Science Matters - National University of · PDF fileScience Matters defining the shape of things to come Report Annual 12 • 13 Photo by Kuang Jianhong, DemoLab. ... • Topological

Science Mattersdefining the shape of things to come

Science Mattersdefining the shape of things to come

ReportAnnual

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to provide quality education, foster the spirit of enterprise and conduct leading edge research to advance knowledge in Science and Technology for the benefit of Singapore and the global community

to be among the world’s best in science education and research

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44 Research Breakthroughs by Department

76 Outreach Schools

Student Life

Alumni

Donors

Community Service by Students

96 Awards & Achievements National Level

University Level

Faculty Level

02 Academic Year in Review Dean’s Message

04 Faculty of Science Leadership Team The Deanery

Heads of Department

Directors

08 New Appointments Faculty

10 Round-Up Academic Year 2012 / 2013

18 Feature Interview

Commencement Class of 2013

23 Education Undergraduate Highlights

Postgraduate Highlights

Student Achievements

109 Facts and Figures Global Standing

Undergraduate Enrolment

Postgraduate Enrolment

Overseas Programme

Research Performance

Conference & Symposiums

Staff Population Profile

Budget

Project Team

AdvisorLead

CoordinatorDesigner

Photographer

Priscilla SohK DassSarah LokeAngela LimJames Wee

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Academicyear in review Dean’s Message

We are grateful for the support from alumni and well-wishers. In Academic Year 2012/2013, we received more

than $12 million for the museum project, professorships, scholarships, bursaries, book prizes

and financial emergency funds

for the benefit of Science students.

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I am pleased to report another successful year for the Faculty. We continue to produce graduates to drive Singapore’s economy, and engage in leading edge research with a spirit of enterprise.

Our reputation for excellence continues. Assoc Prof Chen Wei (Chemistry & Physics) won the national 2012 Young Scientist Award and Prof Barbaros Özyilmaz (Physics) won the NUS 2013 Young Researcher Award.

Esteemed AwardsOn the international front, Prof Michael Sheetz (Director Mechanobiology Institute, and Distinguished Professor, Department of Biological Sciences) won the 2012 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, presented in September 2012. The Department of Mathematics is honored to have four professors each invited to present a 45-minute lecture at the prestigious International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2014 to be held in Seoul, South Korea; they are Profs Bao Weizhu, Gan Wee Teck, Shen Weixiao and Yu-Shih Hsien. Prof Shen Zuowei was also invited to present a one-hour lecture at the 8th International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM), which will be held in Beijing, China in 2015.

Prof Loh Kian Ping (Chemistry) won the 2013 ACS Nano Lectureship Award; the prestigious award honours three scientists from around the world who have

made significant contributions to nanoscience and nanotechnology, with one recipient each from the Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa and Asia/Pacific. Prof Loh Wei Liem (Statistics and Applied Probability) won the 2013 Outstanding Statistical Application (OSA) Award for his research paper "Assessment of Synchrony in Multiple Neural Spike Trains Using Loglinear Point Process Models" based on a collaborative paper published by the Annals of Applied Statistics (2011). The OSA award was presented at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Montreal, Canada in August 2013.

Enrichment ProgrammesAmong the new programmes launched in the past year include the Concurrent Degree Programmes (CDP) in B.Sc. (Hons) in Chemistry/Life Sciences and M.Sc. in Forensic Science/Analytical Toxicology between NUS Faculty of Science and King’s College London (KCL), School of Biomedical Sciences. The two CDPs integrate the NUS B.Sc. (Hons) in either Chemistry or Life Sciences with a one-year KCL Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Forensic Science or Analytical Toxicology.

Together with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, we have also launched a joint Minor in Aquatic Ecology. With increasing governmental, private, and societal interest in aquatic sciences, and the growing demand for manpower with experience in both freshwater

and/or marine ecology, such a minor is expected to have wide appeal.

The Department of Chemistry has revamped its curriculum and introduced three new specialisations under the Chemistry major, namely Materials Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, and Environment & Energy, with effect from Semester 1 Academic Year 2013/2014. These specialisations were formulated based on current trends in some of the key universities both in the USA and Europe, as well as developments in the local research and industry landscape.

Munificent SupportWe are grateful for the support from alumni and well-wishers. In Academic Year 2012/2013, we received more than $12 million for the museum project, professorships, scholarships, bursaries, book prizes and financial emergency funds for the benefit of Science students. We continue to welcome donations from supporters, and thank all donors for their contributions.

I trust that you will find this Report an interesting read, and welcome your feedback.

Professor Andrew WeeDean, Faculty of Science

Faculty of Scienceleadership team

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Deanery

Assoc Prof Eric Chan Vice-Dean Undergraduate Programmes

Prof Andrew Wee Dean

Assoc Prof Sow Chorng Haur Vice-Dean Research

Seated from left to right:

Prof Chan Hock Peng Vice-Dean Graduate Programmes

Standing from left to right:

Prof Wong Sek Man Vice-Dean Student Life

Prof Goh Say Song Vice-Dean Outreach & Admissions

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From left:

Assoc Prof Peter Ho Asst Dean Research & Graduate Programmes

Assoc Prof Christina Chai Asst Dean Research & Graduate Programmes

From left:

Assoc Prof Ryan Bettens Asst Dean Student Life

Assoc Prof Yap von Bing Asst Dean Outreach & Admissions

From left:

Dr Ng Kah Loon Asst Dean Undergraduate Programmes

Assoc Prof Chua Tin Chiu Assoc Dean Undergraduate Programmes

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Faculty of Scienceleadership team Heads of Department

Prof Feng Yuan Ping Head Department of Physics

Prof Loh Wei Liem Acting Head Department of Statistics & Applied Probability

Prof Paul Matsudaira Head Department of Biological Sciences

Assoc Prof Chui Wai Keung Head Department of Pharmacy

Prof Loh Kian Ping Head Department of Chemistry

Prof Shen Zuowei Head Department of Mathematics

From left:

From left:

Dr Adrian Michael Lee Director Special Programme in Science

Dr Ng Kah Loon Director IT Unit

Assoc Prof Jeroen Anton van Kan FoS Co-ordinator Engineering Science Programme

Dr David Bickford Director ANU-NUS Joint MSc in Science Communication

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Faculty of Scienceleadership team Directors

From left:

Prof Steven Kou Director Centre for Quantitative Finance

Prof Zhou Weibiao Director Food Science & Technology Programme

Assoc Prof Wong Yan Loi Director Double Degree & Internship Programmes

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Newappointments Faculty

New Faculty (1 August 2012 to 31 July 2013)

01 Steven KouPhD (Columbia University, USA)Professor, Mathematics

Research Areas:• Quantitative Finance/ Financial Mathematics• Applied Probability

02 Monteiro, Antonia FraserPhD (Edinburgh University, UK)Associate Professor, Biological Sciences

Research Areas:• Evolution, Behavior, and Developmental Biology

03 viasnoff, virgile Nicolas RobertPhD (Ecole Superieure de Physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris)Associate Professor, Biological Sciences

Research Areas:• Study of cell-cell adhesion with high optical resolution• Developing micro-textured surfaces with differential protein coating for cell study.• Controlled development of primary cell lines

04 Watts, Simon FrancisPhD (Imperial College, UK)Associate Professor, Chemistry

Research Areas:• Biogeochemistry of Sulfur: effects of air quality on climate, health and artefacts

05 Martin, JensPhD (Universität Tübingen, Germany)Associate Professor, Physics

Research Areas:• Graphene and other 2DES• Electronic interactions and strain engineering• Scanning Probe Microscopy and electrical transport

06 Beskos, AlexandrosPhD (Lancaster University, UK)Associate Professor, Statistics & Applied Probability

Research Areas:• Markov chain Monte Carlo Methods • Sequential Monte Carlo Methods

07 Ascher, John StoskopfPhD (Cornell University, NY, USA)Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences

Research Areas:• Systematics and ecology of bees and other aculeate Hymenoptera, integration of specimen and taxonomic databases with online biodiversity portals, phylogenetics and biogeography, urban ecology, plant- insect interactions.

08 Chisholm, Ryan AlistairPhD (Princeton University, USA)Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences

Research Areas:• Theoretical ecology, community ecology, conservation biology, ecological economics

09 Rheindt, Frank Erwin PhD (University of Melbourne, Australia)Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences

Research Areas:• Evolution and population genomics of birds• Speciation and differentiation mechanisms• Genetic introgression

10 Yang HongshunPhD (University of Minnesota, USA)Assistant Professor, Chemistry

Research Areas: • Sustainable Food Processing with a Special Focus on Organic Foods• Food Safety Engineering• Food Security and Defense

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11 Raghavan, DilipPhD (University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA)Assistant Professor, Mathematics

Research Areas:• Mathematical Logic• Set Theory• General Topology

12 Wang DongPhD (Brandeis University, Massachusetts, USA)Assistant Professor, Mathematics

Research Areas:• Probability• Random matrix theory

13 Zhou ChaoPhD (Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France)Assistant Professor, Mathematics

Research Areas:• Stochastic analysis;• Financial mathematics. 14 Lau Aik JiangPhD (National University of Singapore, Singapore)Assistant Professor, Pharmacy

Research Areas:• Receptor Pharmacology – Xenobiotic Nuclear Receptors• Drug-Metabolizing Enzymes• Drug Transporters • Pharmacokinetics

15 Lin HaishuPhD (National University of Singapore, Singapore)Assistant Professor, Pharmacy

Research Areas: • Anti-inflammatory pharmacology• Pharmacokinetics• Bioanalysis

16 Woon Chue Yen, EstherPhD (University of Bath, UK)Assistant Professor, Pharmacy

Research Areas:• Epigenetic Drug Discovery, Obesity and Metabolic Diseases, Medicinal Chemistry

17 Garaj, SlavenPhD (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland) Assistant Professor, Physics

Research Areas:• Graphene sensors• Nanopore physics and nanofluidics • Single-molecule biophysics• Physical methods for DNA sequencing• Nano-bioscience

18 Lin HsinPhD (Northeastern University, Massachusetts, USA)Assistant Professor, Physics

Research Areas:• Topological insulators, high- temperature superconductors• First-principles electronic structure and calculations

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Round-Up Academic Year 2012 / 2013

AUGUST 2012

Certificate Course in Antimicrobial StewardshipThe Certificate Course in Antimicrobial Stewardship is an inaugural three-day workshop organised by the NUS Academy of GxP Excellence (NUSAGE) from the Department of Pharmacy. The workshop was led by Principal Clinical Pharmacist of Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Asst Prof Teng Bee Choon Christine, together with nine other hospital pharmacists and doctors who are specialised practitioners in Infectious Diseases

and Antimicrobials. The workshop conducted from 24 to 26 August 2012 attracted a total of 25 participants, including some from neighbouring regions.

SEPTEMBER 2012

Online Course with Temple UniversityFor the first time, NUS Academy of GxP Excellence (NUSAGE) from the Department of Pharmacy partnered Temple University, Philadelphia, USA, to offer a 12-week 100 per cent online course Global Regulation of Medical Device, which started on

Participants with Main Convener Asst Prof Christine Teng (seated, third from right), co-convener Ms Gladys Chung from NUHS (seated, second from left), lecturers Dr Ng Tat Ming, PharmD from TTSH (seated, third from left), Dr David Lye, Senior ID Consultant from TTSH (seated, centre) and Assoc Prof Chan Sui Yong, Deputy Head of Department of Pharmacy (seated, second from right).

Temple University at the Fort Washington campus where live video conferences are conducted.

11 September 2012. This was in response to the surge in interest of regulation and validation of medical devices stamping from the implementation of mandatory registration of medical devices in the Singapore Health Product Act.

OCTOBER 2012

Launch of Bachelor of Environmental Studies Programme Seminar SeriesThe Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) Seminar Series was introduced in Academic Year 2012/2013 to provide a platform for BES students to interact and share ideas with academicians and industry practitioners from the environmental sectors. Through these seminars, the BES students are also able to identify and develop their areas of interests, which could lead to potential research collaborations. The seminar series kick started with a joint lecture on Climate Change with the National Environment Agency. The five seminars organised during the course of the semester were Climate System and Haze: Issues, Technology and Impact, A Journey in Two Biospheres: Opportunities and Conservation Challenges, Environment and Development in Africa, Urban Wildlife Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation Policy: Meet the BES Lecturers and Environmental Careers Panel. The seminars are currently held twice per semester.

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NOvEMBER 2012

Joint Degree Programme with College of Arts and Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillFaculty of Science (FoS) and the College of Arts and Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) implemented a Joint Degree Programme (JDP) in Bachelor of Science [B.Sc. (Hons)] in Life Sciences with effect from Academic Year 2012/2013. Selected students will spend two to three semesters in UNC-CH starting from their Year 2, Semester 2. The programme aims to instill students with a global perspective via an international education and experiential learning (i.e. studying in both Singapore and United

States creates opportunities to experience different geographical contexts as well as interact with people from different nationalities and cultures) and immerse them in a multidisciplinary learning context. The expected intake for the JDP will be a maximum of six students from each University per academic year.

DECEMBER 2012

Study Trip for Engagement and Enrichment Middle East 2012FoS participated in the Study Trip for Engagement and EnRichment (STEER) programme to the Middle East for the first time from 10 to 23 December 2012. Ten students from different majors in FoS with a keen interest in various areas of Science and Engineering such as petroleum refining, oceanography, etc were selected. They were joined by 10 students from Faculty of Engineering (FoE) and led by Assoc Prof Lai Yee Hing from the Department of Chemistry, and Dr Eldin Lim from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, FoE. Students had the chance to visit universities and companies, conduct joint projects with students from these universities as well as network with staff from embassies and industry.

Main entrance of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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JANUARY 2013

Groundbreaking Ceremony for Lee Kong Chian Natural History MuseumA groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum on 11 January 2013. Officiated by Guest-of-Honour Prof Tommy Koh, Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large and Honourary Chairman of Singapore’s National Heritage Board, the groundbreaking ceremony was attended by 40 other guests including Mr S R Nathan, sixth President of Singapore and Dr Lee Seng Tee, Director of Lee Foundation.

Scheduled to be completed in 2014, the $46-million museum designed by W Architects will house three nearly completed dinosaur fossils together with more than half a million specimens of flora and fauna. It will be one of the largest Southeast Asian collections of biodiversity in the region. The seven-storey, 8,500 square-metre museum space will be used for exhibitions, research, education and controlled storage of specimens and will also allow the current Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR) to expand its research.

Science Day 2013To celebrate Science Day 2013, the Students’ Science Club and academic societies – Life Sciences Society, Chemical Sciences Society, Mathematics Society, Pharmaceutical Society, Physics Society, Food Science and Technology Society and Science Computer Based Learning Centre, transformed Lecture Theatre 27 foyer into a cinematic playground on 22 January 2013.

This special day to commemorate Science and the accomplishments of FoS students saw various clubs and societies decorating their booths in accordance with the name of movies and the myths inside the movies that they would debunk or prove.

At the end of the day, a student recognition ceremony was held, with the Dean of Science, Prof Andrew Wee presenting certificates to the ex-presidents and ex-vice presidents of the academic societies as a token of appreciation for their contributions over the term of their office.

(From left) NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan, Prof Leo Tan, Dr Lee Seng Tee, Prof Tommy Koh, Mr Nathan and Dean of FoS Prof Andrew Wee launching the groundbreaking ceremony of the Museum.

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FEBRUARY 2013

FoS-FASS Minor in Aquatic EcologyA new minor in Aquatic Ecology jointly offered by the Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) and the Department of Biological Sciences will be implemented from Academic Year 2013/2014 onwards. It will be open to all NUS undergraduates. The aim of this minor programme is to expose students to the important topic of aquatic ecology while developing relevant specific skills, knowledge, and experience among them. With increasing governmental, private, and

societal interest in aquatic sciences, and the growing demand for manpower with experience in both freshwater and/or marine ecology, such a minor now is timely and is expected to have wide appeal.

Launch of Peer Support GroupFoS currently has a Student Support Manager whom students can approach for advice or when they need a listening ear.

To provide an alternate option, the Peer Support Group started on 1 February 2013 where current FoS students can volunteer

and be trained as Peer Support Volunteers to provide support to other Science students.These Peer Support Volunteers are carefully selected by the Student Support Manager and are required to go through eight hours training with the Counselling and Psychological Services at the University Health Centre. The Student Support Manager will meet up with the volunteers once a week for feedbacks and discussions.

The first batch of 10 volunteers completed their training and have started spreading awareness of this service in the same month.

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MARCH 2013

NUS Open Day 2013As in previous years, FoS participated in NUS Open Day 2013, held on 16 March 2013 at the Stephen Riady Centre at University Town (UTown). This year, with the theme “NUS Because”, the 16,500 visitors had the opportunity to tour UTown, the new vibrant hub housing residential spaces, teaching facilities and a myriad of student amenities, and also interact with student representatives and academic staff from the 16 faculties and schools.

The platform gave FoS a chance to showcase what the Faculty has to offer academically, as well as its vibrant student life. Academic advisors who were present at the event also had the chance to meet and counsel potential students on the various courses and majors offered by FoS.

Closing of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity and Research Public GalleryOn 31 March 2013, the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity and Research (RMBR) Public Gallery closed its doors after 12 years of service to prepare for the move to its new and much larger home at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, slated to open in 2014. The Public Gallery was home to a small part of the

museum’s 500,000 specimens on display to showcase Southeast Asian biodiversity and raise awareness of conservation issues.

As a farewell to the Public Gallery situated at its humble location at NUS Block S6, “The Last Hurrah”, a series of guided tours, was offered free of charge to the public from 18 to 22 March 2013. Made possible by volunteer guides and ushers, some 350 people were hosted in a total of 10 tours.

(From left) Dean of FoS Prof Andrew Wee, with NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan and Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Prof Brenda Yeoh at the Science booth during NUS Open Day.

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Science Career NexusThe Science Career Nexus is held annually for graduating Science students to meet potential employers right on campus grounds.

In its second run, FoS was pleased to have companies from diverse industries to participate in this one day event held on 8 March 2013 at University Hall. Participants included the Singapore Economic Development Board, Pall Filtration, Applied Materials SEA Pte Ltd, Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Unicorn Financial Solutions, Kelly Services and AXA Hedging Services.

The employers were certainly heartened to see the enthusiasm from students seeking to know more about the various trades and skills required for different industries.

Students who attended the event generally found it enriching and useful to find out more information about each industry and the different types of careers they can consider with a Science degree.

Science Alumni-Student Networking EveningInto its fourth run, the Science Alumni-Student Networking Evening held on 8 March 2013 saw success once again with 20 alumni and 120 undergraduates participating.

With alumni coming from a wide representation of industries, participating students found it particularly useful as they learned about the endless opportunities available for them from graduates already in the profession.

Both alumni and students enjoyed themselves during this sharing session, and the students in particular look forward to more of such occasions to consult with their seniors.

APRIL 2013

Establishment of the Centre for Statistical ScienceThe Department of Statistics and Applied Probability (DSAP) established the Centre for Statistical Science (CSS) on 1 April 2013. CSS serves as a platform for DSAP to promote awareness of statistical science among the general public and its sound applications among the community of researchers. The functions of CSS include operating a public outreach programme to promote statistics among pre-university students, conducting statistical courses for school teachers, providing statistical consultancy services to organisations in the private and public sectors, offering statistical advice to faculty members and researchers at NUS, conducting workshops on topics in statistical science, and organising the Singapore Conference on Statistical Science, as well as other conferences, seminars and talks.

(From left) Prof Zhou Weibiao with alumni Ms Verleen Goh, Ms Chong Ri Jia and Ms Karine Teo at the Science Alumni-Student Networking Evening.

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JUNE 2013Science on SaturdayScience on Saturday this year took place over three Saturdays on 1, 8 and 15 June. Coinciding with the June school holidays, the series of talks, lectures, scientific experiments and demonstrations saw many alumni returning to campus with their families.

Organised by the Faculty for its alumni to come “home” and relive the fond and fun memories on campus, alumni could even obtain the list of participants who belong to the same cohort and have a class reunion on the spot. This year’s Science on Saturday received good response and

MAY 2013Faculty of Science Open House 2013More than 1,000 potential Science students and their parents visited the Faculty of Science Open House on 18 May 2013.As a way to reach out to potential students, the Open House this year had the Students’ Science Club and academic societies – Life Sciences Society, Chemical Sciences Society, Mathematics Society, Pharmaceutical Society, Physics Society, Food Science and Technology Society and Science Computer Based Learning Centre, take centre stage. The societies made much effort to showcase the vibrant student life at FoS and

feedback from the alumni and many look forward to more of such events.

CU-NUS Faculty of Science Bilateral SymposiumFoS hosted the inaugural CU-NUS Faculty of Science Bilateral Symposium, jointly organised by Chulalongkorn University and NUS on 7 and 8 June 2013. The event offered a platform for researchers from each institution to keep abreast of ongoing research undertaken by their counterparts. The symposium covered 3 broad areas of inter-disciplinary research; Biotechnology in Agriculture and Medicine, Biodiversity and Advanced Materials. Participating departments from FoS were Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Physics. In all, more than 50 researchers attended the proceedings.

(Photo below) Participants of all ages getting fascinated at the animal specimens exhibited by the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity and Research (RMBR) during Science on Saturday.

fascinating scientific experiments and demonstrations.

For the first time, five current students from different departments and backgrounds were also invited to share with the audience “Why NUS Science is My Top Choice: My Decision, My Experience and My Future Options”. Academic talks, campus and laboratory tours, free food and goodie bags complemented the carnival atmosphere at the Open House.

