by the Japanese to serve as their
military headquarters.
When the Japanese Occupation
ended in September 1945, the
British colonial government made
it an urgent priority to re-establish
hospitals, clinics and public health
The Manasseh Meyer Building of Raffles College located at the Bukit Timah campus.
JAN–MAR 2015
17
NUS 110 FEATURE
FINALLY, A UNIVERSITY
Soon thereafter, in 1949, the King
Edward VII College of Medicine
and Raffles College merged to
become the University of Malaya.
The College of Medicine was duly
renamed the Faculty of Medicine.
This was, in effect, the genesis of the
modern-era National University
of Singapore.
In 1950, the University of Malaya
conferred its first Bachelors degrees
– in Medicine and Surgery – to 17
graduates. Soon, yet more space
was required, and a new two-storey
building was built behind the Tan
Teck Guan Building to provide more
classrooms and laboratories. In
the following years, the University
established a number of new
departments. The Departments
of Education, Zoology (within the
Faculty of Science), Orthopaedic
Surgery and Engineering were
established by 1952. A Philosophy
department began in 1954, and a
four-year Law course was taught
from 1955 onwards.
The pre-Independence era
brought about some changes.
A Commission was formed in
1957 to review the constitution,
administration, finances and
expansion of the University of
Malaya. In view of constitutional
Five honorary graduands (from left), Sir Roland Braddell, Morris Jamieson, Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders,
Professor Edgar K Tratman and Sir Raymond E Priestley in procession to the Oei Tiong Ham Hall to receive
their Honorary Degrees at the first Convocation of the University of Malaya in 1950.
18
ALUMNUS
venerated College of Medicine
Building was recommended for
preservation. In 1988, the new
King Edward VII Hall opened
at Kent Ridge, signalling the
beginning of a new era for
medical students in Singapore.
IN 1962, THE
SINGAPORE DIVISION
OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF MALAYA BECAME
THE FULLY-FLEDGED
UNIVERSITY OF
SINGAPORE.
THE KUALA
LUMPUR DIVISION,
MEANWHILE,
RETAINED THE
UNIVERSITY OF
MALAYA NAME.
changes in Malaya and Singapore, the
Aitken Commission, as it was known,
recommended that a single university
system be established in each of the
two territories. Two autonomous
divisions were thus established – one
in Singapore and the other in Kuala
Lumpur – each with its own council,
academic committees and staff. The
Faculty of Medicine operated as the
Faculty of Medicine of the University
of Malaya in Singapore.
A Legislative Assembly election
in 1959 saw the People’s Action
Party sweeping a majority of the
available seats, and party leader
Mr Lee Kuan Yew became the first
Prime Minister of Singapore.
Dr Toh Chin Chye, who lectured
in the Department of Physiology,
led the committee that designed the
state crest, anthem and flag, which
were unveiled on 3 December 1959.
(Dr Toh would go on to become
Minister of Science and Technology,
and Vice-Chancellor of NUS. He also
later prompted the University’s move
from Bukit Timah to Kent Ridge and
initiated the creation of the National
University Hospital.)
In 1962, the Singapore Division of
the University of Malaya became the
fully-fledged University of Singapore.
The KL Division, meanwhile, retained
the University of Malaya name.
Dato Lee Kong Chian – a wealthy
businessman and philanthropist –
was appointed the newly-minted
LOOKING TO
THE FUTURE
Kent Ridge Campus. NUS admits 28,000 undergraduates and 10,000 graduate students each year.
University’s first Chancellor.
Dr B R Sreenivasan was the first
Vice-Chancellor of the University.
THE BEGINNING
OF THE MODERN ERA
PHOTO: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF SINGAPORE
services. In April 1946, the College of
Medicine Building was given back to
King Edward VII College of Medicine
before being reopened in June that
year. Some 200 students who had left
the school during the war returned
to continue their medical education.
Raffles College, too, was reopened,
with Mr W E Dyer appointed
as Principal.
Slowly and with some difficulty,
both colleges resumed operations.
In 1947, a young Mahathir Mohamad
– Malaysia’s longest-serving Prime
Minister (1981 to 2003) – began his
medical education at King Edward
VII College of Medicine. In 1948,
Dr Sheares was appointed Head
of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
(One of Dr Sheares’ most notable
contributions to medicine was a
technique to create an artificial
vagina for those born without one.)
With two separate colleges
covering a range of subjects,
Singapore’s educational landscape
began to take a fuller shape.
Seeing this, a commission led by
the London School of Economics
Director Sir Alexander CarrSaunders began studying the
possibility of establishing a
University College in Singapore.
In the end, the commission
proposed instead the formation
of a fully-fledged university.
The late ’60s saw the start of
Singapore’s meteoric rise in
economic growth and international
stature. The University of Singapore,
too, was rapidly expanding its
programmes and admissions, with
the donation of many funds and
gifts. The United States government,
for example, gave a research grant
worth S$136,200 to the Department
of Pharmaceutics to study the action
of drugs on the human body, the first
time such a grant was issued by the
US to a university in Southeast Asia.
The Ford Foundation provided a
US$300,000 grant to help expand the
University Library.
Meanwhile, the Medical
Progress Fund was started through
the generous donations of local
businessmen and entities: S$1 milllion
from the Lee Foundation and more
than S$100,000 each from Tan
Sri Runme Shaw, Tan Chin Tuan,
Nanyang Siang Pau, Reuben Meyer
Trust Fund, Dato Dr Aw Cheng Chye,
Dato Lee Chee Han, Mr Yap Twee
of Chin Ho and Company, and the
Singapore Turf Club.
At the time, the University of
Singapore was scattered around
the island. Singapore had become
an independent Republic, and the
exiting British colonial authorities
had vacated a number of prime
sites. In 1968, a site was secured for
a new campus and Dr Toh, then
Minister for Science and Technology,
initiated the relocation of the
University to Kent Ridge. The United
Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
had similarly advised the Singapore
government to house the many
departments and faculties of the
University in a single campus. In
1970, the Master Plan proposal for
a new campus was accepted by the
Cabinet, and the ground-breaking
took place in 1972. Construction
commenced in 1973.
THE NATIONAL
UNIVERSITY OF
SINGAPORE IS BORN
The government announced the
National University of Singapore
Act in 1980. Under the Act, the
University of Singapore and
Nanyang University merged to
form the National University of
Singapore. Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam
(Science ’62) was appointed the
first Vice-Chancellor of NUS. The
University was formed on 8 August
1980, an auspicious date indeed
(8/8/80).
With the University’s Central
Administration and many faculties
already at Kent Ridge – including
the Faculty of Engineering, which
moved from its former home at
Prince Edward Road – halls of
residence were opened for students
to live in, and the modern-era NUS
was up and running.
Completing the picture, a new
Coat of Arms was adopted by the
University in 1982. The design
incorporated symbols from the
crests of both the University of
Singapore and Nanyang University.
It was only later, between
1983 and 1987, that the Faculty of
Medicine would move fully from
Sepoy Lines to Kent Ridge. The
Medical education had largely
remained the same throughout a
tumultuous 20th Century – but given
the rapid technological advances
going on in the world, a revamp was
needed to take Medicine into the
21st Century and beyond. To this end,
the Medical Faculty began to revamp
the curriculum in 1991, which saw
the creation of new departments and
the reorganisation of the five-year
course into three distinct blocks. The
curriculum was further revised in
1997, with problem-based learning
introduced in 1999. (Problem-based
learning is a pedagogical approach
where a problem stands at the
beginning of the learning process,
rather than teaching theories and
concepts before outlining their
practical application.)
The University’s campus-wide
optical fibre network, NUSNET,
went online as early as 1991. It was
the largest such network in the
Asia-Pacific region, and connected
NUS to a worldwide network of
3,000 academic and research systems
via the Internet, greatly enhancing
its research productivity.
In line with the pedagogical
advances made by the venerated
British and American tertiary
education systems, NUS introduced
a semester-based modular system,
incorporating the best of the
British and American systems. First
introduced to the Faculty of Business
Administration in 1993, the modular
system was later extended to the
Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences,
Engineering, Science and the School
of Building and Estate Management.
The University took up the
challenge set by then Prime Minister
Mr Goh Chok Tong (Arts ’64) in
1997 to make Singapore the “Boston
JAN–MAR 2015
19
NUS 110 FEATURE
The Clinical Research Centre at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, adjacent to the National University Hospital.
of the East”, by working towards
becoming a world-class university.
A need-blind admission policy,
in which a student’s financial
situation is not a consideration
in their possible enrollment, was
introduced to attract more top
students from Singapore and
the region. Scholarships were
established for outstanding (but
financially-needy) undergraduates.
True enough, NUS’ academic
standing was on the rise, being
voted one of the top 10 varsities
in the Asia-Pacific region.
The vision of becoming a top
university globally never waned,
and in 2002 NUS’ vision and new
mission were articulated. The
NUS Vision “Towards a global
knowledge enterprise, building
synergies between education,
research and entrepreneurship”
and NUS Mission to “Advance
knowledge and foster innovation,
educate students and nurture
talent, in service of country and
society” position the University to
embrace new challenges and seize
new opportunities in a rapidlyinnovating knowledge-driven
global economy.
The Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy was launched in
2004 as an autonomous school for
study and research in public policy,
particularly in the study of public
policy in Asian societies.
20
ALUMNUS
NEW NAME, NEW START
In 2005, NUS celebrated its
centennial. The year-long
celebrations kicked off with an
Ushering In ceremony at which the
a new NUS flag was raised and the
NUS Centennial Sculpture unveiled.
As NUS was built on the
foundations of the Medical School,
the centennial of the school was
observed, too. This milestone was
celebrated with a S$100-million gift
from the Yong Loo Lin Trust.
The late Dr Yong Loo Lin
was a Hong Kong doctor-turnedbusinessman who was a strong
advocate of education. The Yong
Loo Lin Trust has made many
significant contributions in the
name of medicine. The National
University School of Medicine was
renamed the Yong Loo Lin School
of Medicine (YLLSoM) in honour of
this transformational gesture.
A post-graduate school of
medicine was planned to further
advance the teaching of Medicine.
NUS signed an agreement with Duke
University in the US to establish
the Duke-NUS Graduate School of
Medicine (Duke-NUS), at a purposebuilt building at College Road –
right next to the spiritual home of
medical education, the College of
Medicine Building.
A new governance structure
was devised for the YLLSoM, the
Faculty of Dentistry and the National
University Hospital (NUH). Together,
they would jointly form the National
University Health System (NUHS)
which would allow doctors, faculty
and staff to work more effectively
together, achieving greater synergies
in the delivery of care, medical
training and research.
The Duke-NUS was officially
opened in 2009. (The inaugural
class graduated in 2011 with a joint
M.D. degree from NUS and
Duke University.)
That same year, Professor
Tan Chorh Chuan (Medicine ’83)
– who had recently taken over
as President of the University
– announced a new Vision and
Mission for NUS: “A leading
global university centred in Asia,
influencing the future”. It is hoped
that NUS will be recognised as a key
authority on Asia that could hold
influence on the region.
The Kent Ridge campus saw
further development, with a
spanking new Alumni Complex –
comprising the Shaw Foundation
Alumni House and the NUS Society’s
Kent Ridge Guild House – opened
by NUS Eminent Alumnus
Minister Mentor Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
The Alumni Complex serves as a
focal point for the NUS community
to bond with one another.
Like the University, donations to
NUS have become larger and more
impressive over the years. In 2010,
the family of the late businessman
Khoo Teck Phuat gifted S$50
milllion to the NUHS and NUS for
the expansion of the University’s
Children’s Medical Institute. The
following year, YLLSoM received
S$30 million pledged by Dato Sri
Dr Tahir to advance medical
education and research.