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JULY 2013Commencement 2013Commencement 2013 saw 1,299 FoS undergraduates being conferred their Bachelor degrees and 433 postgraduates being conferred their Masters or Doctor of Philosophy degrees.

Following tradition, the ceremonies which took place at the University Cultural Centre, each had a guest speaker and two valedictorians to deliver speeches. The joyous occasion was attended by friends and family of the graduates, which was held in four ceremonies over two days on 14 and 15 July 2013.

Dean’s Welcome Tea 2013The Dean of Science, Prof Andrew Wee, welcomed the freshmen of the Academic Year 2013/ 2014 by hosting a welcome tea for them on 23 July 2013.

The day started with a walkthrough on NUS modular system and Science curriculum by Assoc Prof Eric Chan, followed by an introduction to the Centralised Online Registration System (CORS) and e-learning week by Dr Ng Kah Loon.

After the welcome address by Prof Wee, the freshmen were treated to a sumptuous lunch where they had the opportunity to meet and talk to the academic staff from the various departments. After lunch, representatives from the departments gave an insight to each subject to enable students to choose their majors wisely.

(Photo below) Freshmen enjoying a sumptuous lunch and getting to know their course mates and professors at the Dean’s Welcome Tea.

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Interview

Resetting Mindset about Retirement Students called him, “a dedicated teacher, initiator and a craftsman.” But Prof Tang Sing Hai is simply an unpretentious man filled with determination to go on the next phase in his life.The retired professor graduated from the class of 67 from the University of Singapore. His class is credited for producing eight PhD students of which four had the calling to teach at NUS. Among the few, Prof Tang is the last to retire after 39 years.

He pioneered innovations and

initiated the laser/photonics group and research in THz materials and devices in the Department of Physics. His team was one of the most productive research groups in the department in the 1990s. Prof Tang also served as the Deputy Head of the Department of Physics for many years and under his leadership, the department reshaped postgraduate education, initiated the qualifying examination and introduced the Master of Science by coursework programmes. In the last few years as a Professorial Fellow, he did an excellent

job in coordinating the third year modules and handling graduation related matters.

The father of two plans to focus on sculpturing as a hobby for now. His sculptures have been displayed at exhibitions and auctions, with one of his master- piece standing tall in front of the Department of Physics at S12 today.

Prof S H Tang (seated on the right) reminiscing his good old days with the Dean, Prof Andrew Wee.

Feature

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Sacrifices and Satisfactions of ScienceIt was not easy for Prof Lee Seng Luan to say farewell after serving the Faculty for 26 years with great passion for Mathematics. “I joined NUS in 1987 but it feels like only not long ago. I have witnessed tremendous transformation in NUS from a teaching academe to one that has excelled to an eminent education and research university. I’m proud to be part of this transformation of NUS,” said Prof Lee.

Prof Lee was the founding Director of the Centre for Wavelets, Approximation and Information Processing (CWAIP) from 1999 to 2001. He received the National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) grant which was the largest grant awarded to the Faculty of Science for theoretical research then. Prof Lee also held key appointments during his tenure such as the Head of Department of Mathematics from 2000 to 2006, Member, Management Board, Institute for Mathematical Sciences, NUS from 2001 to 2006 and Member, Faculty Promotion and Tenure Committee (Senior) from 2006 to 2008.

He shared that his family benefited greatly from the opportunities offered by NUS and he will forever be grateful to the university for setting the stage right for his development.

The father of two doctors and two mathematicians plans to continue studying mathematics, be involved in community work, keep physically fit, meditate and age gracefully.

Prof Lee (right) receiving a momento from the Dean, Prof Andrew Wee.

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Commencement Class of 2013Feature

Well Done Graduates Commencement 2013 is over with 1,299 Faculty of Science (FoS) students receiving their Bachelor degrees and another 433 their Masters or Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Family members and loved ones cramped the University Cultural Centre to witness these proud moments. Graduating students were just overwhelmed, armed with a degree in hand. The graduates are now ready for the next stage of their life—a job.

However, the purpose of university education is not all about getting trained for a job that pays well upon graduation. It is really the experience gained, the knowledge obtained and the network built within the typical 3 to 4 years of your life here in NUS.

Why don’t we measure the return on investment in terms of what students learned in university instead?

Multi-Disciplinary Education

“My education in FoS was extremely relevant,” stressed Dr Lee Pin Rou, a PhD graduate in Chemistry from the class of 2013. “My current job requires essential knowledge in several areas such as food science, human physiology, microbiology etc. With the diverse curriculum and multi-disciplinary education in FoS, I’m well equipped with all the necessary knowledge and skills. Besides, I have the readiness to put my convictions, values and ethical commitments under the most stringent and rigorous testing in the society,” she noted.

Dr Lee, who currently works for the National Environment Agency (NEA) said that the diverse learning environment at the Faculty provided her the opportunities to learn and equipped her with highly adaptive skills that prepared her for the dynamic working environment.

Research Skills

Another graduate from the class of 2013, Mr Ong Kheng Yong from the Department of Pharmacy said, “FoS provided numerous opportunities for us to develop ourselves further. One such opportunity that I benefited from was the Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Science (UROPS). It is an excellent platform that first exposed me to research work, allowing me to acquire

Science graduates from the Class of 2013 posing for the camera.

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My education in FoS was extremely relevant. My current job requires essential knowledge in several areas such as food science, human physiology, microbiology etc. With the diverse curriculum and multi-disciplinary education in FoS, I’m well equipped with all the necessary knowledge and skills.

the fundamental skills required for research. This provided a good foundation for me to subsequently embark on my final year project while also setting the stage for my involvement in an independent research project done in collaboration with the Singapore Heart Foundation.”

Communication Skills

Ms Soh Yi Hui, a First Class (Hons) graduate in Life Sciences said that after going through the rigorous training at FoS, she is now able to conduct effective research such as to source for information from relevant databases, to critically analyse, extract and organise information and present a well-written and concise report. “I have also learned to question and identify gaps in knowledge and to come up with possible hypotheses and experimental set-ups to solve problems using an evidence-based framework. I honed my presentation and verbal communication skills through various projects that required me to effectively put across main points to engage a target audience, and also, interpersonal skills in working together as a team,” she added.

Evaluating the Return

Although there’s the general consensus that the degree is a ticket to better life, stable income and graduates are less likely to be unemployed, there are also stories of graduates working from home, providing fulltime tuition. Hence, the value question is often asked by students and parents especially if they have significant loans to pay-off.

The response is dependent on factors unique to each student such as campus preference, availability of course or even suitability. Dr Farah Tasnim, who graduated with a PhD in Biological Sciences from the class of 2013 said, “I was always interested in Biology since I was a kid. But I wanted to do something other than medicine. Biological Sciences was the closest option. In addition, when I started applying to universities, I realised that NUS and Singapore in general are upcoming in this area and it was definitely a great place to start.”

Earning Power

Dr Tasnim further expressed, “NUS is an internationally recognised university and the research facilities are of world class standards. But earning power again depends on the individual. It’s how one applies the education in university to real life that will tip the balance.” Dr Tasnim is currently employed by the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star).

Mr Ong feels that the investment in education was definitely worth it. “I believe higher education is a low-risk investment albeit with high costs in monetary terms. There are also intangible aspects such as the time spent and energy required. However, the returns are high. In Singapore, skilled human capital is our most precious resource, if not our only resource,” he added.

Dr Lee Pin Rou

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FeatureAcademicyear in review

Economic Measure

Indeed, universities do present detailed evidence about the benefits of higher education.

Dr Lee explained, “This is why I desired for higher academic achievement after my polytechnic education. I deeply believe that education is fundamental for every child to become a true human being. Without education, a child is like an empty glass without water. Next, education plays an important role in shaping the behaviour. Through education I can be endowed with desirable behaviours such as responsibility, integrity and respect.”

Dr Farah Tasnim

Dr Farah Tasnim at the graduation ceremony.

NUS is an internationally recognised university and the research facilities are of world class standards. But earning power again depends on the individual. It’s how one applies the education in university to real life that will tip the balance.

Graduates cheering for their cohort receiving the scroll.

education

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Education Undergraduate Highlights

Environmental Studies Internship Programme (May 2013)The Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) Programme has launched a new Environmental Studies Internship Programme under the module ENV3202. This module is designed for BES students to gain working experience in the environmental industry during their undergraduate studies and to prepare them for employment after graduation.

The module requires students to perform a structured and supervised internship in a company/organisation for 10 to 12 weeks during Special Terms. Through regular meetings and feedback with internship supervisors and BES academic advisors, students will assimilate and translate knowledge acquired from the curriculum to performing

M y internship at HDB (Building Research Institute) for the project “Roadmap to Better Living in HDB Towns” has provided me with invaluable exposure and experience in actual environmental

planning and management. The main project is the HDB’s Greenprint, a highly laudable framework that brings sustainable living into existing public housing estates. It involves the retrofitting and test bedding of green technologies while maintaining a strong focus on engaging and empowering communities. One infrastructural initiative under Greenprint is to intensify greenery in existing neighbourhoods through providing rooftop greenery on low-rise blocks. This was facilitated by the in-house development of the Prefabricated Extensive Green (PEG) Roof Tray System which I was able to view during a tour to HDB’s Centre for Building Research. Greenprint also carries out community outreach programmes, such as the Eco-learning Journey that aims to enhance awareness of HDB’s Greenprint for all residents in the pilot Yuhua neighbourhood. Posters with information on Greenprint and eco-friendly practices were given to the residents, and I was able to help out with Chinese translations to ensure the elderly residents could understand the information. The job scope of my internship ranged from overall project management of all the Greenprint initiatives to assistance in individual initiatives. This allowed me to gain an overarching perspective of Greenprint and environmental management in general, as well as a deeper understanding in the procedures of following through with an individual project. All in all, the internship has revealed the challenges in environmental management, and has also helped to align my personal expectations with that of the industry.

tasks and assignments in the actual working environment, giving them an extra edge when transiting to the work force.The internship programme, which commenced in May 2013 has successfully placed students with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Housing

& Development Board (HDB), The Centre for Liveable Cities under the Ministry of National Development (MND), National Environment Agency (NEA), CPG Consultants Pte Ltd, Wildlife Reserves Singapore, Underwater World Singapore and Marine Life Park at Resorts World Sentosa.

Tan Wen Ting

Year 2Bachelor of Environmental Studies(Environmental Biology specialisation)

Wen Ting with her supervisor during her internship at HDB.

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Study Trips for Engagement and EnRichment Programme (STEER) NUS inaugurated Study Trips for Engagement and EnRichment Programme (STEER) in 2010. STEER is designed to familiarise students with the diverse socio-cultural-economic-political-business management environment of fast-evolving regions through classroom-based learning and experiential site visits. Such trips are usually taken by NUS undergraduate participants together with several faculty members and staff members. Faculty members will provide academic inputs while staff members will provide the administrative and logistical support.

Following the success of STEER Middle East 2012, Faculty of Science (FoS) was chosen to participate in the inaugural STEER Brazil 2013. The theme for this programme was ‘Biodiversity, Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development in the Realm of Brazil’s Emerging Economy’. A total of 10 students participated in the programme, of which most of them were FoS students. The group was led by Dr Darren Yeo and Dr Frank Rheindt from the Department of Biological Sciences. Students attended seminars on Brazilian

T ravelling to Brazil was a life changing experience for me. I went on this trip with almost no knowledge of Brazil but

ready to learn new things and meet new people. Indeed, I have achieved so. As the only Statistics student (majority of the other students were from life sciences) and also the youngest in the group, I have learnt so much from the rest. From NUS staff, professors and students to Brazilians I met there, everyone contributed to my enriching experience in STEER Brazil which broadened my knowledge and helped me shape new personal life values.

I enjoyed myself in Brazil as we travelled to three cities in three different states within two and half weeks. From a typical city like Sao Paulo to a city with beautiful beaches like Rio de Janeiro, and to a calm semi-urbanised area Porto Alegre, each city has its own unique culture and story to tell.

From the visits to universities, interaction with locals and visit to Greenpeace, I understood more about their social, economic and environmental issues first-hand and Brazilians’ perspectives about those issues. Bird watching in the Tijuca Forest and the visit to Pro Mata Research Centre were among my favourite activities. As a Statistics student, it was definitely a mind-blowing experience to be in the forest, experiencing the cool weather, learning more about South America’s flora and fauna led by experienced guides and our own professors. Furthermore, views from Corcovado and the Lopes Mendes beach in Ilha Grande were spectacular. No words can fully describe how beautiful Brazil’s scenery can be. And lastly, the visit to Favela, where poor people live, left a lasting impression on me. I had mixed feelings standing in a Favela, when comparing it with urbanised and even luxurious areas not far away.

Among all my visits to different countries, this trip definitely ranks the top in terms of exposure and learning experiences.

Koh Woon Ling

Year 1 Statistics Major

Group photo at the Escadaria Selarón, a set of world-famous

steps in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil which is the work of Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón as a

tribute to the Brazilian people.

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economic and conservation issues in universities, worked on joint projects on aquatic ecology, biofuels and sustainable energy use with students from Pontifícia Universidade do Rio Grande do Sul. The group also had the opportunity to meet with project managers at Greenpeace Brazil to better understand their efforts to conserve the Amazon. The group undertook field trips to Tjuca National Park and the Pro-Mata

Project to study the Brazilian flora and fauna. A rare opportunity to visit a Singapore company in Brazil, Keppel Brasfels, was arranged. The group was briefed about the projects Keppel Brasfels undertook and was brought on a tour of the shipyard.

A STEER trip to Brazil will not be complete without a tour to local communities and soaking in the sights and culture. The

group visited a Favela in Rio de Janeiro. Favelas are shantytowns, which were notorious for unrest and drugs. However, over the years, through the Favela Bairro Program, the shantytowns were slowly transformed into safe and stable neighbourhoods through social, economic and urban restructuring. The group had the once in a lifetime opportunity to experience one such pacified Favela.

H aving a chance to visit the research laboratories in the University of Tokyo, as well as National Institute

of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), I learned about how theories in physics are applied in advanced research and nanotechnology. Attending the Nanotech 2013 conference puts into perspective the possibilities of not only nanotechnology, but also science and engineering in general.

Working with students from La Trobe University was also eye-opening, as they have different working and writing styles from what I am used to. We were even required to work with each other after the trip, while we were in different countries. This is the first time I had done so, and it was fun albeit challenging.

I definitely recommend others to participate in this programme, but would encourage them to keep in mind that this overseas programme, like all others, is also a cultural immersion. My friends and I took time off from work visiting touristy places on some evenings and that certainly made the programme far more enjoyable.

Benjamin Tham Zhen Hong

Year 4 Physics Major

La Trobe-NUS Nanotechnology Study TourLa Trobe University and FoS collaborated on the inaugural Nanotechnology Study Tour in Tokyo, Japan from 28 January to 1 February 2013. This study tour was participated by 10 La Trobe and 6 FoS students who were led by two La Trobe faculty members and Assoc Prof Tok Eng Soon from FoS. This study tour involved pre-tour and post-tour workshops conducted via video-conferencing between Australia and Singapore. During the tour, students participated in the world’s largest Nanotech 2013 Exhibition and Conference, visited labs in University of Tokyo and interacted with their Physics students as well as visited National research facilities in Tsukuba. The deliverables of this study tour included exhibition case studies on nanotech companies, reports and presentations. Most importantly, students from both universities forged invaluable networks and friendships.

Benjamin (first row, 4th from the right) in a group photo with NUS and La Trobe

students at the Nanotech 2013 Exhibition.

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Elsinore Summer School 2013University of Copenhagen (KU) organises activities with an “internationalisation at home” label which involves inviting professors from partner universities to give lectures in existing courses. KU had plans to expand this concept and establish a summer school in Copenhagen, and NUS was chosen as the preferred partner for this endeavour. This summer school aims to expose KU and NUS students to research that they may explore further during their MSc or PhD. This summer school environment also makes it possible for KU students in Biomedicine and NUS Life Sciences students to form professional, personal networks with their peers from abroad. A new module ‘Advanced Topics in Biomedical Science – Neuromuscular Development and Disease’ was co-designed by KU faculty members and Assoc Prof Christoph Winkler from the Department of Biological Sciences, Assoc Prof Soong Tuck Wah and

Assoc Prof Reshma Taneja from the Department of Physiology for the summer school 2013. Besides lessons, Biomedical industry practitioners were invited to give enrichment talks. Laboratory and company visits were also arranged. Students also had the opportunity to take a city tour of Copenhagen, visited neighbouring townships and even went to

Sweden by ferry. A total of 15 Life Sciences students in their third year were chosen to participate through good academic performance and interviews. They were joined by 11 top KU students. This summer school was held at the Konventum Convention Center in Elsinore.

E lsinore Summer School is one of the best memories in my NUS life. It was a once in a lifetime chance that I never

regret taking. Through this summer school, I made many close friends, both Singaporeans and Danish within the short three weeks. I enjoyed going for trips with the Danish students. They are really nice and easy to talk to. People say the further you travel, the more you see. Finally I appreciate the true meaning of this saying. I could see the differences in learning styles between Singaporeans and Danish students from University of Copenhagen. It was a small class and there were intensive interactions between lecturers and students. Although many felt that this summer school was quite stressful, I enjoyed the process of learning, working on presentations and drafting research proposals. If I was given another chance to choose, I would still choose to participate in this summer school.

Desi

Year 3 Life Sciences Major (Biomedical Science specialisation)

Life Sciences students with students from University of Copenhagen and NUS faculty members at the Frederiksborg castle.

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Concurrent Degree Programmes in B.Sc. (Honours) in Chemistry/Life Sciences and M.Sc. in Forensic Science/Analytical Toxicology between Faculty of Science, NUS and School of Biomedical Sciences, King’s College LondonAn agreement for the Concurrent Degree Programmes (CDP) between King’s College London’s School of Biomedical Sciences and FoS was inked on 2 April 2013 in

King’s College London (KCL). A FoS delegation led by Provost Tan Eng Chye met with the Principal and President of KCL, Prof Sir Richard Trainor and his team for a series of meetings, facilities visits and the signing ceremony over a 2-day visit on 2 and 3 April 2013.

Following the successful launch of the CDP in Biophysics in 2011, two more CDPs in the areas of Forensic Science and Analytical Toxicology have been established, which integrate the NUS B.Sc. (Honours) in either Chemistry or Life Sciences with a one-year King’s College London (KCL)

Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Forensic Science or Analytical Toxicology.

These programmes leverage on the strengths of KCL in Forensic Science and Analytical Toxicology. The KCL M.Sc. in Forensic Science is the longest running programme of its kind in UK. Taught by practicing forensic scientists and relevant experts in this field, students will embrace the technology and methodology at the forefront of forensic science research and development, and have placement opportunities in laboratories with the Forensic Science Service and Metropolitan Police Forensic Services. The KCL M.Sc. in Analytical Toxicology is a unique programme in UK, which integrates theoretical and practical aspects of analytical science with clinical and forensic toxicology. This programme prepares students for potential careers in analytical and supervisory roles within government and private institutions.

These two CDPs place NUS in an excellent position in meeting the needs of forensic expertise in Singapore. These programmes began admitting Chemistry and Life Sciences students from Academic Year 2012/2013. Every year, four students would be selected for the CDPs.

Signing ceremony at King’s College London. From left: Prof Roger Morris (Head, School of Biomedical Sciences, KCL), Prof Tan Eng Chye (Provost, NUS), Prof Sir Richard Trainor (President & Principal, KCL) and Prof Paul Matsudaira (Head, Department of Biological Sciences, NUS).

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S ince secondary school, I have always been fascinated about how science can be harnessed for law enforcement and criminal justice. Not only have I been fortunate to be exposed to all the Forensic

Science opportunities NUS has to offer, the establishment of the Concurrent Degree Programme (CDP) in Analytical Toxicology/Forensic Science with King's College London (KCL) timely presented itself early this year. I applied for it with little hesitation.

Before my application for the CDP, I had the opportunity to experience a 12-week summer research placement at the Drug Control Centre (DCC) at KCL. In addition to the research skills and analytical techniques that I have learnt, the opportunity provided me with a clearer picture of what analytical toxicology is about. My research project was on the in vitro metabolism and LC-MS/MS characterisation of the metabolites of mephedrone, a synthetic stimulant. Despite the short time, a novel discovery I made fueled my passion further for forensic science research. This summer attachment confirmed my decision to enroll for the CDP.

I have been presented with an unconditional offer from KCL for the M.Sc. in Analytical Toxicology, verifying my postgraduate position for the September intake this year. Analytical Toxicology is a highly specialised field in the Forensic Sciences that deals with the study of drugs and poisons, and their interactions with biological systems in organisms. A Forensic Toxicologist plays a critical role in forensic investigations, from the routine testing of blood alcohol content (BAC) for suspected driving under influence (DUI) cases, to providing expert opinion as a consultant to the Forensic Pathologist with regard to unnatural deaths from drug overdose, as well as embarking in research that keeps up with the novel psychoactive substances emerging from clandestine drug laboratories. The DCC at KCL is internationally renowned and accredited, and I am excited to soon embark on my graduate studies under the tutelage of professionals and experts in the field of analytical toxicology.

Shawn Foo Siong Chun

Chemistry Major BSc 2nd Class Upper (Honours)

Shawn Foo in a park in Brighton, UK (left) and Westminster Palace and Big Ben in London (right).

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Bachelor of Environmental Studies Student’s Article Featured on Student Pulse

Student Pulse is an online open-access academic journal focused on publishing the work of university students from around the world in a wide range of academic disciplines. Students have valuable ideas but there are few venues to disseminate these ideas broadly. Student Pulse serves as a good platform for students to share their work. Editors from Student Pulse carefully review submissions from all over the world and highlight the best material in this open access e-journal.

The Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) programme is very proud of Ezra Ho, a student from the pioneer batch BES Programme who had his article “Planetary Survival in the 21st Century: Confronting Land Degradation, Biodiversity Loss, and Climate Change” featured on Student Pulse. In the article, Ezra skilfully summarised the anthropogenic effects that brought about environmental degradation and called for concerted efforts and an integrated approach to prevent further destruction of the environment.

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Pre-Med Student Exchange Programme with Duke UniversityAfter the inking of a Student Exchange Programme (SEP) Agreement with Duke University on 27 March 2012, five NUS students were selected for the inaugural SEP to Duke in Academic Year 2012/2013, Semester 1. Of the five students, three were Pre-Med students. This rare opportunity allows NUS Pre-Med students to immerse in the Pre-Med environment, receive academic mentorship from Duke’s Pre-Med advisors and read courses in one of the top private universities in the world.

M y journey in Duke University had been a challenging but enjoyable and exciting one. I was able to expand my

network of friends after meeting people from all walks of life. Through my interactions with other exchange students and Americans in Duke University, I have learnt about the different lifestyles and cultures in their countries or states. I also learned about time management and independence from the students in Duke who were able to maintain a work-life balance.

At the start of the academic term, it was a struggle for me to catch up with the heavy workload and adapt to the different teaching styles. Classes at Duke have more midterms, assignments and readings and placed less emphasis on final exams. The classes were also smaller, and one would have to come prepared and expect to engage in discussions every lesson. Even though it was challenging, I quickly learned to be a quick thinker, proficient writer and good presenter through Duke’s rigorous curriculum.

A high percentage of Duke’s undergraduates are Pre-Med students. Duke University has an American Medical Students Association (AMSA) Pre-med group that provides various opportunities for students to shadow a physician, volunteer as well as learn more about the medical field through seminars and talks. As a Pre-Med student myself, I too benefitted from this experience. I attended a lecture by Dr Siddhatha Mukherjee who spoke about the history of cancer and I learnt about the current development and research in the field of oncology. In addition, I had the opportunity to ‘flunch’ (have lunch) with my Biology professor, Dr Daniele Armaleo. I really enjoyed this meal with him as I learnt about the type of research that he is engaged in and the inspirations that led him to research. While in Duke University, I also attended a cookie session with Dr Robert Kamei, Vice Dean of Education at Duke-NUS, and the third year medical students. I had the opportunity to talk to one of the third year medical student about her HIV research project and visited the HIV laboratory that she works in. These experiences enabled me to understand the current research and medical field in greater depth.

Overall, I have definitely benefitted much from my semester-long exchange to Duke University.

Jolene Tan (in red) with her Biology professor, Dr Daniele Armaleo at lunch.

Jolene Tan Su Yi

Year 2, Life Sciences Major and Pre-Med student

Student Exchange Programme to Duke University in AY12/13 Semester 1

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Bobby Tan (2nd from right) with (from left): Dr Lee Guozhang, Nurse Tan Yuan Ying and Dr Shirlynn Ho at the Department of Palliative Medicine, NCCS.

Medical Shadowing Experience for Pre-Med StudentsAs part of the efforts to engage Pre-Med students and expose them to the multiple facades of medical practice so as to better prepare them for graduate medical school, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School (DGMS) has tied up with National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) to provide Pre-Med students with medical shadowing experience during the summer. This opportunity is for students to experience some basic training and exposure to clinical setting practices. Selected students were attached to the Department of Palliative Medicine for a week. Such an opportunity was a first for non-medical undergraduates.

A commitment to read medicine requires a proper understanding of medicine as a career. The medical

shadowing opportunity provided by the collaboration between Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) offers a glimpse on a day in the life of a doctor. I had the honour to shadow Dr Shirlynn Ho from the Department of Palliative Medicine, NCCS, and her team, Dr Lee Guozhang and Nurse Tan Yuan Ying. In addition, I also visited the Bright Vision Hospital with Dr Lalit Krishna and shadowed Assoc Prof Cynthia Goh, Dr Patricia Neo and Dr Alethea Yee in their clinics.

The experience has brought up three salient learning points regarding medicine: patient-centrism, holistic treatment and a passion to care. The doctors have demonstrated that listening to the patients and understanding their contexts, concerns and fears are invaluable components in the healing process. The treatment measures are also employed with the well-being of the patients and the people around them at the highest priority. The multi-disciplinary meetings held regularly further create a strong impression of a holistic treatment based on the co-operation among the healthcare professionals, which may include doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and medical social workers. The journal clubs and department meetings are also held for the medical practitioners to keep abreast with the current advances in medical treatments.

Bobby Tan

Year 3 Life Sciences Major & Pre-Med Scholar

These combined efforts for the patients’ optimal treatments can be clearly traced to one of the basic tenets of medicine: the passion to care. The juxtaposition of experience between Singapore General Hospital and Bright Vision Hospital has highlighted the passion of the doctors to attend to every patient in need, despite their backgrounds and confines in life. I am truly grateful for the medical shadowing opportunity and I believe that this experience has enabled me to mold my resolve for a career in medicine.

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Education Postgraduate Highlights

Joint PhD degree with Hebrew University of Jerusalem

FoS and the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine have strengthened their ties with the Faculty of Medicine and Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ) by inking a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a joint PhD degree for biomedical science on 3 July 2013.

For the next four years, the joint PhD programme will take in about three students each from NUS and HUJ per year.

Prof Tan Eng Chye, NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost (5th from right), and Prof Menahem Ben-Sasson, President of HUJ (4th from left) signed the joint degree agreement at NUS, in the presence of Ambassador of Israel to Singapore, Her Excellency Mrs Amira Arnon.

The programme requires students to spend a minimum of nine months each between both campuses in Singapore and Jerusalem. Two students from NUS have already been selected for the inaugural intake slated to commence in August 2013. This degree is a natural extension of the established NUS-HUJ Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Inflammation Research Programme started in 2010, which is a part of the CREATE program of Singapore’s National Research Foundation.

As the programme leverages on the complementary academic strengths of the two institutions, it offers a unique and world-class learning experience for the students. This partnership also opens up more opportunities for researchers and students from both the universities to break new ground in biomedical science.

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Education All-Round Student Achievements

CRISP AwardsIn recognition of the extra efforts put forward by both undergraduate students and the project supervisors towards the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme in Science (UROPS) and participation in the National Undergraduate Research Opportunites Programme (NUROP) congress, the CRISP Award was introduced in Academic Year 2000/2001. It is named after the Center for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing (CRISP), that has kindly channeled the donation from the Singapore Totalisator Board to the Faculty.

Student winners of the award receive a certificate, a plaque and a book voucher, while the project supervisors will receive a plaque. Two Life Sciences students bagged the awards this year. Png Yi Tian whose supervisor was Dr Seow See Voon from the Department of Paediatrics won the award for the 8-MC UROPS project, while Le Anh Phuong who was supervised by Assoc Prof George Yip from the Department of Anatomy won the award for the 4-MC UROPS project.

Yi Tian graduated in Academic Year 2012/2013, Semester 2 with a Second Class (Upper) Honours while Anh Phuong graduated with a First Class Honours the same semester.

Winning Project Title:

Cytolytic Activity of Expanded and Activated Human Natural Killer Cells on Advanced Leukemia

UROPS is a great platform for undergraduates to experience research at first-hand. Being always keen in Immunology, I took on the opportunity to do an immunology-related UROPS project. Since then, I never regretted my decision. The eye-opening UROPS experience allowed me to learn how targeting diseases like cancer can also be achieved using immune cells. I also gained valuable hands-on experience and research skills that helped me tremendously when I was doing my honours year project.

I am really thankful for my supervisor and lab staff who helped me along the way throughout the course of my project. I like to thank my supervisor for his guidance on oral presentation and clearing my doubts on many occasions. I highly recommended UROPS to students who wish to gain research exposure.

Png Yi Tian

Life Sciences Major BSc 2nd Class Upper (Hons)

Png Yi Tian (far right) at the National UROP Congress.

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Winning Project Title:

Expression Analysis of Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycan-5 in Phyllodes Tumor

UROPS was a great way for me to get a feel of real research and how to apply my knowledge learnt through the Life Sciences modules in the working context. My project investigates CSPG5 as a potential biomarker in diagnosis and prognosis of breast phyllodes tumor patients. Doing UROPS was a process of self-learning and self-discovery as well. Assoc Prof George Yip from the Department of Anatomy is a great mentor who was always available to provide me guidance and yet, opportunities for self-learning and critical thinking. During the semester, Assoc Prof Yip also frequently reminded me to focus on other modules and to maintain a work-life balance. I am very thankful for the opportunity to have gone through UROPS and achieve humble successes in the first step of my scientific career.

Le Anh Phuong

Life Sciences Major BSc 1st Class (Hons)

Le Anh Phuong (left) with friends in the lab.

Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher PrizeThe Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Prize (OURP) was first launched by the Provost Office in Academic Year 2006/2007 as an annual university-wide competition to encourage research and to recognise the best undergraduate researchers in NUS.

This competition aims to encourage undergraduates to participate in research and acquire skills that can be used in courses and other academic and professional pursuits, identify academic and career interests, learn about a new field, develop working relationships between classmates and faculty mentors and provide them a glimpse of graduate life. Both individual and group projects are eligible for this competition.

The winners from FoS in Academic Year 2012/2013 OURP under the Individual Category were Jokhun Doorgesh Sharma and Ang Ther Wey Jeysthur. The winning group under the Group Category comprises of Kwan Yu Heng and Ong Kheng Yong.

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The recognition of one’s sacrifices and hard work is perhaps one of the happiest feelings that a person experiences as a student; and I have the good fortune as well as immense honour of experiencing this through the OURP. It gives me a strong sense of fulfillment and encourages me to pursue my career in research with the same passion and curiosity despite all the hidden hurdles that occur while doing research.

This award also reinforces my gratitude towards my supervisor, Assoc Prof Cao Tong as well as my mentor and friend, Dr Fahad Kidwai for all the help and guidance they have given me throughout the journey. Dr Fahad posed me challenges on several occasions, but he was also there to ensure that I emerge stronger every time.

I am also grateful to FoS, which offers many additional opportunities for its students to grow intellectually as well as individually through programmes such as the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme in Science (UROPS), summer research exchanges, student exchange programmes, international internships and others. They not only gave us a glimpse of the real world, but they also equipped us with various skills, which made it easier for us to get into the real world. Having participated in two of them, I will definitely encourage any student to make the most of these programmes.

I am deeply honoured to receive this prestigious prize. It recognises my hard work and devotion to my project. The learning curve for every final year project is steep. I would not have been able to make any contributions to Physics without the supportive research culture of ConneQt, a research group within the Centre for Quantum Technologies. Hence, I would like to sincerely thank Prof Valerio Scarani for giving me the opportunity to work in his research group. I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my project mentor, Le Phuc Thinh, a PhD student in ConneQt, for his continuous support, encouragement and patience throughout this project. My special thanks go to Lana Sheridan, a research fellow in ConneQt, for sharing her valuable insights with me as well.

Jokhun Doorgesh Sharma

Life Sciences Major BSc 2nd Class Lower (Honours)

Ang Wey Thur Jeysthur

Physics Major BSc 1st Class (Honours)

AY2012/13 OURP (Individual Category) Winner:


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I am honoured to receive this award. This award is recognition of our efforts, thereby encouraging us to strive harder in our research work. More importantly, it has allowed us to share our clinical research experiences, which hopefully will encourage more enterprising students to take a proactive approach towards research and healthcare reform in Singapore. Special thanks go to our supervisor, Dr Joanne Chang from the Department of Pharmacy, for her guidance and support, as well as our collaborator at the Singapore Heart Foundation, Mr Tay Hung Yong, Manager of the HWP. I would also like to thank my supervisors for my final year project, Dr Priscilla How and Dr Yap Chun Wei from the Department of Pharmacy for honing my research skills further, and inspiring me to do more research work.

My education at FoS has been rewarding and enlightening. The faculty members are passionate in their fields. Not only do they impart their valuable knowledge to us, they also nurture us in non-academic ways and inspire us to always strive to improve ourselves. I am also grateful for the various learning opportunities and programmes that the Faculty offers such as the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme in Science, which I also participated. It is the platform which first exposed me to research work, allowing me to acquire the skills required for research, in turn setting the stage for my involvement in this project.

I would encourage future young and aspiring Science and Pharmacy students to take up research work and discover for themselves the benefits of engaging in research at this early point in their career. For myself, I am confident the knowledge and skills I have acquired will serve me well in the subsequent follow-up studies at the Singapore Heart Foundation and in my career as a

clinical pharmacist.

AY2012/13 OURP (Group Category) Winner

Ong Kheng Yong

Pharmacy Major BSc 1st Class (Honours)

Kwan Yu Heng (left) and Ong Kheng Yong by the poster of their winning project.

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I am extremely humbled to be awarded this prize. This award recognises the growing needs of community-based research in Singapore. Starting this project together with the Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF) had allowed me to do my part for the community. I hope that by being awarded the OURP for our community-based pilot project, it would spur more energetic youngsters to commit their time towards the community.

I believe FoS has done an excellent job in educating and training students to be able to do what they want, as well as providing them with the necessary resources to do so. I am extremely grateful to Dr Kang Lifeng, Dr Wee Hwee-Lin and Dr Joanne Yeh Chang for teaching me different aspects of research which I have come to love. I am also grateful to Dr Joanne Yeh Chang for employing me as her research assistant since my third year, and for giving me full autonomy to initiate projects and propose grants. I have had a humbling but fulfilling experience supervising final year and UROPS students. In addition, this led to the opportunity to work with SHF.

Having experienced both the pain and fun of research, I have made the decision to further commit myself in the field of medical research by enrolling myself for the MD-PhD course in Duke-NUS. Without this experience, I would not have been able to make such a firm decision on my career. I hope students from both Science and Pharmacy would be courageous in pursuing what they want to do. In Science, opportunities are aplenty, but they are only available if one actively seeks them out.

Annie Tan Medal and PrizeThe Annie Tan Medal and Prize started in 2008 by a member of the Wan family in remembrance of their late mother, Madam Annie Tan, who was proficient in several languages, including English and Chinese. The award is given annually to two outstanding female undergraduates of the graduating cohort with high bilingual competence in English and Chinese. A cash prize of $3,000 together with a gold medal is awarded to the best candidate and, another cash prize of $2,000 is awarded to the second best candidate. The award is open to female Singaporean citizens who graduate with a First Class Honours degree.

In the Academic Year 2012/2013, the Gold medal was awarded to Gan Yuan Ying who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in Semester 2. The selection committee was impressed with her eloquence in both English and Mandarin, as well as with her active involvement in community services. She participated in Quenching Agents, an overseas community service project from April 2007 to December 2007, in which she spent two weeks supplying potable water to a village of Burmese refugee in Chiang Mai. She was also

Kheng Yong and Yu Heng have decided to donate part of their award to

establish the PORP. The PORP is a cash award for the top Pharmacy project

for each academic year, done as part of the Undergraduate Research

Opportunities in Science (UROPS) programme. Similar to the OURP, which

is an annual, university-wide competition to encourage research among

undergraduates in NUS, they hope the PORP would perform the same

function of encouraging Pharmacy students to undertake research work.

Kwan Yu Heng

Pharmacy Major BSc 1st Class (Honours)


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Lee Kuan Yew Gold MedalThe Chinese Newspapers Division of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and Sony Systems Design International Pte Ltd jointly produced a CD-ROM on the former Senior Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew in 1995. With the consent of Mr Lee, the net proceeds from the sale of 100 gold-plated CD-ROM and 20,000 copies of the CD-ROM together with a transit link fare card were donated to the University Endowment Fund in 1996 for the purpose of instituting awards of the Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medals. The proceeds from the capital sum will be used to award gold medals to the best performing graduates throughout the course of study for several programmes in NUS. At FoS, the gold medal is awarded to the best performing student in the Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Applied Science programmes.

a member of the organising committee for the Paint-A-Home project from 2011 to 2012 and a volunteer under the NUS Students’ Community Service Club. She also participated in Project C.A.N. IX and Grant A Wish IX, and plans to contribute 30 hours of service in The Gan Clan Association Singapore to promote the Chinese language and culture and to encourage more young people to join the association.

Yuan Ying was a Pre-Med scholar and she has plans to apply to Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School to become a doctor.

Ang Ther Wey Jeysthur was awarded the medal for being the best graduate in the Bachelor of Science programme. Jeysthur was a major in Physics and graduated with First Class Honours in Academic Year 2012/2013,

Gan Yuan Ying, top row, 5th from left, at a Paint-A-Home Project in 2011.

Semester 2. Jeysthur was selected for a semester-long exchange to University of Toronto in Academic Year 2011/2012 and was placed on the Dean’s List a total of 6 times throughout his candidature.

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International Physics Competition 2012The University Physics Competition is an international contest for undergraduate students to work in a team of three at their home colleges and universities all over the world to analyse a real-world scenario using the principles of physics and writing a formal paper. The third annual University Physics Competition took place on 16 and 17 November 2012, which saw a total of 81 teams from all over the world including 27 NUS Physics students participating in the midst of their examination period. The students had to provide their best solutions to one of the two given problems within 48 hours.

The NUS Physics majors bagged a total of 9 awards eventually. Gabriel Loke Zi Jie, Lim Rong

Bing Zhujun was awarded the medal for being the best graduate in the Bachelor of Applied Science programme. Zhujun majored in Food Science and Technology and graduated with First Class Honours in Academic Year 2012/2013, Semester 2. She was placed on the Dean’s list 5 consecutive times. Zhujun was also the group leader for the Harvey Mudd College (HMC)-NUS Global Clinic project in 2010 where she led a group of two other NUS students and three HMC students in designing a low cost and portable food processing plant for developing countries.

Sheng and Tan Tee Hao, all Year 3 students, won the Gold Medal. Two teams comprising of Year 1 students and another comprising of Year 2 students won the Silver Medal. Three teams were awarded the Bronze medal while the other three teams were recognised as Accomplished Competitors.

Both team supervisors from the Department of Physics, Mr Andreas Dewanto, Physics Instructor, and Mr Chang Sheh Lit, Teaching Assistant, commended the participating teams on the immense efforts invested in this competition.

Winners of the Gold Medal team, from left: Lim Rong Sheng, Tan Tee Hao and Gabriel Loke Zi Jie.


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Practicum Grant provided me with a head-start to venture towards commercialising my PhD project. I can source and buy several devices and testing platforms that were necessary to prove the worth of our patented technology. At the same time, guidance received from expert panel of the awarding body, especially Prof Ludmila Kopeikina, gave me an opportunity to discuss potential market with dermatologists and clinicians, which helped me to make improvements to my product as well as look at other areas of interest.

National Research Foundation Innovation Grant Jaspreet Singh Kochhar, a PhD student at the Department of Pharmacy, developed innovative microscale technologies to deliver drugs and cosmetics through the skin for his PhD project.

His research was awarded the Practicum Grant of S$10,000 under the National Research Foundation’s University Innovation Fund (UIF) to commercialise this project. UIF was set up in May 2009 under the National Framework for Innovation and Enterprise (NFIE), where an Innovation Fund was established in each university in Singapore to supplement the universities’ internal funding for innovation and entrepreneurship activities.

Jaspreet currently holds two provisional patents and has authored and co-authored 6 papers, 1 book chapter and 1 book. He recently received a travel award from Department of Pharmacy, for the 8th PharmSci@Asia symposium at Nanjing, China where his talk, “Polymeric Microneedles for Transdermal Delivery in Clinical and Cosmeceutical Applications” was awarded Best Podium Presentation Award.

Jaspreet Singh Kochhar

Year 4 PhD

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Conquer Cancer Foundation of American Society for Clinical Oncology Merit Award Cheung Yin Ting, a PhD student at the Department of Pharmacy, won the 2013 Conquer Cancer Foundation of American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Merit Award, presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting held from 31 May to 4 June.

As a registered Pharmacist and a student at the department since her undergraduate days, Yin Ting won the award for her research paper, “The Association of Pro-inflammatory Biomarkers and Post-Chemotherapy Cognitive Changes in Asian Breast Cancer Patients: A Prospective Cohort Study”. The research sets out to identify pro-inflammatory biomarkers that are associated with memory and attention impairment in Asian patients receiving chemotherapy. She is also a recipient of the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) Young Investigator Award 2013 at Berlin, Germany. Yin Ting enjoys working with her research team, which is headed by Assoc Prof Alexandre Chan. Their work has been well received by oncology healthcare professionals, the cancer community and the local and international media.

Moving on, Yin Ting aspires to pursue a career in clinical research and academia, and hopes that her work will make an impact on clinical practice.

I have a passion for the current work that I am doing because I strongly believe that there is a paradigm shift in cancer management; the focus now is not just to cure or treat the cancer, but to help patients deal with their psychosocial and cognitive issues so that their quality of life and daily functioning will not be compromised.

Cheung Yin Ting (first from right) with her research groupmates.

Cheung Yin Ting

Year 3 PhD


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World Future Foundation Medal and Prize in Environment and Sustainability Tay Ywee Chieh obtained her PhD from the Department of Biological Sciences. Her research not only detailed the levels of coral genetic connectivity among Singapore islands, but also identified reefs that act as the best sources of larvae for seeding other areas. A first of its kind in Singapore, her research documented essential information for conservation managers when targeting reefs to prioritise for protection.

Ywee Chieh has also amply demonstrated her expertise by publishing her physical oceanography and particle dispersal research as well as her larval behavior study. Her genetic work, using micro-satellites, produced two excellent papers in high impact journals. Her external examiner, a pre-eminent scientist in marine connectivity and population genetics, was extremely impressed with her thesis and called Ywee Chieh a “Renaissance Woman”.

For her outstanding work, Ywee Chieh was awarded the prestigious World Future Foundation Medal and Prize in Environment and Sustainability at Commencement 2013.

She looks forward to develop a scientific career using molecular biology techniques to study conservation genetics and environmental genomics.

My PhD thesis on coral population connectivity is directly relevant to coastal management decision-making, which is especially important to Singapore due to the urgent need to balance our rapid economic development with preservation of our natural environment. It is a great honour to be a recipient of the prestigious World Future Foundation Medal and Prize in Environment and Sustainability and the recognition of my effort is also a great motivation for me to continue in marine connectivity research.

Dr Tay Ywee Chieh

PhD, 2012

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research

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biological Following its new core strength in Evolutionary Biology, the department is building up new focus on emerging fields of Systems/Synthetic Biology, Nanoscale Dynamics Imaging and MechanoBiology, which integrate knowledge from Biophysics, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics.

Prof Paul Matsudaira, Head of the Department, secured funding from the National Research Foundation, Competitive Research Programmes (NRF CRP) grant and MOE Tier 3 with his projects entitled ‘Research and Development of Novel Interfacial Water Technologies’ and ‘Protein Dynamics’ respectively. In addition, the department received $1million donation from SingHaiyi Group and Haiyi Holdings Pte Ltd for scholarships to graduate students and undergraduates for their final year projects.

During Academic Year 2012/2013, the department published several key papers, including:

• ADAMTS5 functions as an anti-angiogenic and anti- tumorigenic protein independent of its proteoglycanase activity

• FTIP1 is an essential regulator required for florigen transport

Department of

The Department of Biological Sciences continued to transform from qualitative descriptive science to quantitative computational science with strong foundations in Environmental Biology, Biophysical Sciences and Cell/Developmental/Molecular Biology. Through new hires and funding, the core research group established interdisciplinary research, anticipating international leadership by 2015.

• Who should pay for global health and how much?

• Attenuated adenosine-to-inosine editing of microRNA- 376a* promotes invasiveness of glioblastoma cells

• Agricultural intensification escalates future conservation costs

• The membrane stress response buffers lethal effects of lipid disequilibrium by reprogramming the protein homeostasis network

During the year of review, the department welcomed new hires specialising in varied areas of biology. They are: Assoc Prof Antonia Monteiro, Dr Frank Rheindt, Dr John Ascher, Dr Utkur Mirsaidov (joint with Physics) and Assoc Prof Neil Clarke (joint with Yale-NUS College).

The following faculty members were also conferred awards in recognition of their research excellence and scholarly accomplishments:

• Prof Kini Manjunatha - Class of ’62 Professorship

• Prof Rudolf Meier - Provost’s Chair Professorship

• Assoc Prof Jayaraman Sivaraman - Dean’s Chair Professorship

• Dr Lu Gan - NUS Young Investigator Award

• Dr Ne-Te Duane Loh - Lee Kuan Yew Post-Doctoral Fellowship

• Prof Ding Jeak Ling - Outstanding NUS Innovator Award for achieving significant accomplishments in entrepreneurship and innovation in Singapore

• Dr John van Wyhe - Launched ‘The Wallace Online’, the first complete archive of the works of naturalist and co- founder of the theory of evolution Alfred Russel Wallace, that received considerable international media coverage

During the year, the department and the MechanoBiology Institute (MBI) entered into a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Bremen University’s Department of Physics and also received approval for a joint degree with University of North Carolina.

SCIENCES

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Despite relatively low incidence rates, brain tumours are of growing concern. Patients with the most common primary brain tumour, glioblastoma multiforme, have a median survival time of only around one year. In the hunt for effective treatments, Assoc Prof Wang Shu and his team recently discovered a potential new strategy for fighting this highly lethal disease.

The most aggressive of the gilomas, a group of tumours that affect the glial cells in the central nervous system, glioblastoma multiforme is extremely difficult to treat. Assoc Prof Wang explains that “despite surgical resection, combination radiation and chemotherapy, the disease usually

RNA Editing Mistake Promotes Brain Tumour Development

Assoc Prof Wang ShuDepartment of Biological Sciences

recurs due to extensive invasion of tumour cells into the normal brain parenchyma and therapeutic resistance”. There is an urgent need, he warns, to develop “adjuvant glioma therapies that are capable of targeting multiple infiltrative tumour foci intracranially”.

Understanding the mechanism underlying brain tumour invasion is the first step in that process. Critical here are microRNAs (miRNAs), short (around 22 nucleotide) non-coding ribonucleic acid compounds that mediate the post-transcriptional silencing of a set of target genes. There is emerging evidence that miRNAs have a defining role in cancer initiation and progression.

“Fifty per cent of miRNA genes map within cancer-associated genomic regions or fragile sties of chromosomes”, Assoc Prof Wang notes, “providing a reasonable explanation for deregulated expression of miRNAs in various cancers”. However, the roles of miRNAs in regulating the initial steps of cancer cell metastasis have not been well characterised.

In the human brain, miRNAs from the miR-376 cluster are subject to adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing, an essential epigenetic mechanism that transforms the genomic information contained within RNA molecules. By sequencing these microRNAs, Assoc Prof Wang and his team found an association between overall A-to-I editing frequencies and the regulation of gliomas. The frequencies were reduced in gliomas, and in high-grade gliomas such as glioblastoma multiforme there was an accumulation of unedited miR-376a*. That accumulation correlated with the extent of invasive tumour spread, as measured by the magnetic resonance imaging of patients’ brains. Using in vitro and orthotopic xenograft mouse models, the team also demonstrated that unedited miRNA-376a* promoted glioma cell migration and invasion, whereas edited miRNA-376a* suppressed them.

Research Breakthroughs

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In short, a single mutation in miR-376a* affects the selection of its target genes and redirects its function from inhibiting to promoting glioma cell invasion. Assoc Prof Wang remarks that the “miRNA epigenetic classification of tumours is expected to better define subcategories of tumours with implications for diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis”. The inherent reversibility of most epigenetic mechanisms, including A-to-I editing, certainly underscores their potential as targets for therapeutic intervention.

Figure 1: Frequency of miR-376a* editing and expression of its unedited form correlate with invasive glimoma spread. Representative MRI scans of patients with gliomas with low or high editing frequency of miR-376a. White cross indicates region of invasive tumor spread.

Figure 2 : Roles of attenuated miR-376a* editing in regulation of glioma cell invasion and migration. Our findings indicate opposite roles of AMFR and RAP2A in regulating cell invation, which are subject to epigenetic regulation by miR-376a*. When the A-to-l editing of miR-376* is attenuated in glioblastoma, the accumulation of unedited miR-376a* (miR-376*A) down-regulate RAP2A while a decreased level edited miR-376a* (miR-376a*l/G) leads to up-regulation of AMFR, collectively resulting in increased migration and invasiveness of glioma cells.

Publication: Choudhury, Y. Chang Tay, F., Lam, D.H., Sandanaraj, E., Tang, C., Ang, B.T., and Wang, S., Attenuated adenosine-to-inosine editing of microRNA-376a* promotes invasiveness of glioblastoma cells. Journal of Clinical Investigation 122, 4059-4076 (2012) DOI: 10.1172/JCI62925.

Low miR-376a* editing frequency

High miR-376a* editing frequency

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ADAMTS5 is an extracellular, zinc-dependent proteinase that has for many years been considered particularly important to the development of osteoarthritic and rheumatic diseases because its proteoglycanase activity digests proteoglycans in arthritic joint cartilage. Asso Prof Ge Ruowen and her colleagues recently demonstrated for the first time that ADAMTS5 is also an anti-angiogenic and anti-tumourigenic protein, supressing the formation of tumours by restricting the growth of their blood vessels. The team found that increased ADAMTS5 expression resulted in the potent suppression of melanoma growth in mice.

This finding implies that ADAMTS5 could be an important player in human cancer. Indeed, ADAMTS5 expression is suppressed in various human cancers, including colon, prostate and breast cancer. Finding ways to increase ADAMTS5 production may offer a method of controlling cancer progression by starving the tumor of its blood supply.

The paper reporting the research team’s findings triggered a commentary article in the same issue of the American Journal of Pathology and a recommendation for ‘special significance in its field’ from F1000, the premier post-publication peer-review service for biological and medical research

Publication:Kumar, S., Sharghi-Namini, S., Rao, N. and Ge, R. ADAMTS5 functions as an anti-angiogenic and anti-tumorigenic protein independent of its proteoglycanase activity. Am. J. Pathol. 181(3): 1056-68 (2012).

Increasing ADAMTS5 Protein Production May Control Cancer Progression

Assoc Prof Ge Ruowen Department of Biological Sciences

Figure 1: Domain organisation of ADAMTS5 and examples of anti-angiogenic and anti-tumorigenic activity.


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Figure 1: Range of protein changes linked to membrane stress response

Biological membranes comprise hundreds of different molecules called lipids, the compositions of which differ in different parts of the cell. It has recently become clear that maintaining these precise compositions is critical for health, and incorrect compositions have been associated with increasingly common pathologic conditions such obesity, diabetes and liver failure.

To understand the underlying basis of lipid disequilibrium, Assoc Prof Davis Ng and his team applied advanced technologies to comprehensively and quantitatively profile the cellular lipid compositions,

Membrane Stress Response Buffers the Harmful Effects of Lipid Disequilibrium

Assoc Prof Davis NgDepartment of Biological Sciences

Protein changes linked to the Membrane Stress Response (MSR)

gene expression and protein compositions in a model of the disease state. Their work resulted in the most detailed map of a pathogenic state ever accomplished. To their surprise, the researchers discovered that cells can compensate for disturbed lipid compositions in a process they label ‘membrane stress response’ by remodeling the protein homeostasis network, a complex regulatory regime that has been extensively studied in search of potential therapeutic targets for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and cystic fibrosis.

The findings offer new insight into an important disease state and, more importantly, suggest a potential path for therapeutic interventions in diseases such as diabetes and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

Publication:Thibault, G., Shui, G., Kim, W., McAlister, G.C., Ismail, N., Gygi, S.P., Wenk, M.R. and Ng, D.T.W. The membrane stress response buffers the lethal effects of lipid disequilibrium by reprogramming the protein homeostasis network. Molecular Cell 48: 16-27 (2012). DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2012.08.016.

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Land sparing for conservation through agricultural intensification – with higher yields from farmed land meaning that demand for crops can be met with less overall land use – is an appealing policy choice for governments in tropical developing countries. It is also a central strategy of the UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). Yet, the conservation cost implications of agricultural intensification policies are poorly understood.

In a recent breakthrough study, Asst Prof Roman Carrasco, Assoc Prof Ted Webb and PhD candidate Jacob Phelps, working in collaboration with researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Cambridge, investigated the ways in which payments for ecosystem services and land sparing policies such as those proposed under the REDD+ scheme could escalate beyond expectations. Research student Mr Phelps was the first to realise just how important that escalation might be.

On behalf of the team, Asst Prof Carrasco explains that “we are reaching a point where global food demand is posing a serious threat to tropical

Agricultural Intensification Escalates Future Conservation Costs

Assoc Prof Edward L. Webb Asst Prof L. Roman CarrascoMr Jacob PhelpsDepartment of Biological Sciences

(From left) Assoc Prof Edward L. Webb and Asst Prof L. Roman Carrasco


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ecosystems”. Most land sparing policies, he notes, are currently being implemented or are in the planning stages, but little attention has been paid to the opportunity costs associated with them. “In many cases empirical analyses are conducted but it is difficult to draw conclusions due to the many confounders.” Aware that a theoretical framework taking opportunity costs into consideration would provide an alternative source of policy insights, the team proposed a framework for modelling how the opportunity costs of conservation incentives paid to farmers shift spatially and temporally in response to agricultural intensification.

The team applied the proposed model to the Democratic Republic of Congo, host to one of the world’s largest remaining tropical forests in which cassava and

maize intensification is being considered. They found that the conservation payments needed to protect these forests would escalate in response to intensification policies, rendering REDD+ payments unviable at current carbon market prices.

The team’s findings have significant implications for the conservation of tropical forests elsewhere, such as in Indonesia, which is currently combining agricultural intensification with incentive-based conservation. Asst Prof Carrasco notes that although it is difficult to make predictions about other countries without modelling their specific characteristics, higher agricultural rents associated with land sparing in Indonesia could also be allowing the expansion of oil palm plantations into hilly areas and steep slopes, “where agricultural activities were not possible before”.

It is vitally important to evaluate the potential unintended consequences of agricultural intensification. Although farmers are likely to gain welfare benefits, conservation strategies that are affordable today could become radically more expensive, and potentially more harmful to areas they are intended to protect, in the near future.

Publication: Phelps, J., Carrasco, L.R., Webb, E.L., Koh, L.P., and Pascual, U., Agricultural intensification escalates future conservation costs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 110, 7601-7606 (2013).

Figure 1: DRC forests with rents below agricultural rents under intensive cassava/maize production in various annual payment per ton of CO

2 stored (pcO2) scenarios.

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Roughly 6 million children under the age of 5 die from infectious diseases every year, mainly in low-income countries. The most common of these diseases, including diarrhoea, measles and birth complications, are potentially preventable at low cost. Although global health is a public good, like many public goods it suffers from the tragedy of the commons. The benefits of global disease prevention are shared by net contributors and free riders alike, and we currently lack the tools to manage the global health commons effectively.

Who Pays for Global Health, and How Much?

Asst Prof Roman CarrascoDepartment of Biological Sciences

A recent breakthrough by Asst Prof Roman Carrasco of the Department of Biological Sciences, working in collaboration with Dr Alex Cook and Dr Richard Coker of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, may provide just such a tool. The team proposed a new global cap-and-trade market for disability-adjusted life years based on countries’ health expenditures and the cost-effectiveness of their health interventions.

Implementation of this market would help to achieve the WHO’s Health Millennium Development Goals – reducing child and maternal mortality and improving the management of infectious diseases – by more accurately identifying the contributions expected from each country. As Figure 1 shows, the US, China, Germany and Japan need to scale up their global health donations, whereas Luxembourg, Norway, the United Arab Emirates and the UK are currently paying more than their fair share.

Publication:Carrasco, L.R., Coker, R., and Cook, A.R., Who should pay for global health, and how much? PLOS Medicine 10(2), e1001392 (2013).

Figure 1. Total and per capita annual contributions needed to meet WHO Health Millennium Development Goals by country. Norway pays an excessive share of the global healthcare burden, whereas the US has a $6.8 billion shortfall in donations.


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The Department of Chemistry continued to excel in the field of research, establishing itself amongst the most productive departments in NUS. The department’s key areas of strategic research focused on Catalysis, Environmental Chemistry, Materials Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry.

In 2012, more than 370 articles were published in internationally acclaimed journals. A significant number of innovative research papers received strong recognition from chemistry journals and were even highlighted on cover pages.

The department successfully secured five MOE Tier 2 grants valued over $3.4 million and a few external grants from A*STAR and other external organisations worth over $10 million.

Several faculty members received prestigious research awards during the Academic Year 2012/2013. In November 2012, Prof Chang Young Tae was awarded the Faculty Outstanding Scientist Award. In March 2013, Prof Lee Hian Kee and Assoc Prof Lu Yixin were awarded Hyflux-SNIC Award in Environmental Chemistry 2013 and the GSK-SNIC Award in Organic Chemistry 2013 respectively.

Assoc Prof Lu Yixin and Dr Yeung Ying Yeung also clinched the Asian Core Program Lectureship Award in Taiwan and Asian Core Program (ACP) Lectureship Award in China in 2012. The ACP was initiated in 2005 by Prof Dr. Minoru

Isobe from the Nagoya University, Japan and the “Lectureship Awards” are given to recognised scientists for their achievements in organic chemistry.

Prof Loh Kian Ping won the American Chemical Society (ACS) Nano Lectureship award in 2013, being one of the three winners selected from Asia, Europe and USA. The award will be conferred in China Nano 2013. He has also been conferred the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK).

Prof Tamio Hayashi joined the Department in January 2013 as a joint appointee with Institute of Materials Research & Engineering (IMRE). Prof Hayashi has more than 35 years of research and teaching experience. He received full professorship since 1989, first at the University of Hokkaido, then at the University of Kyoto (since 1994). He retired from Kyoto University in March 2012. Since 2012, he has been a principal scientist at IMRE Singapore.

Prof Hayashi is internationally renowned for his work in asymmetric catalysis. He has published over 400 papers and his current H-index is 83. He is considered one of the very elite synthetic chemists in the world, and is also one of the most cited chemists as judged by Thompson’s Citation Index Database. His work has profound effect and influence on how research is being carried out in many labs around the world.

Department of

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Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms bonded into a honeycomb structure, has attracted considerable research attention because of its unique electronic, optical and mechanical properties. Recent advances in chemical vapour deposition have made large graphene sheets available almost at the industrial scale, but the major hurdle to their wider use has been the difficulty of transferring these fragile sheets onto application substrates.

In a major research breakthrough, a team of scientists from the Organic Nano Device Laboratory led by Asst Prof Chua Lay-Lay has found a solution: the insertion of a special self-release layer between an elastomeric stamp and the graphene sheet. This

General Graphene Transfer Method for Soft Surfaces

Asst Prof Chua Lay-LayDepartment of ChemistryDepartment of Physics

layer facilitates the graphene’s delamination and its accurate placement on the destination substrate.

Using the new method, the team demonstrated that ultra-thin polymer capacitors and low-operation-voltage field-effect transistors can be fabricated by transferring the graphene sheet to produce the capacitor or gate electrode on a thin stack of organic polymer materials. This exciting development opens up the possibility of new and previously impossible graphene applications as ultrathin electrodes in devices.

The new method also allowed the scientists to grow the first artificial graphite intercalation compound by stacking alternate layers of graphene and a pi-electron acceptor, 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F4TCNQ). The new compound exhibits good electrical conductivity and unprecedented stability to heating in the ambient, opening up new possibilities in materials science.

Publication: Song, J., Kam, F.Y., Png, R.Q., Seah, S.L., Zhuo, J.M., Lim, G.K., Ho, P.K.H, and Chua, L.L. A general method for transferring graphene onto soft surfaces. Nature Nanotechnology 8, 356-362 (2013).

Figure 1: First artificial graphite intercalation compound created through the layer-by-layer stacking of graphene.


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Miniaturisation is driving the electronics market, providing us with increasingly energy-efficient smartphones and tablets. The trend is towards ultra-small devices, for which components based on a single or few molecules are the ideal building blocks. However, the fabrication of molecular devices that are energy-efficient, do not overheat and exhibit reliable electrical properties is very difficult for scientists to achieve. The molecules needed as components for such devices are so small that 50,000 aligned back to back would be no thicker than a human hair.

In a significant research breakthrough, a team led by Prof Christian A. Nijhuis has designed and fabricated ultra-small self-assembling devices for energy-efficient electronics at the molecular level. Prof Nijhuis notes that one of the team’s key achievements lay in solving “the problem of the inherently weak nature of supramolecular interactions”, which usually leads to instability. They showed that multiple interactions result

Ultra-Small Devices for Energy-Efficient Electronics

Prof Christian A. NijhuisDepartment of Chemistry

in kinetically stable assemblies, but that the interactions can be easily broken, which allows very good control over the self-assembly process.

The team packed assemblies of ferrocene-alkanethiol molecules onto metal electrode surfaces and achieved diodes that were remarkably free of defects. By changing only a single carbon atom in the active molecular component, they suppressed leakage current and increased the switching efficiency of the diodes tenfold. The working diode yield from the fabrication process also increased by 10%.

Prof Nijhuis comments that “keeping leakage currents down is one of the major issues in traditional electronic devices” but that it can now be addressed with such self-assembled monolayer devices in which the molecules pack tightly together. Aside from the strong intermolecular and molecule-surface interactions that ensure the molecules stick to the electrode surface and stand-up, the team found that

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weak van der Waals interactions turn out to be quite strong when summed over the many molecules in the monolayer.

Van der Waals interactions are usually ignored by researchers in the area, but a rethink is now in order. Research into transportation across biomolecules in general and self-assembled monolayer junctions in particular will benefit from the team’s findings. Prof Nijhuis says that now that they can control the supramolecular structures, the team is “exploring new types of devices and investigating molecular memory switches, and opto-electronic devices”. Their latest results indicate that light can be controlled at the nanoscale in their molecular electronic devices.

Publication:Nerngchamnong, N., Yuan, L., Qi, D.-C., Li, J., Thompson, D., and Nijhuis, C.A., The role of van der Waals forces in the performance of molecular diodes. Nature Nanotechnology 8, 113-118 (2013) doi:10.1038/nnano.2012.238.:

Figure 1: Redox-active ferrocene-alkanethiol molecules assemble into monolayer thin films on silver electrodes. Molecules that stand tall rather than crouch form tighter assemblies, dramatically improving device performance.

Figure 2: The rectification ratio as a function of number of carbon atoms in the backbone of the monolayer (S(CH2)nFc; Fc = ferrocene and n = 6 – 12). For diodes with n = odd, the molecules pack tighter and are more resilient to defects during the fabrication process, resulting in small leakage currents and large rectification ratios.


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In addition to enhancing the performance of oxidative dehydrogenation reactions, this significant research development offers insight into how graphene oxide’s acidic groups and unpaired electrons act in concert during catalytic processes.