In light of these donations
and support from the authorities
who have earmarked much of the
south-western part of the island for
education and research, the future
of NUS is bright. In 2011, the first
two residential colleges of the new
University Town complex welcomed
their first residents. (UTown was
officially opened in late 2013 by
Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong.)
In 2012, PM Lee launched
Yale-NUS College – Singapore’s
first liberal arts college, offering an
educational model that is unique
in Asia.
The YLLSoM received another
gift, for S$25 million, from the Yong
Loo Lin Trust to work with the
National University Cancer Institute,
Singapore to develop new models of
cancer care. The School also received
a S$19.5 million gift from Siemens
Medical Instruments to support
the Master of Science (Audiology),
including the establishment of the
Centre for Hearing, Speech and
Balance in partnership with NUHS.
The year 2012 saw the addition
of the YLLSoM’s flagship Centre for
Translational Medicine, with stateof-the-art facilities. This ambitious
project next to NUH houses
laboratory and teaching spaces, and
medical students will benefit from
the cutting-edge facilities there.
In 2013, a S$148 million
Singapore Centre for Nutritional
Sciences, Metabolic Diseases
and Human Development was
established by YLLSoM and the
Singapore Institute for Clinical
Sciences. The centre aims to be the
leading hub in Asia for research
into nutritional sciences, metabolic
diseases and human development.
Today, NUS – from its modest
start as a medical school born of
necessity to its future as a leader in
global education – has become a
leading light in Asia. Here’s looking
forward to another century of
innovation and leadership ahead.
IN 2005,
THE SCHOOL
OF MEDICINE
WAS RENAMED
THE YONG LOO
LIN SCHOOL OF
MEDICINE IN
HONOUR OF THE
S$100 MILLION
DONATION FROM
THE YONG LOO
LIN TRUST.
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
Mr S R
Nathan
Mr Goh
Chok Tong
Dr Mahathir
Mohamad
Dr Goh
Keng Swee
Dr Margaret
Chan
Dr Noeleen
Heyzer
Prof Kishore
Mahbubani
Mr Ivan
Heng
FROM PRESIDENTS AND
PRIME MINISTERS TO
PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS
AND PLAYWRIGHTS, THE NATIONAL
UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE (NUS)
COUNTS A WIDE VARIETY OF
LUMINARIES AS ALUMNI.
PRESIDENTS OF SINGAPORE
Dr Benjamin Sheares (Medicine ’29),
Mr S R Nathan (Diploma, Social Studies ’54)
and Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam (Science ’62) all
graduated from NUS. Dr Tan enrolled in 1959
as a student at the Department of Physics in
the University of Malaya. He lectured at the
newly-renamed University of Singapore in the
Physics Department and later lectured in the
Department of Mathematics from 1967 to 1969.
He was later appointed as the again-renamed
NUS’ first Vice-Chancellor in 1980, a post he
held till 1981. In 2011, Dr Tan succeeded
Mr S R Nathan as NUS’ ninth Chancellor.
PRIME MINISTERS
AND CABINET MINISTERS
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir
Mohamad (Medicine ’54) and his wife,
Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali (Medicine ’55),
were trained at the University of Malaya in
Singapore. Emeritus Senior Minister
Mr Goh Chok Tong graduated in 1964. Both
Dr Goh Keng Swee and Dr Toh Chin Chye –
pioneers of Singapore who helped to shape the
nation in the formative years – came from the
colleges that pre-dated the University;
Dr Goh from Raffles College and Dr Toh from
the King Edward VII College of Medicine.
THINKERS AND EXPERTS
Director-General of the World Health Organization,
Dr Margaret Chan (Medicine ’85), holds a
Masters of Medicine in Public Health from
NUS. Dr Noeleen Heyzer (Arts and Social
Sciences ’71), the Under-Secretary-General of
the United Nations and UN Secretary-General’s
Special Adviser for Timor-Leste, also holds an
MSc from NUS. Professor Kishore Mahbubani
(Arts and Social Sciences ’71) – thinker, former
ambassador and Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew
School of Public Policy – was a President’s
Scholar and graduated from the University of
Singapore with a degree in Philosophy.
ACTORS AND PLAYWRIGHTS
Playwright Mr Haresh Sharma (Arts and Social
Sciences ’90) is an alumnus. TV actors
Mr Elvin Ng (Arts and Social Sciences ’06),
Ms Jeanette Aw (Arts and Social Sciences ’01),
and Mr Tay Ping Hui (Arts and Social
Sciences ’96) too hail from the University. And
one of Singapore’s best-loved stage actors
and recipient of the Cultural Medallion 2013,
Mr Ivan Heng (Law ’88), read Law at NUS.
JAN–MAR 2015
21
MY WORD
AN EYE-OPENER
STUDYING MEDICINE OPENED HER EYES TO THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS
BETWEEN THE DISCIPLINE AND THE ENVIRONMENT FOR
OPHTHALMOLOGIST AND FORMER NATURE SOCIETY PRESIDENT,
DR GEH MIN (MEDICINE ’74). BY ARTI MULCHAND
22
EDICINE WAS NOT ACTUALLY
MY FIRST CHOICE for a career.
I was not averse to it, but
I had wanted to study
architecture. It was my
grandmother, whom I was
close to and respected very
much, who persuaded me to become
a doctor.
So I studied medicine – and was
miserable for the first two years. The
preclinical sciences involved a lot
of rote learning and staring down
microscopes at slides that looked
pretty identical to me. The wonders
of the human body did not fascinate
me then, and I almost gave up
in despair.
It was only in my third year
when we were allowed to go into
the wards and see actual patients
that everything suddenly fell into
place and became meaningful,
and interesting.
I also encountered inspiring
teachers. One was Emeritus
Professor Sir Gordon Arthur
Ransome (1910 - 1978), one of the
pioneers of modern medicine in
Singapore, who taught me in my
final year.
He was legendary as an
erudite physician and inspired
diagnostician, but the story I found
most moving [about him] was about
a final-year medical student who
had just flunked his “long case”.
[This was] a patient that [a medical
student] would have dealt with
from start to end, from taking their
history to making a diagnosis –
with Prof Ransome. [Flunking his
long case] meant that the student
had failed the entire finals and
would have to repeat the year.
Although devastated, the
student thanked the patient and
helped him to get dressed – and
that so impressed Prof Ransome
ALUMNUS
that he changed the fail mark to a
pass on the grounds that medical
knowledge could always be learnt,
but consideration for the patients
came first. To Prof Ransome,
someone who had that quality
under duress deserved to pass.
Medicine has always got
to be about that doctor-patient
relationship.
SEEING IS BELIEVING
I chose to specialise in
ophthalmology because I find the
eyeball fascinating. I also like using
my hands but did not have the
stamina or guts – no pun intended
– to deal with more heroic lifesaving surgery. But the idea of being
able to restore vision – that was so
romantic. And I learnt a lot from the
biggest medical challenges I faced,
especially when it came to diseases
that you cannot cure, like glaucoma.
What makes the difference is
picking up the early signs which
may not be very obvious, and
preventing these from getting any
worse. You can’t restore sight, but
you can slow down visual loss.
The same can be said for
environmental degradation. You
have to look for the early signs and
then prevent further damage. Like
in climate change, we do all we can
to mitigate, or at least adapt. If you
cannot cure it, then you have to buy
as much time as you can.
Treating a patient is also not
black and white – you have to see
every shade, and keep on looking
for an optimal solution. That insight
helped when I became President of
the Nature Society in 2000 and also
when I was a Nominated Member of
Parliament. I could appreciate that
policymakers cannot guarantee the
future in absolute terms.
This prompted a more measured
approach, a contrast to the earlier
head-on collisions the Nature
Society had in the 1990s over
incidents like the development of
part of Pierce Reservoir into a golf
course, even if the Society did win
that fight.
Both sides – the Society and the
Government – had started to take
on a more moderate approach and
we realised we would get a lot more
accomplished if we worked together.
A more moderate approach does
not mean agreeing to compromise
from the start. We just tried to see
things from the other’s point of
view. One of the early situations
was dealing with the ecologicallyrich Chek Jawa mudflats on Pulau
Ubin. There seemed to be no way of
reversing the government’s decision
to reclaim the land. We were also
dealing with a battle on the Kranji
Marshes front, where a golf course
was planned.
There was a lot of bargaining
going on, and there was an
indication that [the Government]
would give way on Kranji if we
backed down on Chek Jawa.
A committee member was
indignant, and said: ‘Dr Geh, if you
had two patients who were critically
ill, what would you do? You would
fight for both lives.’
That became my guide – we
had to fight for every nature area
we could. It might involve some
compromise, but we should treat
each as though it was a human life.
LEARNT FROM NATURE
I can’t say that being an
environmentalist – which is what
others call me, not what I call myself
– also makes me a better doctor, but
it certainly requires me to see life as
an integrated whole.
Human health and the health
PHOTO BY WILSON PANG
M
“
Eye surgeon Geh Min,
who met her heart-surgeon
husband while she was
doing her housemanship at
Toa Payoh Hospital in 1975,
was the Nature Society
President from 2000 to 2008,
and a Nominated Member of
Parliament from 2004 to 2006.
In 2006, she was one of three
recipients of the inaugural
President’s Award for the
Environment. She is a member
of the Nature Conservancy’s
Asia Pacific Council; Birdlife
International; and the Climate
Change Network.
of the planet are intertwined. We like
to think of ourselves as separate from
nature, but we are not.
A lot of diseases are linked
to environmental problems, like
pollution, haze, dirty air and
contaminated water. We depend on
biodiversity and forests to keep the
air clean and remove pollutants from
water. Nature provides food through
pollination and reproduction. We
depend on other living things.
We also need nature. Studies show
that, genetics aside, outdoor activity
can prevent myopia. Based on a study
involving genetically similar children
in Singapore and Sydney, the children
from Sydney – who read as much if not
more than those in Singapore – had a
lower incidence of myopia.
The reason seemed to be that they
had three times as much outdoor
activity. The body adapts. If you only
look at things close up, you lose your
distance vision. If you spend less time
glued to your devices and more time
outdoors, your eyes adjust. It slows
down the damage.
Many reputable studies have
shown that surgical patients recover
faster if there is a view of nature from
their beds. Most of the modern drugs
we have to cure or treat disease also
ultimately come from nature – about
80 per cent of drugs in current use
can ultimately be traced back to
natural origins.
Urbanisation and overdependence
on technology is destroying the
way that we look at things. We are
surrounded by man-made objects, but
even items we see as man-made require
natural resources.
The problem is that many who
live in urban settings view nature as
‘dirty and unnecessary’, and reduce it
to the insects and bacteria that cause
epidemics and diseases. The reality
is that it is only when the natural
ecosystem is disrupted that you
get diseases.
Sir Francis Bacon, often called the
Father of Modern Science, did say:
“Nature, to be commanded, must be
obeyed”. You need to understand the
laws of nature. Ignore them and you
might win a battle or two, but you will
lose the war, whether in terms of an
individual’s health or the health of
the planet.”
JAN–MAR 2015
23
ONCE UPON A MEMORY
OFF TO A
FLYING START
“FLYING DOCTOR” MANI JEGATHESAN (MEDICINE ’67) MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE
FASTEST MAN IN ASIA FOR A TIME – BUT HE STILL COULDN’T SKIP CLASS IF HE
WANTED TO GRADUATE! BY ARTI MULCHAND
for the Commonwealth
Games in Perth held
in November 1962, the
sprint champion tipped
to take the bronze or
better in the 220-yard
event stayed in Singapore.
During the Asian Games in
Jakarta earlier that year, Tan Sri Dr
Mani Jegathesan, then 18, had won
the 200m, setting a new record of
21.3 seconds. He also won silvers in
the 100m, and the 1,600m relay.
Two years earlier, in 1960, he had
competed at the Rome Olympics
– the first of three consecutive
Olympics showings, and at the
Rangoon SEAP Games (now the SEA
Games) in 1961 had won golds in the
200m, 400m and 1600m relay events,
as well as a silver in the 100m.
But in October of 1962, the speed
demon was also a second-year
medical student, and a month away
from his exams.
“If I had missed the exams,
I would have had to repeat the year,”
says Dr Jegathesan, who was born
in Ipoh but moved to Singapore in
1955 to live with his newly-married
sister and attend Anglo Chinese
School (Barker).
“Sport was a leisure pursuit.
When you won, you got a pat on
the back. But you weren’t given
any concessions. Others biked or
played billiards, mahjong or
tennis. I ran. And, like them, the
next day I went back to class,” the
71 year-old remembers.
The skeptics among the faculty
only added to the pressure.
24
ALUMNUS
Running as a
schoolboy.
Dr Jegathesan’s
(3rd from left) 1967
graduation photo,
taken with his
clinical group.
The 1958 relay team for
an inter-school meet.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TAN SRI DR M JEGATHESAN
A
S THE REST OF HIS
MALAYAN TEAMMATES left
“They knew of my
reputation as an athlete,
and some thought I was
a joker who thought I
would breeze through
medical school,”
he says.
Dr Jegathesan knew
success would take some
strategising. He fell in with
the “good boys”, and even if
he spent some time “grazing
the prairies” and having
fun with friends on a Friday
night, by 11pm, it was back to
the books.
He found some fans among
his lecturers. To attend the Tokyo
Olympics in 1964, Dr Jegathesan,
then working under surgical legend
Dr Yahya Cohen, got the go-ahead to
miss a month of his clinical posting
on one condition – that he spent a
month of his vacation time as
Dr Cohen’s “fetcher and gatherer”.
It was an “amazing opportunity”,
he recalls.
And a month before his final
MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine,
Bachelor of Surgery) exams in
1966, he competed in the Bangkok
Asian Games, flying out the night
before his first event and returning
to Singapore – and straight to his
Obstetrics and Gynaecology
class with Dr Tow Siang Hwa
(Medicine ’53) – on a Monday
morning, with three gold medals in
his bag and the title of the Fastest
Man in Asia.
“When Dr Tow spotted me, he
said: ‘Our champion has arrived.’
And they gave me a standing
ovation.” Even the congratulatory
telegram that had arrived from
the President of Malaysia paled
in comparison.
But the biggest win for him
came in February the following year
when, with the rest of his cohort,
Dr Jegathesan made his way to the
medical faculty at Outram Road at
9.15am, and waited for the Registrar
to appear with a piece of paper with
the names of those who had passed
the MBBS.
“I just honed in on the middle
of the list – the Js – and looked for
any indication of a very, very long
name. And it was there. I got a piece
of paper that said I passed and then
I bought a night train ticket back to
KL, where I was expected to return
to work,” he recalls.
He completed his one-year
housemanship at Hospital Kuala
Lumpur, and in 1968, a chance
encounter while waiting to find
out where he would be posted as a
Medical Officer sealed his fate. He
was at a kopitiam near the hospital
when a senior gentleman recognised
him as “that athlete fellow”.
“He said he was George De Witt,
Deputy Director of the Institute
for Medical Research (IMR) next
door, and [asked if I would] like to
work there.”
Dr Jegathesan joined the IMR as
a trainee pathologist, and that year,
also competed at the 1968 Mexico
Olympics. He set Malaysia’s standing
record of 20.92 seconds for the 200m
in a semi-final, and then announced
his retirement from sports.
Twenty years later, he became
the IMR’s Director, holding the post
for five years before moving on to
become Deputy Director-General
(Research and Technical Support) at
the Ministry of Health, Malaysia.
Throughout his career,
Dr Jegathesan has made significant
contributions in the global control
of infectious diseases, and served as
a consultant to agencies including
the World Health Organization.
Even after his “retirement”
from sports, Dr Jegathesan found
himself back in Olympic stadiums
in various capacities between 1972
and 2012, including as chef de mission
for the Malaysian team.
Today, he is the Chairman of
the medical committees of the
Olympic Council of Malaysia, the
Olympic Council of Asia, and the
Commonwealth Games Federation.
But some of his best memories
were made in the Outram campus
mastering “both the art and science”
of medicine, he says.
It is where he met his wife of
45 years then, a pharmacy student.
They have three children and five
grandchildren, with another on
the way. And the friendships he
forged in his first year anatomy class
remain to this day.
“[My fellow students and I] spent
two years dissecting one half of
a human body. That forces some
serious bonding. Years can go by
without contact, but when we meet,
it’s like we’re back [at University] –
and right next to that cadaver,” he
says with a laugh.
[MY FELLOW STUDENTS AND I] SPENT TWO YEARS
DISSECTING ONE HALF OF A HUMAN BODY. THAT
FORCES SOME SERIOUS BONDING. YEARS CAN GO BY
WITHOUT CONTACT, BUT WHEN WE MEET, IT’S LIKE
WE’RE BACK [AT UNIVERSITY] – AND RIGHT NEXT TO
THAT CADAVER!
JAN–MAR 2015
25
PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE
SCIENCE OF HIS SUCCESS
WHAT DOES IT TAKE
TO EXCEL IN BOTH
SPORTS AND MEDICINE?
SIMPLY SCIENCE, SAYS
DR BENEDICT TAN
(MEDICINE ’91).
BY ARTI MULCHAND
E
XACTLY FIVE HOURS – not
even just half an hour more, and
especially not the seven hours
of sleep that is accepted as ideal.
Five hours is Sports Medicine
specialist and former sailing
champion Dr Benedict Tan’s
“sweet spot for sleep”.
“I need five hours to function
normally. Six hours and I don’t feel any
more refreshed, and seven makes me
even more tired. I can go on four hours
for two days straight, and three hours
for one,” says the 47 year-old Chief of
Sports Medicine at Changi General
Hospital (CGH).
Dr Tan came to that conclusion
“experimenting with sleep-hours”
while studying Medicine at the
National University of Singapore.
Sleeping less, he says, is a “form of
‘forced efficiency” and helps him get as
much as he needs out of his day.
He had also worked out that three
hours of studying would make up for
a missed lecture, and that making the
leap from the 80th to the 90th percentile
of his cohort required more hours in the
day that he had to spare. “I didn’t aim
to be the top of my class, and I wanted
to sail. Getting to the 90th would have
required 60 per cent amount more
studying time,” he explains.
Dr Tan’s love for all things scientific
started early as a child when he had
questions about everything – from
rainbows to racing cars. He fell even
more in love with science when he
got serious about sailing at the age
of 12.
“The sail is an aerofoil and the hull
cuts through the water, so you have
PHOTO BY WILSON PANG
SCIENCE WAS THE ANSWER,
WHATEVER THE QUESTION
to understand basic aero dynamics
and hydro dynamics. You gain an
appreciation of meteorology since
you rely on the wind to move. Science
made me a better sailor,” he says. And
sailing made him a better student.
“When you sail, you have to be very
systematic, and much of what you
learn can be brought over to work
and life.”
At Hwa Chong Junior College,
Dr Tan did triple science, eventually
qualifying for medical school. But
getting into Medicine was only half
the challenge – he was not sure how he
could keep his grades up and his sailing
career afloat. The difficult decision
made in his first year to give sailing a
break lasted all of one year.
It made no difference to his grades,
he says. The time freed went to fun, but
provided a lesson in efficiency. He could
keep sailing, especially now that he had
gotten “fun out of the system”.
He was back on the water in his
second year, rushing to East Coast Park
after his 3pm lecture on most days
to make the most of the remaining
daylight. After a quick dinner, it was to
the gym until 10pm, and then back to
NUS to study with his clinical group
until 1am.
“I knew I had to spend a lot of time
in the water racing and training, yet I
couldn’t become a half-baked doctor,”
he says.
What has stayed with him to this
day is the fact that his lecturers were
not prescriptive and, instead, made
him accountable for his decision. “The
faculty treated me like an adult. They
laid down the high standards expected,
and as long as I met them I could train
and race as much as I wanted. As a
doctor, that’s important. You alone
are responsible for ensuring that you
remain a good one.”
During his housemanship, he
would cover night call duties for his
colleagues to chalk up experience.
Those all-nighters also meant he could
head straight out to sea after lunch.
“If you wanted to sail better, you had to
spend more time sailing. If you wanted
to be a better doctor, you had to see as
many patients as you could,” explains
Dr Tan who, as a houseman, delivered
13 babies solo.
ANSWERING THE CALL
It was accepted by most that Dr Tan
was destined for surgery, especially after
being accepted as an Ophthalmology
trainee under the late Professor
Arthur Lim (Medicine ’56). It was not
to be. In 1996, he got a call from
Dr Teh Kong Chuan (Medicine ’73),
then the Director of the Sports
Medicine and Research Centre
Singapore Sports Council (SSC),
who told Dr Tan that his training as
a doctor and experience as an athlete
would be invaluable there.
THE FACULTY
TREATED ME
LIKE AN ADULT.
THEY LAID
DOWN THE HIGH
STANDARDS
EXPECTED, AND
AS LONG AS I MET
THEM I COULD
TRAIN AND RACE
AS MUCH AS
I WANTED.
“Sports Medicine was where
I could make a bigger difference, even
if people thought I was crazy to give up
Ophthalmology,” he recalls now, with
a laugh.
He became Deputy Director (Sports
Science) at the SSC’s Sports Medicine
and Research Centre, building the
department of five scientists and
technicians into a 15-member team,
covering all five disciplines under
Sports Science, including strength and
conditioning as well as sports nutrition.
A second call came in 2002,
this time from the then Chief of
Orthopedics Professor Low Cheng Ooi
(Medicine ’80) and Sports Orthopedic
Surgeon Dr Tan Jee Lim (Medicine
’89), and the then-Chief Executive
Officer T K Udairam (Arts and Social
Sciences ’76) of CGH. They were
keen to elevate sports medicine to
a specialty – something other public
hospitals had not yet done.
“They were real visionaries, and
the whole hospital had bought into
the idea. And being at CGH meant
that Sports Medicine could ride on the
Health Ministry machinery and get a
lot more support. It was a chance for
sports medicine to level up,” Dr Tan
says. CGH now has 11 Sports Medicine
practitioners, as well as specialist
disciplines such as Sports Cardiology to
Sports Endocrinology.
FULFILLING HIS ROLE
Today, Dr Tan clearly finds even
more use for his theories of “forced
efficiency”. On top of his administrative
work, he does a minimum of nine
clinical sessions a week and two
evening sessions a week to keep
himself “sharp”.
He is also a Senior Consultant at
both the Singapore and Changi Sports
Medicine centres, and Chairman of
the Exercise is Medicine Singapore
National Centre. The Asian Games and
four-time SEA Games Gold medalist,
and three-time Sportsman of the Year,
retired from competing in 1996, but still
sails recreationally.
He has completed all six of
the World Marathon Majors, a
championship-style competition for
marathon runners that comprises six
annual races in Berlin, Boston, Chicago,
London, New York City and Tokyo.
He is also a Nominated Member of
Parliament, President of the Singapore
Sailing Federation, sits on various other
boards and panels, and has authored
three books about sailing, running and
weight loss. “At the end of the day, it is
about the role I believe I have in society
– to be a good citizen by doing all I can
to push Singapore to greater heights,
including in sports and medicine. I am
doing what I need to do to fulfill that,”
he explains.