In another graphene-related development, Prof Loh’s team

Graphene’s quality is often thought to be flatness-dependent, but defective graphene actually has a number of interesting chemical properties. Of particular interest is generating pores or voids in graphene, and oxidising and disrupting the conjugation to produce a catalytically active material, or carbocatalyst.

A team led by Prof Loh Kian Ping of the Department of Chemistry recently identified a simple chemical treatment that introduces porosity and tunes the acidity of graphene oxide. This graphene oxide catalyst can be used in oxidative coupling and tandem catalytic reactions, and thus has many potential industrial applications.

Graphene Carbocatalysts and Nanobubbles

Prof Loh Kian PingDepartment of Chemistry

Figure 1: The defective nature of graphene oxide sheets renders them useful for catalysis or functionalisation with a complex cocktail of functional groups.

discovered a new way of generating static pressure by encapsulating single-crystal diamond in a graphene membrane. As graphene is impermeable, the hybrid interface acts as a hydrothermal anvil cell. Most surprisingly, the superheated water trapped within the pressurised graphene nanobubbles etched the diamond surface, producing high-density square-shaped voids. This graphene-diamond hydrothermal anvil is a useful bench-top construct for investigating the dynamic chemistry of supercritical phases in fluids.

Publications:Su, C.L., Acik, M., Takai, K., Lu, J., Hao, S.-J., Yi, Z., Wu, P.P., Bao, Q., Enoki, T., Chabal, Y.J., and Loh, K.P., Probing the catalytic activity of graphene oxide and its origin. Nature Communications 3(1298), doi: 10.10038/ncomms2315 (2012

Lim, C.H.Y.X., Sorkin, A., Bao, Q., Li, A., Zhang, K., Nesladek, M., and Loh, K.P., Hydrothermal anvil made of graphene nanobubbles on diamond. Nature Communications 4(1556), doi: 10.1038/ncomms2579 (2013).

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Department of

The role of mathematics in modern science and technology has made significant impact over the years. The Department of Mathematics has consistently been ranked among the top 50 mathematics departments in the world and one of the top in Asia according to ranking agencies. In the 2013, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Ranking by subject placed the department 9th amongst the world and 1st in Asia.

The faculty, with more than 60 staff, engages in both fundamental research and applications of mathematics. This covers the important areas in the field including multi-disciplinary interest in science, engineering and commerce.

Many researchers have been recognised nationally and internationally during Academic Year 2012/2013, for the quality of their research. They have received research awards and invitations to serve at editorial boards of journals in their field of expertise and to speak at major international conferences.

Four Faculty members including Prof Bao Weizhu, Prof Gan Wee Teck, Prof Shen Weixiao and Prof Yu-Shih Hsien have been invited to present a 45 minutes lecture each at the prestigious International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2014 in Seoul, South Korea. Having four invited ICM speakers

in the same year puts the NUS Mathematics Department at the forefront of the mathematical community in the world and brings great honour and recognition to the department and the university. The ICM is the largest international congress in the mathematics community, with its long and illustrious history stretching over more than a century.

Furthermore, Prof Shen Zuowei was invited to present a one-hour lecture at the 8th International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM), to be held in Beijing, China in 2015. ICIAM is the largest international congress for the applied mathematics community.

The department has a strong working relationship with the Institute for Mathematical Sciences. Faculty members are actively involved in organising programmes, workshops and summer schools at the institute. Leading mathematicians and scientists from around the world visit the department and the institute to exchange research knowledge. This enhances the research field in general and contributes to the education of its graduate students.

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Since the first observation of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in 1995, quantum degenerate gases have attracted a great deal of theoretical and experimental interest. These dilute atomic gases forming at near absolute zero temperatures provide opportunities for studying ultracold atomic systems, superfluids and quantum turbulence, enhancing research activities related to low temperature physics, bright atomic lasers, nonlinear (quantum) optics and quantum transport.

The properties of BECs are normally determined by the short-range, isotropic contact interactions between the particles. Yet interest in the area intensified recently with the successful experimental realisation of BECs with dipole-dipole interactions – dipolar BECs.

Prof Weizhu Bao, who leads a team researching dipolar BECs, explains that they are particular important because “the long-range and anisotropic nature of the dipolar interaction greatly enriches the static and dynamic properties of ultracold degenerate quantum gases”. However, these BECs are very difficult to model. Over the past three years, the team has been able to address that situation, developing new mathematical models, establishing rigorous theories and designing the most efficient and accurate numerical methods for computing the ground states and dynamics of dipolar BECs.

Mathematical Models and Numerical Methods for Dipolar Bose-Einstein Condensates

Prof Weizhu BaoDepartment of Mathematics

While conventional methods of modelling dipolar BECs are limited to “a few specific dipolar orientations”, these new methods allow modelling in one or two dimensions “under arbitrary dipolar orientation”. Prof Bao’s team found that by decoupling dipole-dipole interaction potential into short-range (local) and long-range (repulsive and attractive) interactions, the Gross-Pitaevskii equation conventionally used to model BECs is reformulated as a Gross-Pitaevskii-Poisson type system. Based on this new formulation, they derived rigorous new one- and two-dimensional mathematical models for cigar- and pancake-shaped dipolar BECs with arbitrary polarisation angles.

The team also proved the existence, uniqueness, and the nonexistence, of the ground states in three dimensions, two dimensions and one dimension, and established the existence of a global weak solution and finite time blowup of the dynamics under various parameters. Their work produced numerical methods that, as Prof Bao puts it, “improve computational accuracy by several orders of magnitude from previous methods”

The findings can be used by physicists and mathematicians in work related to dipolar BECs covering such areas as superfluid properties, soliton-like solutions, dipolar tunnelling, Anderson localisation under random potential and spin-orbital

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coupling. Prof Bao notes that his own team is looking to focus on “quantized vortex and superfluid properties related to rotating dipolar BECs under arbitrary dipole orientation, spinor dipolar BECs and degenerate dipolar Fermion gas, as well as dipolar BECs under finite temperature”. They also intend to work in areas such as solid-state dewetting problems that have applications in materials science and multiscale methods and analysis using Dirac equations with applications in graphene research.

Publications:Bao, W., Ben Abdallah N., and Cai, Y., Gross-Pitaevskii-Poisson equations for dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate with anisotropic confinement, SIAM J. Math. Anal. 44, 1713-1741 (2012).

Bao, W., Cai, Y., and Wang, H., Efficient numerical methods for computing ground states and dynamics of dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates, J. Comput. Phys. 229, 7874-7892 (2010).

Bao, W., Marahrens, D., Tan, Q., and Zhang, Y., A simple and efficient numerical method for computing the dynamics of rotating Bose-Einstein condensates via rotating Lagrangian coordinates, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., to appear.

Cai, Y., Rosenkranz, M., Lei, Z., and Bao, W., Mean-field regime of trapped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates in one and two dimensions, Phys. Rev. A 82, 043623 (2010).

Rosenkranz, M., Cai, Y., and Bao, W., Effective dipole-dipole interactions in multilayered dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates, Phys. Rev. A. 88, 013616 (2013).

Figure 1: In the quais-1D setup in (a) the dipolar BEC is confined to the z direction, and in the quasi-2D setup in (b) the dipoles are confined to the x-y plane [2].

Figure 2: Dynamics of a quantised vortex lattice in a rotating dipolar BEC [5].


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Image processing and analysis have become vital tools in many fields of science and technology. While recent developments in these areas have created new problems, ideas from mathematics and computation provide a deeper understanding of the challenges generated, and new methods to overcome them.

At the forefront of such work is the Centre for Wavelets, Approximation and Information Processing. Critical to the Centre’s success has been the drawing together of expertise in applied

Blind Image De-convolution by Sparse Approximation

Assoc Prof Ji HuiDepartment of Mathematics

mathematics, computer science and electronic engineering. One of its members, Assoc Prof Ji Hui, comments that “the multidisciplinary nature of the Centre makes our research work highly innovative and original”.

Together with other researchers from the Centre, Assoc Prof Ji recently devised a method of ‘blind’ image de-convolution to address the ill-posed problem in digital photography of how to recover a high-quality clear image from a blurred image without any information about the blurring

process. This, notes Asso Prof Ji, “is a relatively new problem with few working on it” because it is “much harder to solve” than conventional de-convolution. Other methods rely on knowledge of how the image was blurred to reverse the process without adding ‘noise’.

That knowledge is not available in blind de-convolution, and the team needed to develop several new mathematical models and techniques to compensate. Rather than using the smooth functions that feature in conventional methods, they devised several new mathematical models and techniques based on wavelet tight frame theory and sparse approximation by the L1-norm. Their results include a wavelet frame coefficient-based functional that defines a clear image with sharp edges, and a new sparsity-based image de-convolution method that can effectively deal with the unavoidable error that arises in estimating the blurring process. Building on these important results, the researchers developed a two-stage computational framework for recovering images that have been degraded by blurring, such as that caused by camera movement.

The team’s experiments on digital photographs showed that their method “is very powerful such

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that it outperforms the others”, Assoc Prof Ji remarks. This has immediate implications for image correction, and the method could be incorporated into post-processing software such as Photoshop or directly into digital camera firmware. The techniques resulting from the research could also be used in imaging science. Assoc Prof Ji stresses that even though his team’s efforts focused on optical digital photography, their work “provides a solid foundation to solve problems in bio-imaging”. He points to the potential benefits that could be had in x-ray computed tomography, and is hopeful of working with biologists to solve similar blurring problems in cryo-electron microscopy.

With “many open questions” remaining in blind image de-convolution, Assoc Prof Ji and his collaborators are moving ahead with research that will both advance theory and lead to new applications.

Publications:Ji, H. and Wang, K., A two-stage approach to blind spatially varying motion de-blurring. Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Rhode Island, USA (2012).

Ji, H. and Wang, K., Robust image de-convolution with an inaccurate blur kernel. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 21(4), 1624-1634 (2012).

Wavelet tight frame Sparse Coefficient

Figure 1. Work flow of blind image deblurring by sparse approximation


Ji, H., Li, J., Shen, Z. and Wang, K., Image de-convolution using a characterization of sharp images in wavelet domain. Applied and Computational Harmonic Analysis, 32(2), 295-304 (2012).

Shen, Z. Wavelet frames and image restorations. Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Hyderabad, India (2010).

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The vision of the Department of Pharmacy is to be a leader in shaping healthcare through innovative pharmaceutical education, research and practice. Besides offering the professional Pharmacy undergraduate programme, the department also engages in cutting edge research activities and aims to be a premier research organisation in the area of pharmaceutical sciences and health services. Some faculty members in the department are known for their research activities in the region while some specialise in health issues which are of national importance.

Research activities in the department are multi-disciplinary and they can be broadly classified into three main areas:

• Drug Discovery - involves faculty members who specialise in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Natural Products, Pharmaceutical Analysis, Information Technology, Informatics and Computer-aided Drug Design

• Health Product Innovation and Development – involves researchers who are experts in Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Technology, Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Biopharmaceutics, Toxicology and Drug Metabolism

• Patient-Centred Clinical Pharmacy Services and Pharmacy Practice - staff members who work in this area of research are well versed in Clinical Pharmacy, Pharmacoeconomics, Pharmacovigilance, Pharmacogenetics and Patient Outcomes Study

During Academic Year 2012/2013, the department continued to provide research opportunities for undergraduates by offering Undergraduate Research

Department of

Opportunities Programme in Science (UROPS) projects to interested Year 2 and 3 Pharmacy undergraduates.

The Annual Research Awareness Symposium was organised on 3 April 2013 with the theme “Advancing pharmacy research in the region – Exploring what Asia can offer”. Some 95 final year projects posters were on display; the PharmD students also presented their research work together with the PhD students. The guest-of-honour for the symposium was Ms Sim Ann, Senior Parlimentary Secretary, Ministry of Communications and Information & Ministry of Education.

The faculty members continued to pursue their research endeavours with some noteworthy achievements:

• Dr Joyce Lee Yu-Chia, Asst Prof was awarded the Health Services Research Grant (HSRG) of $1.192 million. The project is titled ‘Effectiveness of Pharmacist-involved Collaborative Care Model in the Management of Patients with Diabetes Mellitus in Singapore’

• Assoc Prof Alexandre Chan’s research work on anxiety issues faced by breast cancer survivors was featured by several local newspapers

Finally, in the 2013 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World Ranking by subject under Pharmacy & Pharmacology, NUS was placed 7th globally and 1st in Asia. This is another great achievement and the department is proud to have contributed to this ranking through its research endeavors.

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Dried blood spot testing for large populations, which involves the use of capillary blood collected from the heel or finger to screen for metabolic diseases, was introduced more than half a century ago. The technique’s advantage is that it only requires a tiny drop of blood from a prick with a lancet, which can be particularly useful when screening newborn children. Samples can also be collected by caregivers and posted to distant laboratories for analysis. However, it was only recently that the technique became useful in therapeutic drug monitoring with the affordability of sensitive and specific mass spectrometers.

Prof Paul Ho and his research group became aware of using dried blood spot testing in this new way through participation in a study conducted by Prof James McElnay of Queen’s University. They used the method to evaluate

Therapeutic Drug Monitoring through Tiny Dried Blood Spots

Prof Paul HoDepartment of Pharmacy

the adherence of children with epilepsy to prescribed antiepileptic drugs, with the findings published in Epilepsia during 2013. Prof Ho and his graduate student Kong Sing Teang then extended the use of the technique to the metabolomic profiling of diseases with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), which has the advantages of high separating power and sensitivity. Their analytical approach was published in Analytical Chemistry, and subsequently featured in Bioanalysis Zone. It is currently being applied in preclinical and clinical studies, with the ultimate aim of application in pharmacokinetic and pharmacometabolomic studies of large populations.

Publications:Shah, N.M., Hawwa, A.F., Miller, J.S., Collier, P.S., Ho, P.C., Tan, M.L., Peake, D., Tirupathi, S., Bothwell, J., Bailie N., Shepherd C., Craig J., McElnay, J.C., Adherence to antiepileptic medicines in children: A multiple methods assessment involving dried blood spot sampling. Epilepsia 54(6), 1020-1027 (2013).

Kong, S.T., Lin, H.S., Ching, J.H., and Ho, P.C., Evaluation of dried blood spots as sample matrix for gas chromatography/mass spectrometry based metabolomics profiling. Analytical Chemistry 83, 4314-4318 (2011).

Figure 1: Application of dried blood spots for pharmacokinetic analysis and metabolomic profiling.


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With improved early detection and increasingly effective therapies, the number of cancer survivors has increased dramatically over the past decade. Yet, many survivors suffer from late effects of cancer and its treatment. Of particular concern are physical effects, including post-chemotherapy cognitive dysfunction and fatigue, and psychological distress, including depression and anxiety. With the aim of developing effective strategies to reduce the symptom burden among cancer survivors, Assoc Prof Alexandre Chan and his research team recently completed a series of important studies evaluating the prevalence, mechanisms and trajectory of

Late Effects of Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer Survivors

Assoc Prof Alexandre ChanDepartment of Pharmacy

these problems among breast cancer patients and survivors.

Assoc Prof Chan comments that although chemotherapy is very effective in treating cancer, it is also very toxic. “Both physical effects and psychological distress can lead to tremendous problems in cancer survivors”, he remarks. Post-chemotherapy cognitive dysfunction can involve symptoms such as memory loss, inability to concentrate, difficulty in thinking, and other subtle, cognitive changes that can last for many years. To explore how these changes affect quality of life, the research team first conducted a focus group study on breast cancer patients’ cognitive changes during and after chemotherapy treatment.

Most of the participants encountered memory loss, difficulty in decision-making and speech problems. Although these symptoms were by-products of the physical (fatigue and aging) and psychosocial (anxiety and mood changes) effects of the treatment, Assoc Prof Chan notes that “many of these patients understood the need to receive cytotoxic chemotherapy, as early stage breast cancers are highly curable”.

Figure 1: Proposed Symptom Clusters Among Cancer Survivors

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Focusing on the association between fatigue and anxiety, the team followed up with a cross-sectional study comparing the severity of perceived cognitive disturbance in chemotherapy receiving and non-chemotherapy receiving breast cancer patients. They found that the chemotherapy receiving patients experienced more fatigue and moderate to severe anxiety than their non-chemotherapy counterparts. Chemotherapy and endocrine therapy were also strongly associated with perceived cognitive disturbances.

The team then conducted another cross-sectional study to evaluate the presentation of anxiety symptom domains among breast cancer patients and to identify clinical factors associated with the occurrence of anxiety. Patients receiving chemotherapy experienced more severe anxiety symptoms than pre- and post-chemotherapy patients. Fatigue and the concurrent receipt of chemotherapy were the strongest factors associated with this anxiety, which was also associated with other neurological symptoms including numbness and tingling.

These preliminary studies have enhanced our understanding of how the mechanisms and presentations of chemotherapy-induced symptoms overlap within symptom clusters. On behalf of the team, Assoc Prof Chan thanks the patients who participated in the studies and collaborators at the National Cancer Centre Singapore and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital for their invaluable support.

To further improve the understanding of how the symptom burden progresses throughout cancer treatment, the team is currently conducting a large-scale, longitudinal study at local cancer centers. Assoc Prof Chan explains that the ultimate goal is “to utilize appropriate interventional strategies to curb the side effects that cancer survivors are experiencing from their treatment”.

Publications:

Chan A, Ho HK, Cheung YT, Teo YL. Supportive care in cancer patients: current challenges and opportunities. Adv Pharmacoepidem Drug Safety 2012; vol 1:e111. Doi:10.4172/2167-1052.1000e111.

Cheung YT, Lee H, Chan A. Exploring clinical determinants and anxiety symptom domains among Asian breast cancer patients. Support Care Cancer 2013; 21(8):2185-94.

Cheung YT, Shwe M, Chui WK, Chay WY, Ang SF, Dent RA, Yap YS, Lo SK, Ng R, Chan A. Effects of chemotherapy and psychosocial distress on perceived cognitive disturbances in Asian breast cancer patients. Ann Pharmacother 2012; 46(12):1645-55.

Cheung YT, Shwe M, Tan YP, Fan G, Ng R, Chan A. Cognitive changes in multiethnic Asian breast cancer patients: a focus group study. Ann Oncol 2012; 23(10):2547-52.


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The Department of Physics has about 70 faculty members engaging in diverse fields of research from the physics of nanoscience, condensed matter, and materials to biological physics, atomic and molecular physics, nonlinear optics, and theoretical physics. Many of its staff are also members of the Center for Quantum Technologies (CQT), Graphene Research Center, Nanocore and Mechanobiology Institute (MBI). The Center for Ion Beam Application (CIBA) is a unique entity dedicated to ion beam research.

Physics is the foundation of technology and many of its concepts and methods have shaped and influenced human life such as the invention of the atomic bomb, laser, TV and internet. The 2013 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Ranking by subject placed NUS Physics at 32nd in the world. The department publishes about 300 research papers in reputable journals such as the nature series each year.

Achievements in the current academic year include:

• Prof Barbaros Özyilmaz and his team recently discovered colossal enhancement of spin-orbit coupling in weakly hydrogenated graphene. This is a significant development because for the first time, spin currents were generated without having to use ferromagnetic leads. The team’s work will open the field of graphene-based spintronics research to a much wider group of scientists Prof Barbaros also received NUS “Young Researcher Award” this year.

• Prof Christian Kurtsiefer and Asst Prof Stephanie Wehner from CQT have used the quantum properties of light to perform the world's first demonstration of a “secure bit commitment” protocol.

Department of

The demonstration is a proof-of-principle that points towards a possible quantum technology for secure communications in the future.

• The work of Asst Prof Ariando and his team was highlighted by Science Magazine as the editor’s choice. Their work indicates that interfacing two dissimilar crystals can lead to unexpected conductivity, as best illustrated by the formation of a highly mobile metallic two-dimensional electron gas between two insulators, SrTiO

3 and LaAlO

3.

• Prof Antonio H Castro-Neto is recognised for his contributions to science and technology at the Fellows Forum during the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. The AAAS Fellowship is a prestigious association in the Physics world.

• Assoc Prof Peter Ho’s team developed a robust method to transfer graphene to soft surfaces; LKY postdoctoral fellow Wei Dacheng and his team made controlled unzipping of nanotubes for nano-electronic application; Assoc Prof Wang Zhisong and his collaborators’ work on artificial molecular motors was highlighted in American Physical Society (APS) “spotlighting exceptional research”.

These and other research achievements have certainly raised the department’s ranking.

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Graphene holds considerable promise for novel applications in spintronics and quantum information processing because it has a high degree of electron mobility and gate tunability. Yet it also suffers from inherent drawbacks. For example, its lack of an energy band gap limits its capacity to be used in conventional charge-based semiconductor devices, and its extremely small spin-orbit (SO) interaction means that graphene-based Spin Hall Effect (SHE) devices are practically impossible.

What is urgently needed is a means of dramatically enhancing graphene’s small SO interaction while retaining its exceptional high-charge mobility. In a significant research breakthrough, Prof Barbaros Özyilmaz of the Department of Physics and his team overcame these challenges using hydrogen silsesquioxane, a negative tone electron beam resist, thereby limiting the hydrogenation rate to very low values. With virtually unchanged charge conductivity, the SO

Spin-Orbit Coupling Enhancement in Weakly Hydrogenated Graphene

Prof Barbaros ÖzyilmazDepartment of PhysicsGraphene Research Centre

interaction of the graphene increases by two orders of magnitude.

This is a significant development that will finally allow the production of devices in which spin currents can be generated without the use of ferromagnetic leads. These currents will instead be generated from charge currents via the SHE. The major applications for this significant breakthrough will be graphene-based room temperature spin-FETs and flexible spintronics applications, thereby enlivening the currently stagnant field of spintronics and opening it up to the wider graphene community.