What would he change given the
chance to do it all over?
Dr Tan’s answer is decidedly
pragmatic. “Nothing. I have always
been forward-thinking, and my
decisions have been a series of rational
ones made after careful consideration
of all the factors. Logically, I would do it
all exactly the same.”
JAN–MAR 2015
27
NUS ALUMNI-GREAT EASTERN LIFE BREAKFAST DIALOGUE
THE 8Cs OF SUCCESS
City Development Limited’s reputation as an environmentally and
socially responsible company owes much to Mr Kwek Leng Joo’s
life motto — that monetary success alone is not enough. BY WANDA TAN
“
S
INGAPORE HAS A HIGHLYCOMPETITIVE and successful
economy. But as the nation
approaches its 50th birthday
[in 2015], it is very important that we ask
ourselves: ‘Who are we as a people?’”
Opening his talk with this question,
Mr Kwek Leng Joo gave participants
at the latest NUS Alumni-Great Eastern
Life Breakfast Dialogue much food for
thought. Some 125 NUS alumni and
students were at the M Hotel Ballroom
on 3 October 2014 to hear the Deputy
Chairman of City Developments
Limited (CDL) ruminate on the topic,
‘Success – Is It All About Money?’.
Having joined CDL’s Board of
Directors in 1980, Mr Kwek served as
Managing Director for 19 years prior
to his February 2014 appointment
as Deputy Chairman. Over the past
two decades, he has played a crucial
role in building the company’s
portfolio of residential and investment
properties. Today CDL is not only one
of Singapore’s biggest landlords but also
an international property and hotel
conglomerate, with more than 400
subsidiaries and associated companies
in 88 locations across 25 countries.
28
ALUMNUS
I PROPOSE
A NEW
DEFINITION
OF SUCCESS
THAT TAKES
INTO ACCOUNT
THE ‘8Cs’ – THE
AFOREMENTIONED
5Cs AS WELL
AS CHARACTER,
CREATIVITY
AND COMMUNITY.
Under Mr Kwek’s leadership,
sustainability has been the centrepiece
of CDL’s corporate social responsibility
(CSR) and business agenda since 1995.
Founded on his vision to ‘conserve
as we construct’, the company has
adopted a triple-bottom-line approach
in managing its business with a view
to strike a balance between financial,
social and environmental performance.
To this end, the company focusses on
the so-called ‘3Ps’ – profit, people and
planet. Mr Kwek said of the last ‘P’, “We
strive to make sure all our buildings are
eco-friendly. We also prefer to work with
suppliers and other stakeholders who
adopt ‘green’ practices.”
CDL also engages with the public
through a number of initiatives.
“To spread the message of social and
eco-consciousness, we organise annual
youth competitions such as the CDLSingapore Compact Young CSR Leaders
Award and the CDL E-Generation
Challenge. And in 2013, we collaborated
with the National Library Board to open
‘My Tree House’ – the world’s first
green library for kids,” said Mr Kwek.
He added that CDL also has a Chief
Sustainability Officer in the ranks of
senior management.
As a result of its commitment to
environmental sustainability and CSR,
CDL has won a plethora of honours.
It is the first developer to receive
the prestigious Built Environment
Leadership Platinum Award in 2009
and the only developer to win ‘Quality
Excellence Award – Quality Champion
(Platinum)’ from Singapore’s Building
and Construction Authority for two
consecutive years (in 2013 and 2014).
On the international front, CDL is also
the first Singapore company to be listed
on the world’s top three sustainability
benchmarks – FTSE4Good Index Series
since 2002, Global 100 Most Sustainable
Corporations in the World since 2010
and Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes
since 2011.
Given CDL’s standing as a leading
green developer, Mr Kwek was – not
surprisingly – critical of modern-day
notions of individual success. He
lamented, “For many youths, success
is usually defined in terms of financial
wealth or how much money they earn.
It’s all about achieving the ‘5Cs’ – cash,
car, credit card, condominium and
country club membership.” Instead, he
challenged those present at the Breakfast
Dialogue to step away from the ‘rat race’
and go beyond such myopic thinking.
“I propose a new definition of
success that takes into account the ‘8Cs’
– the aforementioned 5Cs as well as
character, creativity and community,”
said Mr Kwek who sits on the Advisory
Committee of NUS’ Master of Science
(Environmental Management) (MEM)
programme. “Character development is
important if you are truly serious about
growing as a person, while applying
creativity to your work will help
increase productivity. Lastly, we should
not look after or think of ourselves
as individuals, for we are all part of a
larger community.”
Mr Kwek’s talk was followed by
a dynamic Q&A session moderated
by Dr Geh Min, an ophthalmologist,
former Nominated Member of
Parliament and Immediate Past
President of the Nature Society
(Singapore). She is also on the Advisory
Committee of NUS’ MEM programme.
Dr Geh also spoke about
her decade-long friendship with
Mr Kwek and touched on his
pioneering role in ushering the green
movement into Singapore’s built
environment. “Through his actions,
AN ENLIGHTENING PERSPECTIVE
he has shown that
land is important
not just as a moneyMr Kwek’s words left a deep impression on participants at the
making piece of
Breakfast Dialogue:
real estate, but as
“My main reason for coming today was to network with fellow
a valuable natural
students and alumni, but I really enjoyed listening to what
resource worth
Mr Kwek had to say. His talk was a good reminder that success is
conserving,” she
not just about money.”
said. “Even though
Zitong, a Year 2 Bachelor of Business Administration student
he is a successful
businessman, I
“I’m now in the final year of my course, so this session was
think of him more
a good opportunity to hear from a prominent figure in real
as a dedicated
estate before I enter the industry myself.”
environmentalist
Kevin Yap, a Year 5 Bachelor of Science (Real Estate) and
and a humanist.”
Bachelor of Business Administration student
One participant
voiced his worry
that any attempt
other developers can be persuaded to
to achieve all 8Cs might prove too
adopt environmental practices.
burdensome, to which Mr Kwek’s
Mr Kwek acknowledged the increased
response was a resounding “no”. “We
competition among developers of
work in a very competitive business
comparable size in recent years.
environment, and the 5Cs are – for
“There are four or five large developers
the most part – already ingrained in
in Singapore, including CDL. Nothing
us,” he explained. “All I want to do is
would please me more than to see the
to encourage people to look beyond
rest of them becoming green leaders
the material world. After all, material
and contribute to conserving
possessions do not equal happiness.”
the environment,” he said.
Another participant asked how
NUS ALUMNI-GREAT EASTERN LIFE BREAKFAST DIALOGUE
“
A
CCORDING TO A STUDY OF
PUBLICLY-LISTED AMERICAN
COMPANIES on the S&P 500
Index, the average lifespan
of companies fell from approximately
60 years in the 1950s to about 15 years
in 2012. The same is true if you look at
companies on the Fortune 500 list.
What this means is that the average
lifespan of companies today is
diminishing, and diminishing at a faster
rate due to technological changes like
Internet expansion.”
Despite the gloomy outlook that
Mr Andrew Kwan, Group Managing
Director of Singapore-based investment
holding company Commonwealth
Capital Pte Ltd appraised his audience
of, he himself was in a buoyant mood
when he spoke at the NUS Alumni-Great
Eastern Life Breakfast Dialogue. Held
on 12 November 2014 at the Marina
Mandarin hotel, this event was the last
in the series of morning talks conceived
for NUS students and young alumni to
engage with industry veterans, as well as
network with one another.
The session was moderated by
Associate Professor Tan Tin Wee from
the NUS Department of Biochemistry
who voiced his admiration for
Mr Kwan’s outstanding business
achievements. It all started in the early
1990s when, with a business partner,
Mr Kwan co-founded Globamatrix
Holdings (GMX) to sell window films for
the automotive and building industries.
By the end of the decade, the company
had amassed a global marketing and
distribution network for high-end
window film brands.
In 2002, GMX made its first foray
into the F&B sector by investing in the
Italian restaurant chain PastaMania,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
– THE BIG PICTURE
Noted entrepreneur Mr Andrew Kwan shares how his businesses
flourish in a fragile economy. BY WANDA TAN
which at the time comprised only two
food court stalls in Singapore. After
GMX’s window film unit was sold
to a US-based firm in 2010, Mr Kwan
established Commonwealth Capital
and expanded its F&B portfolio. Aside
from PastaMania – which now consists
of more than 50 outlets in South-east
Asia, China and the Middle East –
Commonwealth Capital now also
owns brands such as Swissbake,
Swisstreats, NYC Bagel Factory and
Zac Meat & Poultry.
So what is the secret to his success?
How has Mr Kwan – who has garnered
numerous awards, including the RotaryAssociation of Small and Medium
Enterprises (ASME) ‘Entrepreneur
of the Year Award 2004’ – thrived
when other businesses struggle to
survive? That was the subject of his
talk, ‘Entrepreneurship: A View from
the Trenches’, in which he gave a noholds-barred account of the triumphs
and tribulations experienced as an
entrepreneur. In particular, he identified
three traits that all entrepreneurs must
possess if they are to succeed.
The first is an appetite for disruptive
technologies. “Just as [the late Apple
co-founder] Steve Jobs ushered in the era
of personal computing, entrepreneurs
harbour a conviction that they can
change the world. They see a gap that
nobody else is serving,” said Mr Kwan
who referred to this as the “romance
of entrepreneurship”.
“Second, [as romantic as the journey
might appear to be,] it is fraught with
hard work and requires persistence.
It is not just about talent, genius or
education.” Nowadays, Mr Kwan spends
about one-third of his time on non-work
pursuits, mainly with his wife – an NUS
graduate through whom Mr Kwan joked
that he has vicariously experienced NUS
life – and their four children. But during
THERE IS A
SENSE OF
EMPOWERMENT
THAT COMES
FROM BEING ABLE
TO DO WHAT
YOU WANT TO
DO IN YOUR
OWN TIME.
30
ALUMNUS
GMX’s early days, Mr Kwan regularly
worked around-the-clock on a variety
of tasks, from ordering and unpacking
shipments to meeting clients and
typing up documents.
Lastly, Mr Kwan explained that
being an entrepreneur offers rewards
that go beyond monetary benefits.
“There is a sense of empowerment
that comes from being able to do what
you want to do in your own time. You
have the autonomy to do something
you believe in, something you are
passionate about,” he said. “That means
you can’t be in it just for the ‘pot of gold’
at the end; you must enjoy the journey
as well.”
He took questions from the
floor during the second half of the
Breakfast Dialogue. One participant
asked for his thoughts on what role
governments should play in promoting
entrepreneurship. Mr Kwan’s answer
was that government involvement in
business requires a delicate balancing
act. “Entrepreneurs are supposed to
be creative and come up with their
own ideas. So [on the one hand] it is
counterintuitive for them to depend on
external or government funding to get
their businesses up and running.”
On the other hand, governments
can contribute by bridging the gap
between domestic and overseas markets.
“The Singapore Government has
[excelled] in helping local companies
achieve the economies of scale or critical
mass needed to establish a foothold
overseas,” he observed in his capacity
as Board Member of SPRING Singapore,
an enterprise development agency
under Singapore’s Ministry of Trade
and Industry.
Another member of the audience
commented on the challenges
currently facing young start-ups in
Singapore, such as oversaturation of
small businesses, rising rental costs
and manpower constraints. But as
Mr Kwan pointed out, free-market
principles will naturally resolve the
situation and business owners should
thus distinguish themselves from
competitors. “If demand is only so big
and the market is oversaturated with
suppliers, it is inevitable that there will
be a winnowing out of weaker players,”
he noted.