Publication:Balakrishnan, J., Koon, G., Jaiswal, M., Castro Neto, A.H., and Özyilmaz, B., Colossal enhancement of spin-orbit coupling in weakly hydrogenated grapheme. Nature Physics 9(5), 284-287 (2013).

Figure 1: a) SEM image of a typical device for the SHE measurements shown in b).

a

b


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Traditional forms of communication rely on trust, but today there are many scenarios in which two parties who do not entirely trust each other need to exchange information in a secure manner. Two common examples of these two-party cryptographic problems are ATM withdrawals and secure auction bidding. A potential solution is a protocol known as ‘bit commitment’.

In collaboration with researchers from the School of Computing, Prof Christian Kurtsiefer and his team at the Centre for Quantum Technologies recently achieved a significant research breakthrough: the world’s first demonstration of secure bit commitment technology. The researchers

Harnessing Quantum Phenomena for Secure Communication

Prof Christian KurtsieferDepartment of PhysicsCentre for Quantum Technologies

showed that their bit commitment protocol is secure as long as one party’s quantum memory device is imperfect, an assumption called ‘the noisy-storage model’.

In the team’s proof-of-principle demonstration, they harnessed some of the strange phenomena of the quantum world to guarantee security, thereby eliminating the need for trust, at least theoretically. Their bit commitment protocol was executed experimentally by performing measurements on 250,000 polarisation-entangled photon pairs, demonstrating the feasibility of two-party protocols in the noisy-storage model using real-world quantum devices.

In addition to potentially facilitating secure bidding in auctions and safe identification in various transactions, this pioneering research also offers clues for implementation the technology in future devices. For example, hand-held quantum devices that use integrated optics to implement the photon exchange and measurement process may be just over the horizon.

Publication:Ng, N.H.Y., Joshi, S.K., Chia, C.M., Kurtsiefer, C., and Wehner, S., Experimental implementation of bit commitment in the noisy-storage model. Nature Communications 3(1326), doi:10.1038/ncomms2268; arXiv:1205.3331 (2012).

Figure 1: Artist’s interpretation of two people communicating with quantum-entangled photons

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The formation of graphene junctions with other materials can improve the properties of pristine graphene, opening up the possibility of new applications. Carbon nanotubes, which are rolled-up graphene sheets, are another type of carbon allotrope that has generated intense interest in the nanoscience field. However, few attempts have been made to form graphene-nanotube junctions at the molecular scale.

That was the case, at least, until a recent research breakthrough achieved by Lee Kuan Yew Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Wei Dacheng, Prof Andrew Wee and their team at the Surface Science Laboratory, working in collaboration with their Physics Department colleague Assoc Prof Sow Chorng Haur and researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Hunan University.

Dr Wei explains that carbon nanotubes, or what he describes as the “star material in nanotechnology”, have great potential for widespread application in the future. Yet, making that happen has proven to be difficult. Before the team’s research, graphene-nanotube junctions proved troublesome because existing methods could only unzip whole nanotubes into graphene ribbons. The team realised that “a more controllable

Graphene-based Junctions for Electrical and Photoconducting Devices

Dr Wei DachengProf Andrew Wee Department of Physics

From left: Prof Andrew Wee and Dr Wei Dacheng


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unzipping method needed to be developed”, and devised a method to produce intramolecular junctions that combine graphene nanoribbons and carbon nanotubes in one-dimensional nanostructures.

Critical to this process was the way in which the team achieved control over the unzipping process. Dr Wei comments that “we produced poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA) patterns by electron-beam lithography to cover parts of the nanotubes”. Following zinc/acid sputter etching, “only the uncovered parts were unzipped into graphene nanoribbons”. As PMMA patterns can be designed with existing software, the

method will be relatively easy to replicate.

The research team successfully unzipped single-walled carbon nanotubes into sub-5-nm graphene nanoribbons to produce nanoribbon/nanotube junctions displaying typical gate-dependent rectifying behaviour and excellent photoconducting properties. They then demonstrated the use of these junctions in prototyping directionally dependent field-effect transistors, logic gates and photodetectors. An impressive photocurrent as high as –11.6 nA and photovoltage as high as 270 mV were achieved.

Dr Wei remarks that aside from potential uses in high-

performance photodetectors and nanoscale photovoltaic power sources, these junctions will also be beneficial in sensors and logic circuits. The team is currently working to “further improve the quality of the junction”, he says, “which could result in higher performance” when these applications are realised.

Publication:Wei, D., Xie, L., Lee, K.K., Hu, Z., Tan, S., Chen, W., Sow, C.H., Chen, K., Liu, Y., and Wee, A.T.S. Controllable unzipping for intramolecular junctions of graphene nanoribbons and single-walled carbon nanotubes. Nature Communications 4(1374); doi: 10.1038/ncomms2366 (2013).

Figure 1: (a) 3D AFM image of nanoribbon/nanotube junction; (b) gate voltage-dependent rectifying curves of the junction; (c) photoelectric measurement system;and (d) the junction’s photocurrent response when the laser is switched on and off.

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statisticsThe Department of Statistics and Applied Probability’s contributions to research and education in statistics and related disciplines during Academic Year 2012/2013 can best be summed up in the 2013 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings. It was placed fifth globally and first in Asia for the subject “Statistics and Operational Research”.

Noteworthy achievements during the year of review by individual faculty members include:

• Assoc Prof Leng Chenglei has been selected as an elected member of the International Statistical Institute for his outstanding achievement in statistical research

• Prof Loh Wei-Liem's paper (joint with Professor Rob Kass and Postdoctoral Fellow Ryan Kelly from Carnegie Mellon University) entitled "Assessment of Synchrony in Multiple Neural Spike Trains Using Loglinear Point Process Models", published in 2011 in the Annals of Applied Statistics was selected for the Outstanding Statistical Application (OSA) Award in 2013. The ASA / OSA award was presented at the August 2013 Joint Statistical Meetings in Montreal, Canada

• Prof Loh Wei-Liem and Prof Xia Yingcun were invited to be Associate Editors for Annals of Statistics

• A number of research papers have been published in top notch statistical journals. These include Assoc Prof Adrian Roellin’s paper in the Annals of Applied Probability in 2013,

Department of

and Applied Probability

Prof Leng Chenglei and Prof Tang Chenyong’s paper in the American Statistical Association in 2012 and Prof Wang Zhou’s research in Annals of Probability in 2013, jointly with Prof Lawler G. F.

Just as noteworthy are the impactful contributions of the department’s PhD students, including

• Ms Jiang Qian's paper (supervised by Prof Xia Yingcun) was published in the American Statistical Association

• Ms Luo Shan’s work on variable selection consistency in high-dimensional models (supervised by Prof Chen Zehua) appeared in the Statistics and its Interface

• Mr Li Xiang’s research in statistical genetics (supervised by Prof Anthony Kuk and Dr Xu Jinfeng) appeared in the Statistics in Medicine

• Ms Tan Siew Li’s work on variational Bayes computational methods (supervised by Assoc Prof David Nott) was published in the Statistical Science

Besides making fundamental advances in statistical methodology and probability theory, the faculty members have collaborated widely with overseas and local scientists in multi-disciplinary research in public health, epidemiology, demography, biostatistics and financial statistics. Among them, Dr Leontine Alkema’s paper was published in a commended medical journal, The Lancet.

The department successfully organised the third Singapore Conference on Statistical Science in February 2013 and also established the Centre for Statistical Science (CSS) on 1 April 2013.

In summary, the department has achieved its strategic objectives for Academic Year 2012/2013; its achievements are comparable with other leading statistics departments globally in terms of academic achievement.

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Improvements in reproductive health are dependent on access to contraception and family planning services, but a lack of data makes it difficult to monitor progress in these areas. Robust statistical techniques are very much needed to provide accurate assessments and projections using available data. Asst Prof Leontine Alkema and her co-researchers recently provided one such technique, devising a breakthrough statistical approach to estimating contraceptive prevalence and the

Trends in Contraceptive Use and Family Planning Indicators

Asst Prof Leontine AlkemaDepartment of Statistics and Applied Probability

unmet need for family planning among married women aged 15-49 worldwide.

Unmet need for family planning is measured as “the percentage of women of reproductive age who are married or in a union and want to stop or delay childbearing but are not using any method of contraception to prevent pregnancy”, according to Asst Prof Alkema. This is an important indicator “because it measures lack of access to voluntary family planning”.

However, measuring this unmet need is difficult. Data on family planning are obtained through national surveys, which are carried out less frequently in some countries than in others. Asst Prof Alkema also notes that the survey algorithm used to measure unmet need is more involved and not always included in surveys. Laos, for instance, has only had two surveys that measured unmet need since 1990. Other data issues are that some surveys include all women in their samples, regardless of whether they are married, or generate lower-quality data given problems with the way they are organised.

To address this situation, the researchers drew on data from many sources and used a probabilistic approach to construct estimates and to determine whether increases and decreases over time were signs of significant progress or highly uncertain change. To produce estimates and short-term projections for countries in which little information was available, the team used a Bayesian hierarchical model based on information from subregional, regional and global trends. They found that contraceptive prevalence increased from 54% worldwide in 1990 to 63.3% in 2010, and unmet need for family planning decreased from 15.4% in 1990 to 12.3% in 2010.

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This trend might seem positive but Asst Prof Alkema and her co-researchers estimated that in 2010, around 146 million married women of reproductive age worldwide had an unmet need for family planning. Given projected increases in populations, the number of married women who either use contraception or who have an unmet need for family planning will increase from 900 million in 2010 to 962 million by 2015.

There is an urgent need for increased investment to meet the demand for contraceptive methods and access to family planning. Asst Prof Alkema notes that the estimates and short-term projections she and her co-researchers produced will help “to identify populations that are in need of improved access to family planning services, and to monitor progress in improving access on a national level”.

Publication: Alkema, L. Kantorova, V., Menozzi, C., Biddlecom, A. National, regional, and global rates and trends in contraceptive prevalence and unmet need for family planning between 1990 and 2015: a systematic and comprehensive analysis. The Lancet, 381, 1642-1652 (2013).

Figure 1: Percentage of women aged 15 – 49 years who were married or in a union who used a contraceptive method or who had an unmet need for family planning in 1990 and 2010, by world, development group, and sub-region. Horizontal lines represent the 95% uncertainty intervals.

Figure 2 : Number of women aged 15-49 years who were married or in union with an unmet need for family planning in 2010, by sub-region. Sub-regions with fewer than 1 million women with an unmet need for family planning are not presented. Horizontal lines represent the 95% uncertainty intervals.


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Preferential attachment random graphs evolve by the sequential but random addition of vertices and edges in such a way that favours connections to high degree vertices – those that have already acquired a great number of connections to other vertices. Versions of such models have been used to explain the appearance of so-called power-law behaviour in many real-world networks. For instance, the World Wide Web exhibits power-law behaviour when Web pages are considered as vertices and

Degree Asymptotics with Rates for Preferential Attachment Random Graphs

Asst Prof Adrian Röllin Department of Statistics and Applied Probability

the hyperlinks between them as edges. The idea that many real-world data structures can be captured in the language of networks has led to an explosion of research interest in this area.

Asst Prof Adrian Röllin and his co-researchers recently studied the limiting distributions of the degree of fixed vertices in preferential attachment graph random models. They demonstrated for the first time that these limits are unique fixed points of certain distributional transformations,

which allowed them to obtain rates of convergence using a new variation of Stein’s method, a general procedure for obtaining bounds on the distance between two probability distributions

The researchers also identified certain properties and new representations of the limiting distributions, including an explicit expression for the densities in terms of special functions. Taken together, these results are a big step forward in expanding our understanding of the degree statistics and limiting distributions of preferential attachment random graph models, something that has previously been neglected despite the large literature available on these models.

Publication:Peköz, E.A., Röllin, A., and Ross, N. Degree asymptotics with rates for preferential attachment random graphs. Annals of Applied Probability 23, 1188-1218 (2013).

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outreach & student life

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SchoolsOutreach& student life

Student Outreach ProgrammesThe Faculty of Science (FoS) organised and participated in various outreach programmes for the Academic Year 2012/13 to get students interested in Science by learning it the fun way. The primary goal is to entice, inspire and prepare students to pursue an interest in Science and identify the many interesting career opportunities available for Science graduates. Many activities and programmes were organised for prospective students and the general public.

Faculty Tours

Junior Colleges & IP Schools Higher Education Fairs 2012/13

FoS admission dialogue by Assoc Prof Yap Von Bing to students from Foon Yew High School, Johor Bahru.

Students from Tunku Abdul Rahman College visiting the Faculty of Science.

Prof Goh Say Song addressing students of NUS High School of

Mathematics and Science.

FoS staff responding to students’ queries.

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Creative and Heuristic Applications of Science (CHAOS)

Assoc Prof Chin Wee Shong addressing students at CHAOS Finals.

Presentation by CHAOS finalists from NUS High School of Mathematics and Science.

CHAOS finalists with Dr Tan Bee Geok (far left), Deputy Director of Gifted Education Branch, MOE.

SMP Mentor, Dr M V Venkatashamy Reddy (middle), posing with SMP students at the Youth Science Conference.

3M Best Poster Award winners from Dunman High School mentored by Assoc Prof Jayaraman Sivaraman (not in photo).

Science Mentorship Programme (SMP)

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Hwa Chong Institution students being supervised by SRP Mentor, Assoc Prof Huang Dejian (standing, at the back).

SRP Mentor, Prof Rudolf Meier, with students from River Valley High School.

Hwa Chong Institution students being supervised by SRP Mentor, Dr Pannaga Krishnamurthy.

Science Research Programme (SRP)

25th Science Research Congress, Guest of

Honour, Asst Prof Saif A Khan delivering

his speech.

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Science Open House 2013 / ALIvE! 13

YES members demonstrating how to make bubbles stable to a family at the open house event held at the LT27 foyer.

Young Educators in Science (YES) members explaining the science of pop-corn to the general public at the ALIVE! 13 event (organised by Science Club), held at the University Town.

Xperiment Launch @ Singapore Science Festival

A young participant writing a secret message using lemon juice.

YES member explaining scientific principles behind cryptography at

the Xperiment Launch, held at the Marina Square, Central Atrium.

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Science Students’ Award Ceremony

The Science Students’ Awards are presented annually to honour students who have performed exceedingly well in their respective fields of studies.

Held on 7 September 2012, the Science Students’ Award Ceremony for Academic Year 2011/2012 saw 13 students receiving their awards and prizes at the University Hall auditorium.

Made possible from the proceeds of donations by individual and corporate donors, the event was graced by several of these generous contributors, who presented the prizes to the award receipents.

Outstanding Science students and various Faculty members from FoS at the Science Students’ Award Ceremony 2012.

Student LifeTo make student life more fulfilling and enriching, FoS provides various resources and services to support the diverse needs of its students as well as organises a myriad of activities to complement the academic programmes. The many activities aim to provide each student with a unique tertiary education experience, while developing them into graduates who can contribute to the society upon graduation.

Dr Karen Chong, Singapore National Institute of Chemistry presenting the SNIC Book Prize to Christina Liew Shu Min.

Student LifeOutreach& student life

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Science Day 2013FoS celebrated Science Day 2013, with the theme ‘Science in the Movies’ on 22 January 2013. The sheer breadth of the topics that movies cover provided the Academic Societies endless subjects to discuss and showcase at their individual booths. The accessibility and popularity of movies within the student population made the topic easy to relate to as well.

To excite the visitors, elaborated props such as the lightsaber in ‘Star Wars’ and invisible ink in ‘National Treasure: Book of Secrets’, etc, were brought in by the Academic Societies.

Societies also decorated their booths according to the name of the movie and the myth that they are debunking or affirming. There were many games that the students participated and redeemed a limited edition Science Day 2013 collar pin.

Other fringe activities made possible by the NUS Student’s Science Club included, ‘Guess the Professor’, where students match a baby photo or description to an academic staff in FoS, presentation of community projects plan for the year for students to sign up, FoS T-Shirt voting as well as launch of ‘Enrichment Week’ where a new

Dean, Prof Andrew Wee, being briefed by a student at the CBLC’s booth.

Recipients of certificates at the recognition ceremony 2012.

Student LifeOutreach& student life

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Posters designed by Science students from the Departments of

Mathematics and Pharmacy.

skill will be introduced to students once a week. The NUS Science Club (Science Volunteer Corps) also presented slides to showcase their plans for the year and discussed the need for student voluntary work.

Student Recognition Ceremony

A student recognition ceremony was held at the end of the day with a presentation of certificates to the various ex-presidents and ex-vice-presidents of the different Academic Societies as a token of appreciation for their contributions over their term of office.

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Science Alumni-Student Networking EveningScience alumni returned for another interactive session with current undergraduates on 8 March 2013 from 7pm to 9pm at the Atrium, University Hall. Inaugurated in 2011, the networking evenings have received overwhelming response from the students. Students’ feedback was that they benefited greatly from the conversations with the alumni and gained greater insights into the different industries and career opportunities available for science graduates. It gave them confidence and assurance that endless opportunities await them upon graduation.

Participating students took turns to meet alumni who were seated in pairs to find out more about opportunities for science graduates. Alumni were more than happy to be able to share their experiences with their juniors

as a way of giving back to their alma mater. In total, about 20 alumni and 120 students took part in this event.

FoS is thankful to the alumni who took time off to participate in the networking evenings despite their busy schedules.

Students mingling with Ms Verleen Goh, Founder and Director of Soyato Pte Ltd.

Alumnus, Mr Wong Yew Hong, Director of EU Holidays, sharing his career experience with students.

Students earnestly listening to the alumni.

AlumniOutreach& student life

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Science on SaturdayScience on Saturday was organised by the Faculty of Science (FoS) to reminisce alumni’s campus days and bonding with classmates and professors. Several Science alumni returned with their families to experience their university lives again by attending lectures and getting their hands in laboratory work once again on 1, 8 and 15 of June.

Over the three Saturdays, intriguing lectures such as ‘Science of Cooking and Molecular Gastronomy’, ‘Introduction to the NanoWorld’ and ‘Zoological Explorations in Singapore’ received very good response from the alumni. Scientific experiments and demonstrations by the Science Demo Lab saw many fascinated faces from the participants.

Alumni and family members having fun time exploring the Science DemoLab.

Family members fascinated by animal bones at the lab.

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Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professorship of Conservation Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple established the “Kwang Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professorship of Conservation” with a gift of $2 million (Endowed) to the Department of Biological Sciences.

Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple was established in 1884. The temple remains as one of the major temples with thousands of devotees visiting the temple to pray for blessings. It is well known for providing refuge for the sick, wounded and homeless, thus making it a popular temple to visit. It was granted a historic site status in 2001. An alternative name for the temple is “Guan Yin Tong Temple”.

Tan Eng Liang BursaryFoS was pleased and proud to establish the “Tan Eng Liang Bursary” with a gift of $150,000 (Endowed) from Dr Tan Eng Liang. This gift will be awarded to support six needy students in Academic Year 2014/15.

Dr Tan Eng Liang was the first South East Asia regional Rhodes Scholar. He had a meritorious career in both the public and private sectors as a Member of Parliament from 1972 to 1980. Besides his numerous senior appointments in sports, he still serves as the Vice-President of the Singapore National Olympic Council and President of Olympians Singapore (an Olympian himself). He was awarded the Public Service Star (BBM), Public Service Star (BAR) and the Meritorious Service Medal as recognition for his services to the country.

Dr Tan Eng Liang has an extensive association with FoS especially as a Chemistry alumnus and former staff. He was presented the inaugural Outstanding Science Alumni (OSA) Award in 2005 and later with the Distinguished Science Alumni (DSA) Award in 2006.

University Donations to Shape a Better FutureDonors generously gave knowing that their financial aid will go a long way in supporting the needy students in the Faculty of Science (FoS).

FoS is grateful for these gifts and donations that amounted to more than $12 million for the Academic Year 2013/2014. These gifts speak volumes about the tremendous kindness of the donors.

These donations will be channelled to bursaries, scholarships, professorships, museum project, research, book prizes and financial emergency aids. These generous gifts have enabled the FoS to develop students who could contribute to the growth of Singapore and hopefully, encourage the cycle of giving and receiving.

Goh Foundation Bursary Goh Foundation Limited established the “Goh Foundation Bursary” with a gift of $150,000 (Endowed) and $20,000 (Expendable) to support needy students at FoS. These bursaries has been awarded to support four needy students in Academic Year 2012/13.

Established in Singapore in 1994, the Goh Foundation leads various community-based initiatives in medicine, education and development, by supporting programmes that significantly improve the quality of human lives.

DonorsOutreach& student life

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$1m gift to advance Biological SciencesThe Department of Biological Sciences (DBS) received a generous gift of $1 million from the Singapore Exchange Catalist-listed developer, SingHaiyi Group Limited and its parent company, privately held Haiyi Holdings Pte Ltd. The donation will attract the prevailing matching grant from the Singapore Government.

Mr Neil Bush, a Non-Executive Director and Non-Executive Chairman of SingHaiyi said, "NUS is recognised as a leading academic institution globally. This gift, our first to NUS, will help advance life science research

which can have positive far-reaching consequences beyond Singapore." The Texas-based businessman is the son and brother to two former US Presidents.

The donation will support about 150 undergraduate students in DBS in their research, as well as fund scholarships for some 50 graduate students. The Xiamen Winter Symposium, an annual life sciences conference jointly organised by the Department, Xiamen University and Tsinghua University as a platform to promote research of life sciences, will also benefit from a portion of the donation.