WHAT THEY SAY…
Participants were impressed by
what they had experienced at this
final installment of the Breakfast
Dialogue series.
“I wasn’t sure what to
expect today as this is my
first time here, but I had a good
time. The session was very
well-organised and allowed for an
informal discussion with Mr Kwan.”
Mr Andreas Möbius, an Aeronautical
Engineering exchange student from
the United Kingdom
“I’ve really enjoyed the
Breakfast Dialogues that
I have attended. These events
have given me a chance to hear
from industry leaders whom
I would not ordinarily get to meet.”
Mr Sam Loo (Business ’94)
who has set up a corporate
training firm
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.
PROFESSOR HSIEH TSUN-YAN
A LEADER
AMONG LEADERS
Professor Hsieh Tsun-Yan, Chairman and Lead Counselor
of LinHart Group, believes that strong leadership derives,
above all, from having a strong sense of self.
eadership is a somewhat
nebulous concept that is
difficult to pin down, with
many so-called ‘gurus’ touting their
own theories and mantras. But how
do we know if we even have what
it takes to be a leader? According
to Professor Hsieh Tsun-Yan, who
has drawn on his experiences in the
corporate sphere to forge a career
in leadership counselling, there is a
leader in each of us – we just do not
know it yet.
A former President’s and
Colombo Plan Scholar, Prof Hsieh
L
went against the grain when, after
completing his Bachelor’s degree
in Mechanical Engineering at the
University of Alberta, Canada in
1974, he turned down a spot in
Singapore’s elite Administrative
Service and instead sought an
engineering job. In 1980, he
joined McKinsey & Company as
a consultant and then spent the
better part of three decades with
the global consulting giant. By the
time he retired in 2008, Prof Hsieh
had gained renown as the first
ethnic Chinese to be elected as
YOU WILL FIND
POSITIVE ENERGY
IN WHAT YOU
DO IF IT’S
PLEASURABLE,
MEANINGFUL
AND
CONSTRUCTIVE
IN YOUR OWN
ESTIMATION.
Managing Director of McKinsey &
Co.’s Canadian and Southeast Asian
offices.
In 2010, he founded LinHart
Group, a leadership services firm
that advises Chief Executive Officers
(CEOs), boards of directors, owners
and senior executives of large
companies throughout Asia on
32
ALUMNUS
issues of leadership development
and succession. The Harvard MBA
graduate also serves as Provost Chair
Professor (Practice) of NUS Business
School and the Lee Kuan Yew School
of Public Policy, and is a member of
NUS Business School’s Management
Advisory Board.
To a full auditorium at the
U@live session, Prof Hsieh defined
leadership as “a force in us that
causes a large collection of people
…to do something they would not
otherwise do, to do something
better or to create something totally
new”. Unlike managers, who are
content with preserving the status
quo or making only incremental
improvements, leaders have the
ability to attract and influence
followers to go beyond their usual
limits for a positive outcome.
“There is a huge opportunity for
the world to be a better place if all
of us become leaders – not just in
high office [as CEOs of companies
and presidents of countries] but
even among, say, fellow colleagues
in your hospital ward,” he said. In
particular, he identified four arenas
in which an individual’s leadership
style is shaped: as a volunteer in
community service organisations,
when parenting children, in one’s
relationship with a spouse, and in
the workplace.
“The problem,” said Prof Hsieh,
“is that the world is full of [social]
constructs that try to convince us
we are not leaders. For example, you
may have been told at work that
you cannot ask questions above
your pay grade.” So what is needed
to unleash one’s leadership? He
touched on the three vital elements
of knowing (possessing knowledge in
a specific field), doing (demonstrating
the required skills) and most
importantly being (recognising one’s
uniqueness). “People follow leaders
because of who they are, not just
because of what they do or what
they know.”
Prof Hsieh then engaged in an
animated discussion with moderator
Mr Viswa Sadasivan (Arts and Social
Sciences ’83) and the audience on the
oft-mentioned leadership crisis in
Singapore. Mr Sadasivan got right to
the heart of the matter, questioning
whether there is in fact a dearth
of good leaders in the first place.
“I get put off whenever I hear the
government say that we have a
shortage of talent. The way I see it,
the only reason they say so is because
they see talent only in President’s
Scholars,” he claimed.
Although grateful to have
received the scholarship himself,
Prof Hsieh commented that such
a narrow perspective of leadership
is unfortunate, if indeed it is
true. “I believe we as a society are
suffering from a crisis of confidence
[as opposed to a crisis of leadership],
both in ourselves and in each other,”
he asserted. In other words, everyone
is born with the ability to lead, but
due to societal labelling and selfdoubt, we lack the confidence to step
up to the plate and assume the worst
in ourselves and other people.
As the first ethnic Chinese in a
then-predominantly Caucasian male
board at McKinsey & Co. in Canada,
Prof Hsieh was a vocal supporter of
workplace diversity. Whereas others
were hasty in writing off women
and racial minorities, he picked
them to join his team because he
was confident they could do a good
job. “I am proud that I helped them,
and many of them are now senior
partners in the firm,” he said.
“You will never discover how
good a leader you can be until you
are faced with a setback or failure.”
It is precisely during such moments
of unfamiliarity and disappointment
that we often prove our mettle and
take charge of the situation in a way
we perhaps did not realise we could.
Thus, Prof Hsieh called for a society
in which failures are accepted
and challenges are embraced as
opportunities for personal growth.
When asked by a member of
the audience about the importance
of charisma in cultivating strong
leadership, Prof Hsieh said that
it comes secondary to one’s own
passion for a particular cause. In
his case, he set up LinHart Group
because he was driven by a sense of
purpose to help people – to mentor
corporate executives and bring out
the best in them.
“If you have a burning
passion for the cause – be it
a commercial calling to help
[fledgling] enterprises or a social
undertaking to help hospital
patients get well – what you do
won’t feel like work. You will be on
a mission,” he explained. “You will
find positive energy in what you
do if it’s pleasurable, meaningful
and constructive in your own
estimation. And as long as you
enjoy what you do, [the effort] will
be sustainable.”
BY WANDA TAN
PROF HSIEH SPOKE ON 29 SEPTEMBER 2014.
NUS Faculty of Engineering
Gala Dinner 2015
Date: 16 Oct 2015, Friday
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Shangri-La Hotel
For enquiries, please contact Desmond at engkcpd@nus.edu.sg or 6516 7925
U @LIVE
MS INDRANEE THURAI RAJAH (LAW ’86)
ASPIRE-ING FOR A
BRIGHTER FUTURE
Ms Indranee Thurai Rajah, Senior Minister of State for Law and
Education, is unfazed about steering the course to overhaul
the landscape of Singapore’s post-secondary education.
WE NEED TO
PROMOTE LIFELONG
LEARNING SO
THAT PEOPLE
WILL UPGRADE
THEIR SKILLS – A
COMBINATION
OF THEORETICAL
KNOWLEDGE,
APPLIED OR HANDSON LEARNING,
AND EXPERIENCE.
ike it or not, there is a
general perception in
Singapore that junior
colleges (JCs) are superior
to polytechnics and Institutes of
Technical Education (ITEs) when it
comes to post-secondary education.
But as Ms Indranee Thurai Rajah
(Law ’86), Senior Minister of State
for Law and Education told a
packed audience, this situation
has gone on for far too long. And
those in attendance clearly agreed
with her, judging from their nods
of approval.
Having studied at Raffles
Institution and the National
University of Singapore, Ms Rajah
is well aware of the importance
of a good education in achieving
L
34
ALUMNUS
career success. But what exactly
constitutes a top-notch education?
On the whole, public- and privatesector companies consider academic
qualifications to be a fair and
objective barometer when assessing
the employability of potential
recruits. Unfortunately, this often
results in an over-reliance on grades
and paper qualifications when
employers make hiring decisions,
at the expense of other equallycritical criteria such as possessing
practical skills.
It is this imbalance that
prompted the Ministry of Education
(MOE) to establish the Applied Study
in Polytechnics and ITE Review
(ASPIRE) Committee in January
2014. “Today’s volatile, uncertain,
complex and ambiguous – or ‘VUCA’
– environment makes it difficult to
plan for the future. Thus, we need
people who can adapt to change
quickly,” said Ms Rajah, Chairperson
of the ASPIRE Committee. “We
need to promote lifelong learning
so that people will [continually]
upgrade their skills – not just
vocational skills, but a combination
of theoretical knowledge, applied or
hands-on learning, and experience.”
In August 2014, the Committee
released a report comprising a set
of recommendations to enhance
the academic and career prospects
of Polytechnic and ITE students.
Ms Rajah briefly summarised these
recommendations, which include
the provision of education and career
guidance (ECG) officers at secondary
and post-secondary schools, enhanced
internship and training programmes
with industry partners, more places
for students who wish to pursue
Higher National ITE Certificate
(Higher Nitec) courses, and more
modular post-diploma courses to
impart sector-specific skills.
Ms Rajah noted that the
Committee aims “to create multiple
pathways to success [for the purpose
of] valuing each person and each
job”. The current ‘one-size-fits-all’
approach places undue emphasis
on the more academic JC route. But
once the new recommendations –
which have been accepted by the
Singapore Government – are fully
implemented, students who go to
Polytechnics and ITEs will be able to
carve out equally-successful careers.
In the ensuing Q&A session,
Ms Rajah addressed doubts over the
merits of the ASPIRE Committee
report in a good-natured yet
thoughtful manner. U@live
moderator Mr Viswa Sadasivan
(Arts and Social Sciences ’83)
kicked things off by bringing up the
proverbial ‘elephant in the room’:
How effective are such reforms in
the face of deeply-entrenched
mindsets that have, for decades,
perpetuated Singapore’s stratified
education system?
“The Singapore Government should
be lauded for setting up the ASPIRE
Committee, whose recommendations
are long overdue,” he said. “But even if
different progression pathways exist,
the perception remains that some
pathways are put on a pedestal – JCs are
still preferred to polytechnics and ITEs,
and ‘hard’ science subjects are favoured
over ‘soft’ arts subjects. How can we
ensure a more level playing field?”
Ms Rajah – while acknowledging
the challenges associated with changing
fixed mindsets – expressed optimism
that the status quo can be broken.
“It won’t be easy and it will take time,
but I do believe that change is possible.
[The reform process] will hopefully
gather momentum once parents see
that their children can attain decent
jobs and progress in life [regardless
of their choice of post-secondary
education institution].
“Besides, the future is so
uncertain that we will, in all
likelihood, need to fill all kinds of
jobs. To do that, we need to cater to
all types of talents.” The alternative,
she warned, would be a monolithic
society characterised by conformity
and loss of individuality. “[Should
that happen,] we as a society would
be the poorer for it.”
According to Ms Rajah, efforts
to flatten the hierarchical structure
of Singapore’s education system are
already underway. As laid out in the
ASPIRE Committee report, different
institutions have been designated to
excel in different niches or subject
areas, such as Singapore Polytechnic
in food technology and Ngee Ann
Polytechnic in marine and offshore
engineering. And by making ECG
officers specialised professionals
in their own right, students will
receive valuable advice when
identifying their own strengths
and career ambitions, thus allaying
parents’ concerns about their
children’s future.
She also responded positively
when asked by a member of the
audience what could be done to
bridge the divide between JC and
Polytechnic students. She named
several platforms through which
both sets of students can interact with
each other, such as MOE’s annual
Pre-University Seminar, the Youth
Corps Singapore and community
organisations. “There is a tendency to
think negatively of the other party in
a segmented society,” she admitted.
“The only way to understand and
appreciate the value and strengths
of each individual is by having [both
sides] work closely together on the
same project.”
BY WANDA TAN
MS RAJAH SPOKE ON 29 OCTOBER 2014.
FILM FESTIVAL
7, 9 &10 February 2015
SHAW FOUNDATION ALUMNI HOUSE
FREE Admission
To reserve your seats please register online at
alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/iff2015
Jointly presented by:
NUS ALUMNI-STANDARD CHARTERED GLOBAL CONVERSATIONS
WHERE POLITICS
MEETS ECONOMICS
Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large Professor Tommy Koh (Law ’61)
gives his perspective on how things stand in the ASEAN bloc. BY WANDA TAN
T
HERE’S NO GETTING AROUND
THE FACT that we live in
an ever-shrinking world.
Globalisation has erased
geographical and cultural boundaries,
opening up our horizons in ways
previously unimaginable. Recognising
the need for young professionals to
widen their scope of discussions beyond
Singapore-centric issues, the NUS Office
of Alumni Relations has collaborated
with Standard Chartered Bank on
a new series of talks dubbed Global
Conversations. And who better to speak
36
ALUMNUS
at the inaugural session than Professor
Tommy Koh (Law ’61), Ambassador-at-Large
at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs?
Prof Koh’s glittering career in public
service spans almost 50 years, most
notably as former Ambassador to the
United Nations and the United States.
He has also enjoyed a long and fruitful
relationship with NUS ever since his
student days, and in 1971 – 1974 served as
Dean of the Faculty of Law. Today he holds
a number of positions at NUS, including
Special Adviser to the Institute of Policy
Studies, Chairman of the Governing
Board at the Centre for International Law,
and Rector of Tembusu College.
The first Global Conversations was held
on 14 November 2014 at The Westin Hotel.
Prof Koh’s talk, titled ‘Economic Integration
Versus Political Disputes in Asia: Which Side
Will Prevail?’, focussed on issues concerning
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), of which Singapore is one of 10
member-states.
Despite tepid recovery in the US and
Europe, things are generally looking up
for ASEAN on the economic front. “Most
countries are liberalising trade by reducing
both tariff and non-tariff barriers. They
are also pursuing greater regional and
inter-regional economic integration,” said
Prof Koh. At the regional level, ASEAN
has launched negotiations for a proposed
Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership with six countries – Australia,
China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand
– each of which already has existing free
trade agreements with ASEAN.
At the inter-regional level, there appears
to be a face-off between two trade pacts
currently under negotiation. The US-led
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which
excludes China, is viewed as a rival to
the China-backed Free Trade Area of the
Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), which was broached
by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
leaders. But as far as Singapore is concerned,
Prof Koh said, “We support both the
TPP and FTAAP, and believe them to be
complementary initiatives.”
However, the news is not as promising
on the political front. Worryingly, the
long-running tensions between China and
Japan have escalated in recent years due to
the territorial dispute over ownership of the
Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China
Sea. “Unlike in the West, the Cold War in
Asia [between Beijing and Tokyo] is not yet
over,” he explained. “There has not yet been
a historical reconciliation between [both
sides], and the ghosts of the past are still
present today.”
Prof Koh then raised what he termed the
“64-billion-dollar question”: Will the US, the
incumbent hegemon, and China, a rising
challenger, become cooperative partners in
the future or will the two powers go to war?
“Economic interdependence is [sadly] not a
guarantor of peace,” he warned. “At the end
of the day, politics trumps economics. We
must never underestimate man’s capacity for
irrational behaviour.”
He highlighted ASEAN’s role as a
convenor in bringing China and Japan as
well as China and the US to the negotiating
table, for example during the annual East
Asia Summit. “If [either] relationship
deteriorates, Asia will be badly affected...
Ultimately, we need figureheads on
both sides who have the political will to
settle disputes.”
Prof Koh’s speech was followed by a
Q&A session in which Mr Lim Cheng Teck,
Chief Executive Office for ASEAN markets at
Standard Chartered Bank, served as moderator.
Given the bank’s presence in all ASEAN
countries and the region’s high growth
prospects, Mr Lim was as eager as the rest
of the audience to learn whether “ASEAN’s
economic miracle” could possibly be derailed.
One participant brought up the rise of
the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in
ECONOMIC INTERDEPENDENCE IS [SADLY]
NOT A GUARANTOR OF PEACE. AT THE END
OF THE DAY, POLITICS TRUMPS ECONOMICS.
WE MUST NEVER UNDERESTIMATE MAN’S
CAPACITY FOR IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOUR.
the Arab region, and wondered what impact
such religious extremism might have
closer to home. Although quick to defer to
more qualified pundits on this complex
matter, Prof Koh answered in broad strokes,
“Within the ASEAN region, the Islamic
countries of Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia
are mostly made up of moderate Muslims
[as opposed to those, like ISIS members,
who reject the West and other Islamic
factions]… My hope is that, in the struggle
for the ‘soul of Islam’, moderates will win.”
Prof Koh was also queried about
China’s seeming culpability in fomenting
border conflicts with ASEAN countries like
the Philippines and Vietnam over parts
of the South China Sea. “It is wrong to
villainise China and blame it as the root
of all troubles,” he said adamantly. “China
wants a prosperous country and a strong
military, which is understandable after
years of being bullied by other countries
[such as England and Japan] in the past.”
But he was apprehensive about what could
happen if China were to use its clout in an
undesirable manner.
“ASEAN’s vision is that our region
should be open to all powers big and small.
We welcome all nations that have good
intentions, but we never want to be under
any country’s sphere of influence, be it
China or the US.”
CANADIAN
FILM FESTIVAL 2015
16 - 18 March 2015
SHAW FOUNDATION ALUMNI HOUSE
FREE ADMISSION
To reserve your seats please register online at
alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/cff2015
*Film ratings to be advised on official website.
16
March
8pm
18
March
8pm
17
March
8pm
(French with English Subtitles)
Jointly presented by:
High Commission of Canada
ALUMNI HAPPENINGS GIVING
CLASS GIVING
WELL-RECEIVED
THE LEGACY OF AN
UNCOMMON EDUCATION
F
C
lass gifts have been
a major tradition
of almost every
educational institution,
and NUS is no
exception. There are
many causes in NUS which need
support, and one such worthy cause
is helping future colleagues with
the cost of education.
An alumnus from the MBBS
Class of 1981 remembers the strong
bonds the class forged. “We have a
special friendship as we have been
through much together. Bonding
starts from Day One at Medical
School. I remember the fights and
the quarrels but also the helping of
one another in all matters big and
small. We had a class gathering
where almost the whole class came
together and many from various
parts of the world came back to
meet up and catch up with one
another,” shares Dr Francis Seow
(Medicine ’81).
In 2010, the MBBS Class of
1981 felt it was time to make a
difference, and active fund-raising
for a Bursary commenced, with the
response still going strong today.
Currently, the School administers
140 bursaries annually to students
from families with a certain per
capita income a month, but it is
estimated that up to 300 students
are in financial need.
Professor John Wong
(Medicine ’81) says, “We are who we
are because of NUS. NUS allowed
us to become doctors and have the
careers we’ve enjoyed for more than
30 years. No Government subsidy
will ever cover the whole cost of a
Medical education. If we don’t help,
who will?”
Other class bursaries
established at the Yong Loo Lin
School of Medicine (YLLSoM)
include the NUS Medical
Society – Christine Chong Hui Xian
Bursary (Class of 2012) and the
Balaji Sadasivan Fund for Medical
Undergraduates (Class of 1979).
38
ALUMNUS
Prof John Wong (Medicine ‘81), Chief Executive, National University Health System, championed the
MBBS Class of 1981 Bursary.
WE ARE WHO WE
ARE BECAUSE
OF NUS. NO
GOVERNMENT
SUBSIDY WILL
EVER COVER THE
WHOLE COST
OF A MEDICAL
EDUCATION. IF
WE DON’T HELP,
WHO WILL?
PROFESSOR JOHN WONG
Both were initiated by alumni who
wanted to honour the memory of a
classmate who had passed on.
For the latter, the class believed
Dr Sadasivan would have supported
the idea of funds channelled to
help financially-needy students
rather than spent on an obituary
in the newspapers. Many saw this
as an opportunity to help future
doctors and gave generously. With
the unexpectedly positive response,
the donated amount exceeded
target and the Balaji Sadasivan Fund
was eventually transformed into
an endowment.
Professor Yeoh Khay Guan,
the current Dean of YLLSoM,
expresses great confidence in the
School’s alumni. He says, “Class
bursaries are a very meaningful
way of creating a lasting memory
of what you and your classmates
stand for, and have come together
to do. It creates a long-term legacy,
which will last forever and each
year gives young students a helping
hand. Each of us is successful today
because an opportunity was given
to us. Now that we are in a position
to do so, let us give back and help a
student in need.”
or Mr Darren Tan Kim Poh
(Business ’97), going to
school was not just about
receiving an academic
education. During the
years he attended the
Delta Circus Primary
School (DCPS), Raffles Institution
(RI), Saint Andrew’s Junior
College (SAJC), and the National
University of Singapore (NUS), he
was on a heart-warming journey of
extraordinary learning, characterbuilding, and soul-nurturing.
To reciprocate, he made a
bequest – naming all his almamaters (except DCPS, which
regrettably, has been defunct since
1992) beneficiaries of his CPF,
insurance payouts and cash.
Legacy giving is a good way
of planning one’s estate so as to
make an impact that can be felt for
generations. It allows donors such
as Mr Tan to support causes close
to their hearts. Each bequest, large
or small, has its own story, and
Mr Tan’s story is a simple one of
appreciation and gratitude.
“I have fond memories of my
years spent at school. My alma
maters have all been instrumental
in moulding my heart and soul
beyond the academic aspects.
Therefore, as a gesture of gratitude,
I am pleased to make a legacy gift to
NUS,” says Mr Tan, who grew up in
a humble family.
Mr Tan’s father was an odd-job
labourer while his mother was a
housewife. The family struggled
to make ends meet during his
and his sister’s schooling years.
Bursaries he received from
primary to tertiary levels took him
through the difficult times. He
now empathises with less well-off
students encountering similar
challenges and is particularly
enthusiastic about giving
towards bursaries.
“I can relate to the struggles
that some bursary recipients
may experience. Just like the
metamorphosis of a caterpillar
– if anyone tries to cut open the
cocoon with the intent of freeing
the struggling butterfly, it will
result in underdeveloped wings
that will never fly. The struggle
to emerge makes the butterfly
strong. The butterfly then rests for
a few hours before soaring with
the fully-developed wings. So, my
advice to them is to look at the
positive side of the struggles they
may encounter and appreciate how
adversity makes them stronger,”
Mr Tan advises.
The Business Administration
alumnus believes very much in the
importance of education and its
holistic influence on one’s values
and character.
To Mr Tan, well-known
community leader and
businessman Mr Lee Kong Chian
is the paragon of philanthropy, and
like him, Mr Tan is mindful of one’s
duty in giving back to society. He
hopes to encourage fellow alumni
to give back or even consider
making bequests as well.
“Yesterday is the past.
Tomorrow is the future. Today is
a gift. That’s why it is called the
present. The future – generations of
NUS students – cannot change their
past, but your present can make a
difference to their future,” he adds.
I CAN RELATE TO THE
STRUGGLES THAT SOME
BURSARY RECIPIENTS
MAY EXPERIENCE. MY
ADVICE IS TO LOOK
AT THE POSITIVE SIDE
OF THE STRUGGLES
AND APPRECIATE HOW
ADVERSITY MAKES
THEM STRONGER.