Prof Tan (left) with Mr Bush during the cheque presentation.

At the cheque presentation ceremony, NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan thanked the group and Mr Bush for their generous contribution. "We will make sure that the gift will make a huge impact for the students," he said.

Following the cheque presentation, Mr Bush met students from the department where they had an engaging session discussing various topics in education and research.

Outreach Donors

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Saw Phaik Hwa makes major gift to establish a Bursary in her alma mater Ms Saw Phaik Hwa donated to FoS to fund bursaries in support of needy students. To be disbursed from 2014, the bursaries will be awarded to deserving students in FoS. She said, “My university experience is perhaps the most important stepping stone in my career. I hope to help some students realise a fulfilling career and change the lives of their family.”

Ms Saw presented a cheque of $75,000 (first half of her total gift of $150,000) to Prof Andrew Wee, Dean of FoS. Prof Wee said the gift will be an encouragement to needy students, in giving them hope and help to complete their education at NUS despite their family’s financial situation. He believes the gift will propel students to achieve academic excellence and hopefully, to continue in the cycle of giving and receiving.

Ms Saw was conferred the Medal of Commendation at the NTUC

May Day Awards 2007 for being a strong advocate for worker’s continuous skills upgrading and development, and for being a champion of good industrial relation. In 2009, her contribution and leadership in her profession as well as service to the community were recognised by FoS with its Outstanding Science Alumni Award.

Ms Saw Phaik Hwa and Prof Andrew Wee, Dean of Faculty of Science.

DonorsOutreach& student life

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SSF – Tan Ean Kiam Foundation Bursary Tan Ean Kiam Foundation established the “SSF-Tan Ean Kiam Foundation Bursary” with a gift of $25,000 (Expendable) to support needy students with the gift of bursary at FoS. This gift will be awarded to one student per year, commencing in Academic Year 2013/14.

The late Mr Tan Ean Kiam’s story (1881 - 1943) is about rags to riches. At 17, he worked as an apprentice for a merchant who dealt in rubber. He did odd jobs and learnt various trades. After several years of apprenticeship, he set up his own businesses and incorporated companies. He was a leading member of the circle of businessmen who founded the Oversea Chinese Bank (OCB) in 1919, which was later merged with other banks to form the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC). In his will, he left a generous bequest through the Tan Ean Kiam Foundation in his desire to assist in the education of future leaders as well as to help the underprivileged in society.

Graphite Zero Private Ltd Graphite Zero Private Limited gave a total of $60,000 (Expendable) to the Department of Chemistry to support Research in Graphene.

M & G Bursary Mr Teo Kee Meng and Ms Ho Gek Hua initiated the “M&G Bursary” with a gift of $45,000 (Expendable) to support needy students with $4,500 per bursary at the FoS. This gift will be awarded to one student per year, commencing in Academic Year 2013/14.

Mr Teo and Ms Ho are both alumni of FoS and they have been constantly supporting the students. Mr Teo is the pioneer member of Renal Care Pte Ltd and Transmedic Pte Ltd. He has a vast and comprehensive knowledge of the medical specialty industry in Singapore and the South East Asian region.

Commencement Class Gift 2013The commencement class of 2013 did itself proud by making a commitment to pay forward. The funds will be put to good use as bursaries to be awarded to 3 undergraduates.

Kiang Ai Kim Fundraising CampaignWe are currently running another phase of fundraising campaign for the Emeritus Prof Kiang Ai Kim Endowment Fund as we hope to perpetually award one PhD student as well as one undergraduate award under Kiang Ai Kim Scholarship Awards.

With a fundraising target of $300,000, we have already achieved about $135,000 thus far.

Ang Kok Peng Memorial Fund The wife of the late Prof Ang Kok Peng gave $100,000 to continue supporting the Ang Kok Peng Memorial Fund.

Dr Ang, born and educated in Taiping, received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Malaya in 1950, followed by a Master’s degree in 1952 and a PhD three years later. He was awarded the Raffles College Scholarship (1947-50) and the Queen’s Fellowship (1956-57 and 1959-60). Dr Ang started his academic career in the Department of Chemistry in 1952 and rose to the rank of professor in 1976. Dr Ang brought the Department of Chemistry to the forefront of chemical education and research while he was Dean from 1971 to 1988.

Dr Ang’s contributions also included serving as President of the Singapore National Academy of Sciences, Minister of State for Communications as well as Minister of State for Health and MP for 12 years.

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Rhodia Graduate Fellowship in Science by Rhodia Novecare Asia Pacific Rhodia Asia Pacific Pte Ltd established the “Rhodia* Graduate Fellowship in Science” with a pledge of $150,000 (Expendable), over three years to the Department of Chemistry. This prestigious scholarship will be awarded to one deserving PhD student in Academic Year 2013/2014.

Prof Andrew Wee, Dean of FoS commented that the scholarship will be a highly-regarded award that will enable the faculty to groom the next generation of outstanding students. It would further spur the developments and recognise the achievements of graduate students in science.

Mr Pierre-Franck Valentin, who succeeded Dr Chen recently as Vice President & General Manager of Solvay Novecare Asia Pacific said, “As a major player

Mr Pierre-Franck Valentin, Vice President & General Manager of Solvay Novecare Asia Pacific.

*Rhodia is now Solvay, an international Chemical Group which offers a broad range of products that contribute to improving quality of life and its customers' performance in markets such as consumer goods, construction, automotive, energy, water and environment and electronics.

Donors

in the chemical industry, Solvay’s ambition is to take part in the reshaping of our industry. We are excited to be able to partner with NUS on this journey to nurture future talents to build a new model of sustainable chemistry. Together, we are people asking more from chemistry.”

Outreach& student life

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Kwan Fook Ngah & Kum Lai Yoke BursaryChemicals and Machinery Pte Ltd (C&M) established the “Kwan Fook Ngah & Kum Lai Yoke Bursary” with a gift of $150,000 (Endowed) to support needy students with $4,500 per bursary at FoS. Up to 3 students will benefit from this gift annually.

Mr Kwan Fook Ngah, the founder of C&M, started the company in 1974 with 3 workers. Today, C&M has grown more than 10-fold, employing over 30 staff

and is a leading importer and distributor for more than 200 chemicals and chemistry products sourced around the world. C&M is also currently undergoing the final phase of ISO 9001 and expects to be ISO certified in November 2013.

The late Mr Kwan is an alumnus of FoS from the class of '64. He passed away in 2005 and his wife, Madam Kum Lai Yoke, the Managing Director of C&M has been supporting NUS since 2007.

Prof Andrew Wee, Dean of Science Faculty, Madam Kum Lai Yoke, Mr Kwan Wai Yew, Dr Lawrence Chia and Prof Ryan Bettens.

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Red Cross Flag Day 2013 Ten student volunteers from Faculty of Science (FoS) took part in the Red Cross Flag Day 2013, which was held on 26 January.Other than going around the island with tins for donations, the volunteers were also involved in counting the coins at the end of the day. For 12 hours (7am to 7pm), they made every effort to raise as much money as they could for the needy. The volunteers are glad to be able to be a part of this big scale Flag Day organised by the Singapore Red Cross. Together with students from other schools, volunteers and staff, they collectively raised approximately S$258,000.

Old Items Collection (OIC)Old Items Collection (OIC) was initiated in line with the thought of spreading the spirit of giving. It has been an ongoing effort by the Flag Committee of the Science Club to support the needy who are not among those benefiting from the NUS Flag Day donations.

The recipients for Academic Year 2012/2013 were Ling Kwang Home for the Senior Citizens, Club Rainbow, Haemophilia Society of Singapore, Lions Befriender Service Association (Singapore), Sunlove Abode Home and Xinyuan Community Care.

Collecting the tins at Red Cross Headquarters.

A day of hard work to benefit the needy in Singapore.

Community Work by StudentsOutreach& student life

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Community Work by Students

ALIvE! 2013 (Appreciating Lives, Initiating volunteerism Everyday)

Into its 13th year, ALIVE! represents the ideal and wish of Science Volunteer Corps (SVC) to help create a more caring society and make volunteerism a way of life.

Held from 23-25 May, ALIVE! 2013, had a carnival concept which gave our beneficiaries a day filled with fun and activities at the University Town, Stephen Riady Centre Atrium. Student volunteers accompanied the needy, guiding and interacting with them throughout the event. With appreciating lives as one of the purposes of the event, the objective was also for recipients to feel their lives are meaningful and valued. It was heartening to see the beneficiaries from Caregiver Welfare Association and Club

ALIVE! 2013.

Outreach& student life

Rainbow going home with big smiles.

Student volunteers also participated in useful workshops to enhance their volunteering skills prior to the event. These workshops allowed them to pick up new practical and soft skills, such as interacting and communicating with the elderly.

Excursion with Canossaville Children’s Home The Science Computer-Based Learning Centre (CBLC) organises a community involvement project annually as a platform to give back to the community and to forge stronger bonds between its members. This year, CBLC members worked with

Canossaville Children’s Home to organise an excursion to the Marina Barrage on 7 June.

The children were captivated by the reservoir in the city that was created with three key benefits; to provide water supply, flood control and a lifestyle attraction. Many games were organised with the objective of fostering teamwork that certainly brought much joy to the children. In addition, they had McDonald’s to sponsor lunch and Yappiz Place to provide stationary set to every child. The volunteers from CBLC certainly had a memorable and meaningful day caring for the young ones.

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Student volunteer from FoS playing an educational game with a child at Club Rainbow.

Club Rainbow @ National University Hospital (NUH):Club Rainbow @ NUH welcomes student volunteers from FoS each week to accompany recovering children at the hospital wards.

During their regular visits, the student volunteers interact, play games and help the children with their studies. It is certainly meaningful for the student volunteers to spend time with the little ones and play a part in their recovery process.

visit to Ling Kwang HomeOn 26 February 2013, 15 Science students from the Science Volunteer Corps (SVC) and the Flag Committee visited Ling Kwang Home for Senior Citizens during the recess week in Semester 2.

The student volunteers became hairstylists for a day as they gave the residents their monthly haircut. The lack of social workers to manage the many chores around the home was greatly relieved by the volunteers. At the end of the day, the happiness in the residents was evident on their lively faces and smiles.

For the student volunteers, it was a meaningful visit and they were glad to be able to bring joy to Ling Kwang Home.

Student volunteers of CBLC with the children playing human knot.

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awards & achievements

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President’s Science & Technology Awards - Young Scientist Award

Name Department

Assoc Prof Chen Wei Chemistry and Physics

National Research Foundation Research Fellowship 2012

Name Department

Dr Slaven Garaj Physics

Dr Shaffique Adam Physics

Dr Fumio Motegi Biological Sciences

Singapore National Day Awards 2013

Name Department Category

Mrs Manjeet Kaur w/o Santokh Singh Dean’s Office The Long Service Medal

Mr Ayob B Abdul Hamid Dean’s Office The Long Service Medal

Prof Wong Sek Man Biological Sciences The Public Administration Medal (Bronze) The Long Service Medal

Mrs Wong Wai Peng Biological Sciences The Efficiency Medal The Long Service Medal

Mrs Ang-Lim Swee Eng Biological Sciences The Long Service Medal

Prof Ding Jeak Ling Biological Sciences The Long Service Medal

Mr Ho Chong Mun Biological Sciences The Long Service Medal

Mr Ismail Bin Arshad Biological Sciences The Long Service Medal

Mr Kaka Singh Biological Sciences The Long Service Medal

Mr Mahmud Bin Suntari Biological Sciences The Long Service Medal

Mr Safuan Bin Jasmawi Biological Sciences The Long Service Medal

Assoc Prof Tan Teck Koon Biological Sciences The Long Service Medal

Mdm Chor Suat Khim Chemistry The Long Service Medal

Mr Gopal Selvarajoo Chemistry The Long Service Medal

Prof Hor Tzi Sum, Andy Chemistry The Long Service Medal

Assoc Prof Lai Yee Hing Chemistry The Long Service Medal

Mdm Lim Nyoon Keow Chemistry The Long Service Medal

Mdm Teo Ai Hwee Chemistry The Long Service Medal

Mr Yeo Boon Hee Chemistry The Long Service Medal

Assoc Prof Tang Wai Shing Chemistry The Long Service Medal

Dr Lita Chew Sui Tjien Pharmacy The Public Administration Medal (Bronze)

Awards &Achievements National Level

Singapore National Day Awards 2013 (cont’d) Name Department Category

Assoc Prof Go Mei Lin Pharmacy The Long Service Medal

Mdm Oh Tang Booy Pharmacy The Long Service Medal

Mrs Teo Say Moi nee Lim Pharmacy The Long Service Medal

Mr Abu Mansor Bin Haji Na’Man Physics The Long Service Medal

Mr Chen Gin Seng Physics The Long Service Medal

Mrs Gracey Segran Physics The Long Service Medal

Mr Ho Kok Wen Physics The Long Service Medal

Mr Lim Geok Quee Physics The Long Service Medal

Miss Ng Hwee Lang Physics The Long Service Medal

Mdm Chow Peck Ha, Yvonne Statistics & Applied Probability The Long Service Medal

Assoc Prof Gan Fah Fatt Statistics & Applied Probability The Long Service Medal

Awards &Achievements National Level

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Young Researcher Award 2013Name Department

Prof Barbaros Özyilmaz Physics

NUS Young Investigator Award 2012Name Department

Dr Lu Gan Biological Sciences

Honour Roll 2013Name Department

Dr Ho Han Kiat Pharmacy

Assoc Prof Chung Keng Yeow Physics

University Level

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Annual Teaching Excellence Award AY 2012/2013Name Department

Dr Zeehan Jaafar Biological Sciences

Assoc Prof Kunchithapadam Swaminathan Biological Sciences

Assoc Prof Lai Yee Hing Chemistry

Dr Chew Eng Hui Pharmacy



Dr Yeo Ye Physics

NUS Quality Service Award 2012Name Department Category

Ms Lau Pei Rong Dean’s Office Service Leader

Mrs Belinda Teo-Wong Wai Choo Dean’s Office Service Leader

Ms Maria Chia Pei Yen Dean’s Office Service Achiever

Mr See Sin Hon Dean’s Office Service Achiever

Ms Swaran Kaur D/O Hari Singh Dean’s Office Service Achiever

Miss Yuslinda Binti Yusof Dean’s Office Service Achiever

Mdm Chua Ling Lih Biological Sciences Service Achiever

Mr Kelvin Lim Kok Peng Biological Sciences Service Achiever

Mr Soong Beng Ching Biological Sciences Service Achiever

Mr Tommy Tan Han Tong Biological Sciences Service Achiever

Mr Tan Siong Kiat Biological Sciences Service Achiever

Dr Tan Swee Hee Biological Sciences Service Achiever

Miss Tay Bee Ling Biological Sciences Service Achiever

Miss Joanna Lim Yi Mei Dean’s Office Service Advocate

Miss Loh Peck Hoon Dean’s Office Service Advocate

Miss Koh Wei Kee Dean’s Office Service Advocate

Mdm Vijaya Kala D/O Kandasamy Dean’s Office Service Advocate

Ms Deivanai Jaganathan Dean’s Office Service Advocate

Ms Mok Lim Sum Biological Sciences Service Advocate

Mdm Zhou Weiqian Physics Service Advocate

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Awards &Achievements Faculty Level

Assoc Prof Jayaraman SivaramanBiological Sciences Assoc Prof Sivaraman, from the Department of Biological Sciences, works in the area of structural and functional studies of targets from infectious diseases and cancers. Since joining NUS in 2003, he has received nine research grants as main principal investigator, as well as several grants as co-collaborator. Since the establishment of his laboratory in NUS, the lab has studied over 50 key enzymes and their complexes mostly involved in cancer and infectious disease, and carried out numerous structure-based in-vitro and in-vivo functional studies. This work has led to 100 peer-reviewed papers, of which more than 60 derive from research conducted in his lab. He has recently published in top journals like “Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS)” and the “EMBO Journal”.

Assoc Prof Lu YixinChemistry Assoc Prof Lu from the Department of Chemistry works on the area of asymmetric catalysis, and his group was the first in the world to apply primary amino acids directly in organocatalytic reactions in water, and pioneered in developing a wide range of multifunctional organic catalysts deriving from simple amino acids. The research has great potential in industrial applications, with one of the catalysts developed in his lab being commercialised by Tokyo Chemical Industry Co Ltd. He was recently awarded the prestigious 2013 GSK-SNIC Award in Organic Chemistry. Since joining NUS in 2003, Assoc Prof Lu has published 105 papers, 36 of which appeared in prestigious chemistry journals like Angewandte Chemie International Edition and Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Faculty of Science Dean’s and Provost’s Chair ProfessorshipsEstablished in 2009, these three-year term Professorships are bestowed on selected faculty in

recognition of their excellent academic contributions and international recognition in their fields of research. In 2013, two Dean’s Chair and six Provost’s Chair appointments were bestowed.

DEAN’S CHAIR PROFESSORSHIPS1 July 2013 to 30 June 2016

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Prof Andrew WeePhysics

Prof Andrew Wee is a recognised leader in the field of surface and nanoscience, with his surface science laboratory at NUS being known as one of the internationally leading surface and nanoscale science groups. He has published more than 400 papers in internationally refereed journals in the field of surface and interface science, and serves on many international journal editorial and advisory boards.

Prof Wee serves the local scientific community as President of the Singapore National Academy of Science (SNAS); he is the former President of the Institute of Physics Singapore (IPS), and former Vice-President of Materials Research Society Singapore (MRSS). He is currently serving as NUS Dean of Science and serves on numerous national committees and boards.

Prof Rudolf Meier Biological Sciences

Prof Rudolf Meier’s research focus is on biodiversity. In his laboratory, he answers key questions about biodiversity by taking advantage of Singapore’s strategic position within a biodiversity hotspot that is home to 25% of the world’s species. His research is internationally recognised and contributes to society by yielding critical information on how to describe, identify and conserve Southeast Asia’s biota.

PROvOST’S CHAIR PROFESSORSHIPS1 July 2013 to 30 June 2016

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Prof Bao Weizhu Mathematics

Prof Bao Weizhu has made significant contributions to computational and applied mathematics, especially in the areas of Bose-Einstein condensation, solid-state dewetting problems, computational fluid dynamics, wave motion in quantum and plasma physics, combustion, etc. His work on numerical methods and mathematical analysis for ground states and dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensation have been published in top journals in computational and applied mathematics.

Prof Bao has been invited to give a 45-minute presentation at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2014 to be held in Seoul, South Korea. The invitation is an immense honour that is widely acclaimed by the mathematical community as a mark of excellence and recognition of his position as a world-class mathematician.

Prof Gan Wee Teck Mathematics

Prof Gan Wee Teck’s principal areas of research are representation theory and number theory, especially their interconnections as exemplified by the Langland program. He has firmly established himself as one of the leading researchers in his areas and has published in top journals such as Annals of Mathematics and Inventiones Mathematicae.

Prof Gan has been invited to give a 45-minute presentation at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2014 to be held in Seoul, South Korea. The invitation is an immense honour that is widely acclaimed by the mathematical community as a mark of excellence and recognition of his position as a world-class mathematician.

Awards &Achievements Faculty Level


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Prof Yu Shih-Hsien Mathematics

Prof Yu Shih-Hsien’s research focus is on quantitative and qualitative theories for conservation laws and the Boltzmann equation. His current research is at such a fundamental level that it could become a subject in Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE), complex analysis or engineering mathematics for undergraduates. It will also have many applications to other disciplines.

Prof Yu has been invited to give a 45-minute presentation at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2014 to be held in Seoul, South Korea. The invitation is an immense honour that is widely acclaimed by the mathematical community as a mark of excellence and recognition of his position as a world-class mathematician.

Prof Steven Kou Mathematics

Prof Steven Kou is recognised by many top experts as one of the best in financial mathematics/engineering. His most important works are on modelling jumps in asset pricing for equity, credit and fixed income markets and pricing of path-dependent options. He has published in top journals in the broad area of operations research and management science. He will head the Centre for Quantitative Finance from July 2013.