MR DARREN TAN KIM POH
JAN–MAR 2015
39
ALUMNI HAPPENINGS EVENTS
NUSS FUNDRAISING
CONCERT AND GALA
DINNER TO CELEBRATE
60TH ANNIVERSARY
The National University of Singapore
Society (NUSS) welcomed Prime
Minister (PM) Mr Lee Hsien Loong
on 3 October 2014 at the NUSS
60th Anniversary Lecture. Titled
‘Singapore in Transition – the Next
Phase’, PM Lee addressed the issues
that framed the future for Singapore
and urged Singaporeans not to
become too self-centred or disregard
events that are taking place in
other countries.
NUSS organised its 60th
Anniversary Fundraising Concert on
24 October 2014 to benefit the NUS
Alumni Bursary Fund as well. The ‘Old
Wine, New Spirits’ themed-concert
raised S$404,618 through generous
donations from sponsors and donors.
Well-known personalities such as
Dawn Yip, Rahimah Rahim,
Felinda Wong and Noor Quek also
performed at the concert to benefit
needy individuals.
The year-long 60th Anniversary
celebrations culminated in an elegant
Gala Dinner at the Suntec Singapore
Convention & Exhibition Centre
on 11 November 2014. This milestone
anniversary year saw NUSS raising
more than S$800,000 for the
NUS Alumni Bursary Fund.
Honouring the Past
and the Future:
ANN WEE NUS SOCIAL
WORK ALUMNI AWARD
NUS BUSINESS SCHOOL EMINENT
BUSINESS ALUMNI AWARDS 2014
Since its inception in October 2012, the University Scholars
Programme (USP) Alum-Student Career Mentorship
Programme has provided a platform for USP alumni to
share their industry knowledge and network with students,
and maintain a connection with the USP community. The
mentorship also offers NUS students real-world exposure
and prepares them for their transition from university to the
workforce. On 25 October this year, over 45 USP alumni and
students participated in the Academic Year 2014/2015
run of the programme, held at Cinnamon College of NUS
University Town.
Recipients of the NUS Business School Eminent Business Alumni Awards 2014 with
Guest-of-Honour Mr Lim Hng Kiang, Minister for Trade and Industry (seated, fifth from
left) and the Awards Committee.
Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong delivering the NUSS 60th
Anniversary Lecture.
FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL
SCIENCES CELEBRATES 85 YEARS
ALUMNUS
This year’s 85th Anniversary celebrations by the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences (FASS) culminated in a dinner event for 300 guests at the NUS Society
Guild Hall on 22 November. Graced by Guest-of-Honour, Mr Wong Ngit Liong
(Engineering ’65), Chairman of the NUS Board of Trustees, the event featured
the theme of ‘An Evening of Asian Nostalgia’, with guests dressed in their
best ‘ethnic chic’. FASS Dean Professor Brenda Yeoh spoke on the academic
milestones in FASS’ journey.
A ‘silent auction’ of artworks contributed by faculty, alumni, students
and friends during the evening raised over S$42,000 for the FASS Student
Leadership Award (FSLA) – one of the two awards launched during the event.
The event also coincided with both alumni Emeritus Professor Edwin Thumboo
(Arts ’56) and Mrs Tan Suan Imm (Arts ’62) celebrating their birthdays on the
day itself.
For USP alumni who are interested in joining this programme,
please contact Jo at caijosephine@nus.edu.sg.
SPORTS CLUB ALUMNI COMMEMORATES
THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NUS
SPORTS AWARDS CEREMONY
For a list of award recipients, visit: https://bizalum.nus.edu/
proud-to-be-bizalum/174-eminent-alumni-awards#pastrecipients
INTRODUCING THE
USP ALUMNI SOCIETY
The birthday celebrants, together with Mrs Ann Wee (centre), Dean Prof Brenda Yeoh, former deans and
NUS senior management, cutting a birthday cake to commemorate the happy occasion.
40
A total of 10 outstanding Business School alumni were honoured
at the biennial NUS Business School Eminent Business Alumni
Awards 2014 on 4 November at the Mandarin Orchard Singapore.
The awards were presented by Guest-of-Honour, Mr Lim Hng
Kiang, Minister for Trade and Industry, together with
Mr Peter Seah (Business ’68), Awards Committee Chairman
and Professor Bernard Yeung, Dean of NUS Business School.
Scholars Programme
Alumni Network Get Together:
The Ann Wee NUS Social Work Alumni Award
was launched at the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences 85th Anniversary Dinner by Professor
Tan Eng Chye (Science ’85), NUS Provost and
Deputy President (Academic Affairs). Prof Tan
said, “This award is a reminder that while we
strive for world-class standards in research
and innovation, ultimately the work we do
impacts community and society. I hope that
our alumni, not just those from Social Work,
will be inspired by the selfless contributions
from Mrs Wee and the social workers as
symbolised in this award.” The idea of setting
up the award and naming it after Mrs Ann Wee
was proposed by several social work alumni
and friends.
Mrs Ann Wee with Mr Gerard Ee.
UNIVERSITY SCHOLARS
PROGRAMME ALUMSTUDENT CAREER
MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME
The annual Scholars Programme Alumni Network (SPAN) GetTogether organised by the University Scholars Programme (USP)
was held at Marriott Singapore on 14 November this year, with
about 100 USP alumni, students, faculty and staff turning up.
Introducing the newly-established USP Alumni Society, the
Acting President of the society’s interim executive committee,
Mr Jamie Thong Yu Jin (Arts and Social Sciences ’08), shared
with all the purpose of the Alumni Society as a platform for USP
alumni to connect with peers, undergraduates, faculty and staff,
and to enable greater collaboration in furthering meaningful
causes and initiatives. The get-together concluded with great
anticipation for the fledgling Alumni Society as USP enters its
15th year in 2015.
On 7 November this year, the Sports Club Alumni celebrated
the 10th anniversary of the NUS Sports Awards Ceremony.
Presented annually to deserving students who have attained
outstanding sporting achievements and contributed
significantly towards NUS sports, the event was graced by
past NUS staff, awards recipients, Sports Club alumni and
prominent alumni athletes.
Mr Ahmad Tashrif (Engineering ’12), Chairperson, NUS Sports
Club Alumni
RAFFLES HALL ALUMNI AND EXTERNAL
AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
On 20 September 2014, Raffles Hall Alumni and External
Affairs Committee organised the annual ‘Past Vs Present’
event and more than 60 alumni and current residents
participated in tennis, volleyball and soccer.
Mr Tommy Toh (Science ’12) won the winner’s plaque
and the Most Valuable Player (Past Team) award while
Mr Tang Jian Hong, Nico (Year 3 Engineering student) won
the Most Valuable Player award for the Present team.
JAN–MAR 2015
41
ALUMNI HAPPENINGS OVERSEAS CHAPTERS
ALUMNI HAPPENINGS EVENTS
Honouring the best at the
Engineering Alumni Gala Dinner
Every year the Faculty of Engineering honours
outstanding alumni at the Distinguished Engineering
Alumni Award (DEAA). This year on 10 October, the
DEAA 2014 was conferred upon Mr Tang Kin Fei
(Engineering ’74) and Mr Quek Gim Pew (Engineering
’81) at the annual Engineering Alumni Gala Dinner.
Mr Tang, from Mechanical Engineering, is cited
for spearheading Sembcorp’s growth, turning the
onshore plant engineering business into a profitable
one within five years.
As Chief Executive Officer of DSO National
Laboratories, Mr Quek Gim Pew, from Electrical
Engineering, has led the organisation into a premier
R&D institution with more than 1,300 research
scientists and engineers – developing Singapore’s
defence capability in the realms of air, land, sea and
cyberspace.
NUS Dean of Engineering Professor Chua Kee Chaing
(Engineering ’87), commended Mr Tang and Mr Quek
as inspirational examples to all. “We hope the
Engineering community imbued with similar passion,
will continue to grow from strength to strength,”
he said.
300 participants attended the event at the
NUS Society Kent Ridge Guild House.
The NUS Toronto Overseas Chapter hosted its second event on
27 September this year. Alumni gathered to enjoy a sumptuous dinner
and strengthened friendships over karaoke.
Ms Kyra Li (Science and Business ’11)
CHENNAI
REUNION DINNER
DEAA winners, Mr Tang Kin Fei (Engineering ’74) (2nd from left); and Mr Quek Gim Pew (Engineering ’81);
(2nd from right) with NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan (Medicine ’83) (centre), NUS Engineering
Dean Prof Chua Kee Chaing (Engineering ’87) (far left); and Vice Dean (External Relations) Prof Victor Shim
(Engineering ’82) (far right).
91 MEDICAL ALUMNI
ASSOCIATION
REUNION IN IPOH
The Medical Alumni Association’s 91st anniversary reunion took place in Ipoh.
ALUMNUS
Auckland Overseas
Chapter’s inaugural seminar
From left: Alumni Mr Bobby Yang (Engineering’ 79), Mr Tony Chiam
(Engineering ’82), Mr Ee Chiong Boon (Arts & Social Sciences ’82) and
Mr Gan Eng Khoon (Engineering ’91), Deputy Director, Office of Admissions.
ST
42
TORONTO OVERSEAS CHAPTER
ALUMNI DINNER
The Medical Alumni Association’s (MAA)
91st anniversary reunion was held from
21 to 23 November 2014 at Hotel Casuarina @ Meru,
Ipoh. More than 50 Alumni Association members
from Singapore attended the reunion hosted by
their counterparts from the Ipoh Alumni Association
Northern Branch, led by Dato Dr Y C Lee
(Medicine ’67) and his organising committee.
The reunion began with an informal gathering
on the first evening, in which local cuisines and
hawkers’ delights were served. There were also ‘live’
performances by alumni.
On 22 November, alumni gathered at the
Meru Golf Resort in the early morning for a Golf
Tournament. A city tour was organised for those
not playing golf. In the afternoon, Dr Lee Mun Wai,
a retinal surgeon trained at the Singapore National
Eye Centre and the Lions Eye Institute in Western
Australia, spoke on ‘The Changing Landscape of
Retina Care’.
Highlights of the ‘formal dinner’ included a
posthumous Honorary Membership Award to the
late Professor Arthur Lim (Medicine ’56) and the
appointment of the Association’s 91st President
Dato Dr Y C Lee. The Sultan of Perak, the Royal
Highnesses Duli Yang Maha Mulia, Paduka Seri
Sultan Perak Darul Ridzuan, Sultan Nazrin Muizzudin
Shah and his consort Duli Yang Maha Mulia, Raja
Permaisuri Perak Darul Ridzuan, Tuanku Zara Salim
graced the occasion, attended by 400 Alumni
Association members and guests.
Dr J Y Lim (Medicine ’09)
The NUS Office of Alumni Relations organised an alumni
reunion for NUS alumni in Chennai at The Westin Evolve
Ballroom in Chennai Tamil Nadu, India, on 6 September
this year. Alumni from Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad
together with some Chennai-based alumni working in
Singapore attended the event.
Mrs L V Jayashree (Arts and Social Sciences ’06)
The NUS Auckland Overseas Chapter held a seminar
on 30 August this year to reach out to fellow alumni
in New Zealand.
Mr Ee Chiong Boon (Arts and Social Sciences ’82)
IN MEMORIAM
ALUMNI HAPPENINGS OVERSEAS CHAPTERS
LONDON OVERSEAS CHAPTER’S
15TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER
PROFESSOR
ARTHUR LIM SIEW MING
The NUS London Overseas Chapter celebrated its 15th year of establishment on
10 October 2014. Director of the NUS Office of Alumni Relations, Associate Professor
Victor R Savage (Arts and Social Sciences ’72), and the new High Commissioner
to the United Kingdom, Her Excellency Ms Foo Chi Hsia (Law ’94) graced the
event. Alumni travelled to London to attend the annual dinner held at the Royal
China Restaurant.
Dr Ling Zhi Heng (Medicine ’08), General Secretary, NUS London Overseas Chapter
(MEDICINE ’56)
1934 - 2014
PRESIDENT, ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
1995 - 96, 1998 - 99, 2001 - 02, 2004 - 05, 2007 - 08, 2010 - 11, 2013 - 14
XIAMEN OVERSEAS CHAPTER’S FIRST ANNIVERSARY
Heritage Walking Tour
of Potong Pasir
The NUS Xiamen Overseas Chapter celebrated its first anniversary on
14 September this year. Director of the NUS Office of Alumni Relations,
Associate Professor Victor R Savage (Arts and Social Sciences ’72), graced the
event, together with Ms Phua Chen Yen, Vice-Consul (Consular & Administration)
to Xiamen and 55 NUS Xiamen alumni and their family members.
A birthday cake was cut to commemorate the first anniversary and Mr Zhang Ke
(Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music ’13), performed a violin solo piece.
Dr Wang Liangliang (Design and Environment ’14)
NUS Senior Alumni took part in a heritage walking
tour of Potong Pasir on 23 October this year
conducted by alumnus Ms Josephine Chia (Arts
and Social Sciences ’78). Alumni were taken
back to the days when Potong Pasir was still a
kampong, as Ms Chia recounted her childhood
experiences through vivid stories of kampong life.
Ms Josephine Chia (Arts and Social Sciences ’78)
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 Ms Josephine Chow at
josephine@nus.edu.sg or 6516 6950.
29 january 2015
(PG)
Chill
Out!
AFTER OBTAINING HIS MBBS from the
then University of Malaya in 1956,
Professor Arthur Lim specialised
in ophthalmology and was the
first Singaporean to be conferred
Fellowship of the Royal College of
Surgeons of London in 1962. He
was elected President of the Singapore Medical
Association from 1968 to 1970.
In 1965, he started a private group
ophthalmology practice named Eye Clinic
Singapura. Its success became a platform from
which, two decades later, he helped establish
the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC);
Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI); and
the Department of Ophthalmology at the
National University Hospital (NUH) and the
National University of Singapore (NUS). He was
appointed Professor and was acknowledged
by his peers as the ‘father’ of this specialty in
the region, and a mentor and icon to many eye
surgeons worldwide. He was conferred a rare
honorary MD by the National
University of Singapore in 1999.
Prof Lim had published
more than 350 scientific papers
and written 24 books in the past
40 years. He had also delivered
19 named lectures and had
been on the editorial board of
13 international journals. He
also led volunteer missions in
South Asia and China to help
patients with vision problems
to regain their sight and to
provide training to their local
professionals. In recognition of
his contribution in setting up
training centres in China, he
was given the Friendship Award
THE MEMBERS
OF THE ALUMNI
ASSOCIATION
HAVE LOST A
COMMITTED
PRESIDENT, A
GREAT LEADER, A
TOP SPOKESMAN,
A GENEROUS
SUPPORTER AND
A DEAR FRIEND.
DR DOMINIC W H LEUNG
in 1996 by the China government, after the
Public Service Star and Public Service Star Bar
awarded by the Singapore government in 1995.
Despite his busy work schedule, Prof Lim
was also involved in charity and service
organisations. He was especially passionate
with alumni linked activities of his alma
mater – under his Chairmanship in 2002, the
NUS Universities’ Endowment Fund has built
up more than a hundred million dollars in
reserve. He was recognised with the Ernest
T Stewart Award for Alumni Volunteer
Involvement in 1999, an Outstanding Service
Award at the NUS University Awards in 2002,
and a Distinguished Alumni Service Award
in 2005.
He had always been an active member of
the Alumni Association and donated towards
the renovation costs when the Alumni
Medical Centre moved across the College
Road premises in 1989. In appreciation, the
auditorium on the second level was named
after him.
As the longest-serving President of the
Alumni Association from 1995 till 2014 for
seven terms, Prof Lim was responsible for
more effective communications between the
Association and the Singapore Government,
especially the health authorities.
Prof Lim excelled as a doctor, an author,
a teacher, an artist, a sportsman and a
philanthropist. The members of the Alumni
Association have lost a committed president,
a great leader, a top spokesman, a generous
supporter and a dear friend.
BY DR DOMINIC W H LEUNG (MEDICINE ’75)
CHAIRMAN (2000)
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION SOUTHERN BRANCH
JAN–MAR 2015
45
PRIVILEGES ON CAMPUS
Your complimentary AlumNUS Card entitles you
to a host of benefits and privileges!
Get your complimentary AlumNUS Card at
alumnet.nus.edu.sg/alumnuscard
Shaw Foundation Alumni House Facilities
15% discount off venue rates for event bookings.
Venue booking: 6516 7700.
E: sfahvenues@nus.edu.sg
PRIVILEGES & OFFERS
BEAUTY & WELLNESS
Office of Alumni Relations
Office of Campus Amenities
Picasso Hair Studio
Crème Simon
- 20% discount off à la carte services.
- Receive a complimentary Redken Cocktail Hair Treatment
when you spend S$200 and above in a single receipt.
W: www.picassohairstudio.com.sg
15% discount for all
online purchases.
W: www.creme-simon.com
The NUS Alumni Loyalty Grant for the NUS MBA
S$5,000 is awarded to all NUS Alumni.
W: http://mba.nus.edu/apply
Yuxiangyan
NUS Arts Festival
10% discount for all categories of NUS Arts
Festival 2015 SISTIC-ticketed shows.
W: www.nusartfestival.com
NUS Multi-Purpose Co-operative
5% discount on books, stationeries,
PC accessories and NUS logo items.
W: www.coop.nus.edu.sg
Liang Seng Sports
10% discount on regular-priced items.
W: www.LiangSeng.com
Late Plate
15% discount off on à la carte
food items and drinks.
W: www.lateplate.sg
Food Junction
10% discount off total bill.
Valid for outlet at Yusof Ishak
House only.
NUS Museum
- 20% discount for all NUS Museum’s publications and catalogues.
- S$20 for NUS Museum guided tour of 20 persons maximum
per group (usual price: S$50).
W: www.nus.edu.sg/museum
Bookhaven
5% discount on books, stationeries,
PC accessories and NUS logo items.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/
bookhavenUtown
The University Club
25% discount off à la carte items
for dine-in only.
T: 6779 8919
W: www.theuniversityclub.sg
30% discount for Fresh Cooked Bird’s Nest with
free airtight ceramic bowl, spoon, warmer case
with delivery and Korean Collagen Drink.
W: www.yuxiangyan.com
FOOD & BEVERAGE
NUSS Bukit Timah Guild House
One free main course for every three paid
main courses from the à la carte menu.
W: www.nuss.org.sg
Southbridge
15% discount off total food bill.
W: www.southbridge.sg
TRAVEL & LEISURE
Get Set Go
10% discount off on order value.
W: www.getsetgo.sg
LIFESTYLE & RETAIL
Top 10 Shades
15% discount off on order value
(excluding shipping).
W: www.top10shades.sg
Epoch Lighting
10% discount off
lighting products.
W: www.unirange.com
Subway Singapore
20% discount off total bill.
Valid at Subway Cart at E4 Engineering,
Subway Cart at LT25 Science, Subway
at Yusof Ishak House and Subway at
University Town only.
Enjoy NUS rates at salon, canteens, food courts and major Food & Beverage
outlets on University Town, Kent Ridge and Bukit Timah campus.
Participating partners include Alcove, Foodclique, Good News Café,
Hair Infinity, Just Acia, Koufu, McDonald’s, Platypus Food Bar, Starbucks, Spinelli,
Sapore Italiano, Sarpino’s Express, Wendy’s and others.
TIARA
10% discount off regular
priced items only.
W: www.tiara.com.sg
Terms & 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. Visit www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet for the latest privileges
and promotions.
LAST WORD
I REMEMBER
WHEN
FIVE GRADUATES of the Faculty of Medicine and their memories.
“HAVING TO PURCHASE A SET
OF REAL HUMAN SKELETON
FOR S$250 FROM A SENIOR,
AND KEEPING IT IN MY ROOM
AT KING EDWARD VII HALL.”
Dr Pradit Yeoh (Medicine ’78),
Consultant, Drs Trythall,
Hoy, Davies
“THE FIRST TIME
I TOLD SOMEONE
THAT THEIR LOVED
ONE WAS ON THE
VERGE OF DEATH.”
15 JAN THU
Thirsty Thursdays
6.30pm, D’Bell
Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/TTjan15
Enquiries: Mr Kyaw Win Shwe at kyawwinshwe@nus.edu.sg
28 JAN WED
U@live featuring
Tan Sri Dr M Jegathesan
“Hosting the APDSA (Asia Pacific
Dental Students’ Association)
Congress at the Orchard Mandarin
Hotel in 1984... I worked through
each night producing a daily
newsletter. Those were precomputer days and all I was
equipped with was a typewriter,
pens and markers, a pair of
scissors, a photocopying machine
and a huge stack of paper.
Besides being a reporter, layout
designer and photocopy girl,
I also delivered the newsletters,
sliding them under the doors of
delegates’ hotel rooms in the wee
hours of the morning.”
7.30pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Register at www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet
Enquiries: Ms Josephine Chow at josephine@nus.edu.sg
29 JAN THU
Movies On The House
The Book Thief (PG)
Dr Yeo Siang Khin (Dentistry ’89)
Dr Wei Ker-Chiah (Medicine ’98), Consultant/Chief of Department of Community
Psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health
ALUMNUS
JANUARY
Dr Sean Ong (Medicine ’14),
House Officer,
Tan Tock Seng Hospital,
“The nights spent rehearsing for our plays in the annual Medical Society
concert… a time of great fun and bonding through the tiring rehearsals,
prop-making sessions, and late suppers we had together.”
48
JANUARY TO MARCH 2015
All information is correct at time of print and is subject to change without prior notice.
Dr Jazlan Joosoph (Medicine ’97), Specialist in
Obstetrics and Gynaecology & Consultant,
Raffles Medical
Dates to
REMEMBER
IMAGES: SHUTTERSTOCK
“From the first day, we were
‘thrown’ into the anatomy lab
and [had to start] cutting and
dissecting cadavers. That was
an eye-opening experience
although we could hardly open
our eyes due to the stinging
effects of the strong formalin.”
ALUMNI
EVENTS
7.30pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Register at www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet
Enquiries: Ms Josephine Chow at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/
event/MMjan15
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.
FEBRUARY
7, 9 & 10 FEB SAT, MON & TUE
Indian Film Festival
8pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/iff2015
Enquiries: Ms Josephine Chow at josephine@nus.edu.sg
25 FEB WED
U@live featuring
Mr Jack Sim
7.30pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Register at www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet
Enquiries: Ms Josephine Chow at josephine@nus.edu.sg
MARCH
16 - 18 MAR MON - WED
Canadian Film Festival
8pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/cff2015
Enquiries: Mr Kyaw Win Shwe at kyawwinshwe@nus.edu.sg
25 MAR WED
U@live featuring
Ms Rani Singam
7.30pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Register at www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet
Enquiries: Ms Josephine Chow at josephine@nus.edu.sg
26 MAR THU
Thirsty Thursdays
6.30pm, Molly Roffey’s Irish Pub – Dorsett
Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/event/TTmar15
Enquiries: Mr Kyaw Win Shwe at kyawwinshwe@nus.edu.sg
JAN–MAR 2015
49
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.
se your AlumNUS Card.
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