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Awards &Achievements

Faculty Teaching Excellence Award AY 2011/2012Name Department

Prof Ip Yuen Kwong, Alex Biological Sciences

Assoc Prof Kunchithapadam Swaminathan Biological Sciences

Dr Peter Alan Todd Biological Sciences

Dr Yeo Chong Jinn, Darren Biological Sciences

Dr Zeehan Jaafar Biological Sciences

Prof Zhou Weibiao Chemistry

Assoc Prof Lai Yee Hing Chemistry

Prof Chan Heng Huat Mathematics

Prof Lee Soo Teck Mathematics

Prof Goh Say Song Mathematics

Assoc Prof Leung Ho-Hon, Denny Mathematics

Assoc Prof Tan, Victor Mathematics

Dr Ku Cheng Yeaw Mathematics

Assoc Prof Chan Lai Wah Pharmacy

Dr Chew Eng Hui Pharmacy


Dr Lim Fung Chye, Perry Pharmacy


Assoc Prof Lim Hock Siah Physics

Dr Chammika N B Udalagama Physics

Dr Tan Meng Chwan Physics

Dr Wang Qinghai Physics

Mr Hong Chong Ming, Kenneth Physics

Dr Yu Tao Statistics & Applied Probability

Honour Roll AY 2011/2012Name Department

Dr Lam Siew Hong Biological Sciences

Mr Ng Wee Seng Mathematics

Assoc Prof Go Mei Lin Pharmacy

Excellent Young Teacher Award AY 2011/ 2012Name Department

Dr Chan Yin Thai Chemistry

Dr Zhang Sheng Chemistry

Dr Leontine Alkema Statistics & Applied Probability

Faculty Level

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Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards (Full Time) AY 2011/2012

Name Department

Miss Law Sze Joo, Sylvia Biological Sciences

Miss Low Yi Lian Biological Sciences

Miss Xu Weiting Biological Sciences

Miss Chng Ting Ting Chemistry

Mr Miao Weimin Mathematics

Mr Lim Yen Kheng Physics

Dr Ng Wei Khim Physics

Ms Qiu Leiju Physics

Miss Tao Ye Physics

Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards (Part Time) AY 2011/2012

Name Department

Mr Chong Kwek Yan Biological Sciences

Mr Chua Aik Hwee, Marcus Biological Sciences

Miss Huang Xiaoqian Biological Sciences

Miss Lam Kuen Kuen, Millie Biological Sciences

Mr Martin Graf Biological Sciences

Ms Maxine Allayne Darlene Mowe Biological Sciences

Ms Neo Mei Lin Biological Sciences

Ms Sindhuja Sridharan Biological Sciences

Mr Toh Tai Chong Biological Sciences

Miss Wee Kim Shan Biological Sciences

Mr Xie Zhicheng Biological Sciences

Mr Yee Thiam Koon, Alex Biological Sciences

Mr Ang Wei Jie Chemistry

Mr Haresh S/O Sivaram Chemistry

Ms Lee Si Ni Chemistry

Mr Sim Sui Boon, Derek Chemistry

Miss Wong Hui Lin, Valerie Chemistry

Mr Huang Mengmin Mathematics

Mr Ji Feng Mathematics

Miss Li Wei Mathematics

Mr Liu Minghui Mathematics

Mr Wang Nan Mathematics

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Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards (Part Time) AY 2011/2012

Name Department

Mr Zhou Feng Mathematics

Miss Gan Hua Pey Pharmacy

Ms Kong Sing Teang Pharmacy

Miss Phua Lee Cheng Pharmacy

Mr Tan Bing Xun Pharmacy

Miss Tan Kheng Lin, Meg Pharmacy

Miss Tan Siew Li, Linda Statistics & Applied Probability

Mr Wang Chen Statistics & Applied Probability

Miss Zheng Xiaohui Statistics & Applied Probability

Outstanding Scientist Award 2012Name Department

Assoc Prof Ganesh Srinivasan Anand Biological Sciences

Prof Chang Young-Tae Chemistry

Prof Bao Weizhu Mathematics

Prof Xu Xingwang Mathematics

Prof Valerio Scarani Physics

Assoc Prof Leng Chenlei Statistics & Applied Probability

Assoc Prof Zhou Wang Statistics & Applied Probability

Young Scientist Award 2012Name Department

Dr Kim Chu-Young Biological Sciences

Dr Chiu Ngar Chee, Gigi Pharmacy

Dr Barbaros Özyilmaz Physics

Assoc Prof Tang Chengyong Statistics & Applied Probability

Outstanding Service Award 2012Name Department

Mrs Ang-Lim Swee Eng Biological Sciences

Mrs Chan Yee Ngoh Biological Sciences

Miss Lai Soh Fun Biological Sciences

Mdm Lau Li-Cheng, Lisa Biological Sciences

Mdm Li Xingzuan Biological Sciences

Faculty Level

107

Mr Lim Miah Kyan Biological Sciences

Ms Mok Lim Sum Biological Sciences

Ms Nursyidah Binti Mansor Biological Sciences

Miss Reena Devi a/p Samynadan Biological Sciences

Mdm Soh Siew Eng Biological Sciences

Mdm Subha, N Biological Sciences

Mr Tan Han Tong, Tommy Biological Sciences

Mr Tan Siong Kiat Biological Sciences

Dr Tan Swee Hee Biological Sciences

Miss Wang Luan Keng Biological Sciences

Mdm Au Pei Wen Chemistry

Mdm Emaiza Binte Mohd Arif Chemistry

Mdm Han Yanhui Chemistry

Mdm Juliana Binte Mohamed Chemistry

Mdm Kang Siew Hua Chemistry

Miss Lew Huey Lee (Liu Huili) Chemistry

Mr Lin Jun Yu Chemistry

Dr Liu Qiping Chemistry

Mdm Low Eng Hah Chemistry

Mr Ramasamy Dhasaratha Raman Chemistry

Ms Wong Suk Tak Chemistry

Ms Cheong Pey Ling Dean’s Office

Ms Chia Pei Yen, Maria Dean’s Office

Ms Deivanai Jaganathan Dean’s Office

Ms Koh Li Ling Dean’s Office

Miss Koh Wei Kee Dean’s Office

Miss Lim Ghim Pheng, Belinda Dean’s Office

Mrs Lim Keng Hoon Dean’s Office

Ms Lui Xiang Yun Dean’s Office

Mr Mohd Noor Bin Haron Dean’s Office

Ms Rajendra Sangeetha Dean’s Office

Mdm Roslindah Binte Kamarulbahrin Dean’s Office

108


Outstanding Service Award 2012 (cont’d)

Name Department

Ms Shanthavalli d/o Kumarasamy Dean’s Office

Miss Sim Xiu Juan Dean’s Office

Mrs Teo-Wong Wai Choo, Belinda Dean’s Office

Miss Yeo Xiao Ping, Priscilla Dean’s Office

Ms Yong Lai Cheng Dean’s Office

Mdm Phang Chow Sian Mathematics

Mdm Napsiah Bte Suyod Pharmacy

Mdm Nor Hazliza Binte Mohamad Pharmacy

Mr Sukaman Bin Seymo Pharmacy

Ms Wong Winnie Pharmacy

Miss Yong Sock Leng Pharmacy

Mr Abu Mansor Bin Haji Na’Man Physics

Mr Cheong Mun Yin Physics

Mr Foong Chee Kong Physics

Ms Goh Bee Hwee Physics

Mr Lim Hwa Ngee Physics

Mrs Tan Teng Jar Physics

Mdm Zhou Weiqian Physics

Miss Siti Hawa Binti Budin Statistics & Applied Probability

Miss Thong Siok Kay, Melissa Statistics & Applied Probability

Commendation Award 2012Name Department

Mr Abdul Rahim Bin Ramad Biological Sciences

Mdm Ng Quee Kee Biological Sciences

Mdm Ang Hwee Hiok Chemistry

Mr Soffiyan Bin Hamzah Chemistry

Mdm Vijayletchimi d/o Kannusamy Chemistry

Mdm Lee Hua Yeong Pharmacy

Mr Mani Mohan s/o Subhas Balan Physics

Mr Muthusamy s/o Annanvy Physics

Ms Ganapathy Mahaletchimi Statistics & Applied Probability

Faculty Level

figuresfacts &

110

Facts& Figures Global Standing

Source: www.topuniversities.com/subject-rankings

The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World

University Rankings examines more than 700

universities in the world, ranking the top 400

based on academic reputation, employer

reputation, citations per faculty, faculty

student ratio and proportions of international

students and international faculty.

Subjects World Asian Ranking Ranking

Biological Sciences 17 2

Chemistry 13 3

Mathematics 9 1

Statistics & Operational Research 5 1

Pharmacy & Pharmacology 7 1

Physics & Astronomy 32 7

NUS Faculty of Science in 2013 QS World University Rankings (by Subject)

111

Facts& Figures Undergraduate Enrolment

Undergraduate Student Enrolment (By Major)

Ay2012/2013 (As At June 2013) No. Of Undergraduate Students

Applied Chemistry 57

Applied Mathematics 548

Chemistry 750

Computational Biology 21

Food Science And Technology 147

Life Sciences 26

Life Sciences (Specialisation In Biology) 11

Life Sciences (Specialisation In Biomedical Science) 1167

Life Sciences (Specialisation In Environmental Biology) 238

Life Sciences (Specialisation In Molecular & Cell Biology) 154

Mathematics 159

Pharmacy 615

Physics 242

Physics (Specialisation In Astrophysics) 21

Physics (Specialisation In Physics In Techonology) 13

Quantitative Finance 99

Statistics 359

Statistics (Specialisation In Biostatistics) 8

Statistics (Specialisation In Finance And Business Statistics) 149

Environmental Studies (Environmental Biology Specialisation) 59

Total 4843

112

Facts& Figures Postgraduate Enrolment

Postgraduate Student Enrolment (Data as at 26 June 2013)

Total Number of Graduate Students (Coursework and Research) 1174

Coursework 281 (23.9%)

Research 893 (76.0%)

Coursework Number of Graduate Students

Master of Science (Statistics) 54

Master of Science (Chemistry) 52

Master of Science (Quantitative Finance) 53

Master of Science (Industrial Chemistry) 23

Master of Science (Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology) 25

Master of Science (Science Communication) 24

Master of Science (Mathematics) 21

Doctor of Pharmacy 10

Master of Science (Applied Physics) 13

Master Science (Physics) 6

Total 281

Research Number of Graduate Students

Doctor of Philosophy 830

Master of Science 63

Department Number of Graduate Students

Biological Sciences 288

Chemistry 272

Physics 135

Mathematics 78

Pharmacy 83

Statistics and Applied Probability 37

Total 893

113

Facts& Figures Overseas Programme

No. of FoS students on overseas programmes (AY2012/13)

Programme Type Number of Science students who have gone/will be going for overseas programmes

Overseas Joint/ Concurrent Degree ProgrammesNUS-UofT Joint Minor Programmes, French Double Degree Programme 9

Summer ProgrammesNUS-UofT Joint Summer Programme • Summer Programme at UCLA, Summer Programme @ Suzhou 313 Nankai University Summer Programme • The Azekah Expedition at Tel Aviv University • Utrecht University Summer School • University of Hohenheim Summer Programme • Aarhus University Summer Programme Summer Programme at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico • The Mayan Route Programme, Mexico Sun Yat-Sen University: International Summer Programme in Chinese Studies • Peking University Summer School International • University of California • Berkeley Summer Sessions • Summer Programme at Korea University • Summer Programme at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology • Summer Programme at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich • The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology International Summer Exchange Program • Grenoble Institute of Technology Summer School • Seoul National University International Summer Institute • Cambridge Science Summer School • National Taiwan University Summer Programme • Humboldt University of Berlin Summer Programme • American University of Rome Summer Programme • Stellenbosch Summer Programme • Tohuku University Arts & Letter Summer Programme Yonsei International Summer School • Yonsei Summer Special Programme • Czech Republic (Prague) Charles University: East and Central European Studies Summer Programme • Chulalongkorn University ASEAN Youth and the Evolving Regional Architerture • La Trobe-NUS Nanotechnology Study Tour • Warwick in Africa • OdySEA, STEER Middle East • STEER Brazil • Elsinore Summer School

Summer Research UNCCH-NUS Summer Research Exchange Programme • KCL Summer Research Exchange Programme 14 U21 Undergraduate Research Conference • Brown University Summer International Research Exchange Programme • Research Attachment in France (Ecole Polytechnique) • UROPS (Life Sciences) conducted at Ocean Park, Hong Kong • Chinese University of Hong Kong Summer Undergraduate Research Programme

Field Studies Tioman Fieldtrip, Department of Biological Sciences 24

Student Exchange Programme (SEP)Australian National University, Boston University • Chinese University of Hong Kong • City University of Hong 273 Kong • College of William & Mary • Concordia University • Ecole Central de Paris • Eindhoven University of Technology • ETH Zurich, Fudan University • Georgia Institute of Technology • Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong University of Science & Technology • Karolinska Institute • King’s College London • Korea Advanced Inst of Sci & Tech • Korea University • KTH Royal Institute of Technology • Leiden University Medical Center Lund University • McGill University • National Taiwan University • Norwegian University of Science & Technology Peking University • Pennsylvania State University • Purdue University • Queen’s University at Kingston • Seoul National University • Simon Fraser University • Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne • University of Hong Kong Technical University of Denmark • Technical University of Munich • Tokyo Institute of Technology • Tsinghua University • Tulane University • University College Dublin (Nat Univ of Ireland) • University College London University of Aarhus • Jakoh, University of Alberta • University of Arizona • University of Bath, University of Birmingham • University of Bristol • University of British Columbia • University of Calgary • University of California Berkeley • University of California • Los Angeles, University of California • Riverside, University of California, San Diego University of California • Santa Barbara • University of California • Santa Cruz, University of Connecticut • University of Copenhagen • University of Durham • University of Edinburgh • University of Glasgow • University of Goteborg University of Guelph • University of Hawaii, Manoa • University of Heidelberg • University of Helsinki • University of Hong Kong • University of Illinois • Urbana-Champaign • University of Kaiserslautern • University of Karlsruhe University of Lausanne • University of Leeds • University of Manchester • University of Melbourne • University of Newcastle upon Tyne • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • University of Nottingham • University of Oslo University of Otago • University of Ottawa • University of Pennsylvania • University of Pittsburgh • University of Stockholm • University of Toronto • University of Uppsala • University of Utrecht • University of Victoria British Columbia • University of Virginia • University of Waterloo • University of Western Ontario • University of Wisconsin-Madison • University of York, United Kingdom • University of Zurich • University Pierre & Marie Curie (Paris VI) • Victoria University of Wellington • Waseda University • York University, Canada

114

Facts& Figures Overseas Programme

Programme Type Number of Science students who have gone/will be going for overseas programmes

NUS Overseas Colleges Programme Bio-Valley-University of Pennsylvania; NOC India; Silicon Valley-Stanford University • Tel Aviv, Haifa, Israel 10 • iLEAD with overseas immersions

Other Overseas ActivitiesGerman Immersion Programme, Department of Physics • China Immersion Programme, Department of Chemistry 75 Internship, Food Science & Technology Programme, Department of Chemistry • IPSF SEP, Department of Pharmacy • IPSF Conference, Department of Pharmacy • APPS Conference, Department of Pharmacy

Total 718

Note:

APPS Asia-Pacific Pharmaceutical SymposiumIARU International Alliance of Research UniversitiesIPSF International Pharmaceutical Students’ FederationICL Imperial College LondonKCL King’s College London

A group photo of students attending Elsinore Summer School 2013

MIT Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUCLA University of California Los AngelesUNCCH University of North Carolina, Chapel HillUofT University of Toronto

115

Facts& Figures Research Performance

Journal Publications 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Premier 301 336 354 431 451 505 558 574 652 699

Leading 196 179 190 232 231 243 258 249 219 235

Reputable 131 105 151 129 111 115 136 128 117 129

Others 101 84 101 72 103 102 149 121 120 184

Total 729 704 796 864 896 965 1101 1072 1108 1247

NUS Faculty of Science in Science Citation Index: Journal Publications (2003 - 2012)

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0

Nu

mb

er o

f Pu

blic

atio

ns

116

Journal Publications for NUS Faculty of Science in Science Citation Index: Citations (2003 - 2012)


50000

45000

40000

35000

30000

25000

20000

15000

10000

5000

0

Nu

mb

er o

f C

itat

ion

s

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

No. of Citations 8868 9895 14646 17977 21726 28351 34513 38448 42552 46894

117

NUS Faculty of Science Research Funding from 2003 to 2012 (in millions)

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

$ (i

n m

illio

ns)

research funding 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

External Grants 9.0 10.5 19.1 22.1 32.2 27.1 21.6 23.4 42.6 43.5

University Research 11.5 11.4 10.9 10.9 10.9 16.9 18.5 21.0 20.9 20.0

Scholarship

Academic Research 10.0 6.4 11.1 10.2 12.4 19.8 10.7 10.4 15.7 14.1 Fund

Total 30.5 28.3 41.1 43.2 55.5 63.8 50.8 54.8 79.2 77.6

118


Approved Academic Research Committee Projects

Department Principal Investigator Project Title Approved value ($) Biological Sciences Xu Jian Molecular Mechanisms for COP1-dependent Coordination of Root $539,900 and Shoot Growth

Biological Sciences Luis Roman Carrasco New Strategies for the Sustainability of Agricultural Production $359,914 Torrecilla

Biological Sciences Yang Daiwen Structural Basis for Actin-Filament Uncapping during Cell Movement $684,670

Chemistry Thorsten Wohland Live Cell Molecular Dynamics of ErbB Proteins by $905,900 Super-resolution Microscopy

Chemistry Yao Shao Qin Cell-Based Profiling of New Targets of Kinase Drugs using Affinity $560,698 - Based Probes

Chemistry Chen Wei Interface-Engineered Metal Oxide Nanomatials for Photocatalytic $896,700 CO

2 Conversion

Chemistry Yao Shao Qin Global Profiling of Protein-Lipid Interaction $532,032

Mathematics Gan Wee Teck The Langlands Correspondence, Nonlinear Groups and $493,000 Periods of Automorphic Forms

Pharmacy Yu Chun Kong, Victor Understanding the Role of MOAP-1 in Normal Ageing and $110,000 (Co-PI)* Catastrophic Brain Injury

Pharmacy Yu Chun Kong, Victor Understanding the Interplay between Cell Death Pathways and $160,000 (Co-PI)* HCV Infection

Physics Li Baowen Theoretical and Experimental Study of Thermal Transport $545,854 in 2D Nanoscale Systems

Physics Andrew Anthony Bettiol Whole Cell Imaging at Nanometre Resolution using Fast Nuclear Particles $582,944

* Assoc Prof Yu Chun Kong, Victor is the Co-PI in this project. Main PI is from YLLSOM. Note: Projects have a duration of three years unless otherwise stated.

Approved Key External Projects

Funding Scheme Department PrincipaI Investigator & Project Title / Duration / Approved value (S$) Co-Principal Investigator (s)

A*STAR - 9th Biological Ge Ruowen Structural Basis and Molecular Mechanisms of Isthmin- Singapore-China Call Sciences Induced Apoptosis toward Anticancer Therapy Development 3 Years / $250,000

A*STAR-ANR Joint Chemistry Gao Zhiqiang Developing New Microfluidic Chambers for Cancer Cell Grant Call Screening / 3 Years / $348,420

BEARS (Berkeley Education Physics Antonio Helio Castro Neto Singapore-Berkeley Research Initiative for Sustainable Energy Alliance For Research In (SinBerISE) - Phase 1 Singapore Limited) 18 Months / $2,530,000

Defence Innovative Physics Ong Chong Kim Project Inkheart Research Programme 2 Years / $250,000

DSTA Chemistry Loh Kian Ping Project Syro / 3 Years / $370,825

Leeward Pacific Pte Ltd Pharmacy Koh Hwee Ling A Study of Medicinal Plants Growing in Singapore to meet unmet Medical Needs / 3 Years / $1,030,000

119

Funding Scheme Department PrincipaI Investigator & Project Title / Duration / Approved value (S$) Co-Principal Investigator (s)

MOH (HSR-CRG) Pharmacy Lee Yu-Chia Joyce The Effectiveness of Pharmacist-involved Collaborative Care Model in the Management of Patients with Diabetes Mellitus in Singapore / 2 Years / $1,000,000

MOH (HSR-CRG) Pharmacy Wee Hwee Lin World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire: Deriving Population Normative Data and Mapping to Legacy Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaires for use in Singapore (WONDERS) / 2 Years / $488,012

National Parks Board Biological Peter Alan Todd Giant Clam (Tridacninae) Conservation in Singapore Phase 2: Sciences Reintroducing Tridacnae gigas and sustainable restocking 5 Years / $470,000

NEA - Environment Chemistry Yeung Ying-Yeung Photocatalyzed Oxidative Cleavage of Polymers and Technology Research Oligosaccharides into Useful Raw Materials Programme 3 Years / $431,690

NRF - CRP 8th Call Chemistry Christian A. Nijhuis Plasmonic-Electronics: New Generation of Devices to Bypass Fundamental Limitations / 4 Years / $4,751,100

NRF - CRP 9th Call Biological Paul Matsudaira Research and Development of Novel Interfacial Water Sciences Technologies / 3 Years / $4,830,085

NRF - CRP 9th Call Physics Barbaros Özyilmaz Toward commercialization of Graphene Technologies 5 Years / $8,753,700

NRF Fellowship 2012 Physics Slaven Garaj Graphene Nanopore Platform for Single-Molecule DNA analysis and Physical DNA Sequencing / 5 Years / $3,000,000

NRF Fellowship 2013 Physics Lin Hsin Predicting, Modeling, and Engineering New Topological Materials for Spintronics and Nanoelectronics Application 5 Years / $2,868,000

NRF Fellowship 2013 Physics Quek Su Ying Spin Transport across Interfaces in Emerging Materials - Towards Materials Design for Next Generation Data Storage Applications 5 Years / $2,864,050

SERC “Complex Systems” Mathematics Ren Weiqing Complex Systems Programme Research Programme 3 Years / $666,000

SERC (PSF 2012) Chemistry Liu Xiaogang Luminescent Materials as Spectral Converters for Enhancing the Power Conversion Efficiency of Solar Cells / 3 Years / $731,000

SERC (PSF 2012) Physics Wang Xuesen Experimental and Computational Investigations of Topological Electronic States in Sb-based Thin Films and Nanostructures 2 Years / $569,000

SERC (PSF 2012) Chemistry Teo Peili Olefin Heterofunctionalization via Triple-Relay Catalyst System - Toward Formation of C-O and C-N Bonds / 3 Years / $371,300

SERC (PSF 2012) Pharmacy Chai Li Lin Christina Unravelling the Chemistry of Catecholic Building Blocks: Biomimetic Approaches to New Materials / 3 Years / $316,400

SERC (PSF 2012) Chemistry Yeung Ying-Yeung Studies on the Controllable Inert Carbon-Carbon and related Bonding Cleavage through a Selective Oxidation-Activation Process 3 Years / $315,500

SERC (PSF 2012) Mathematics Ren Weiqing Modeling and Simulation of Moving Contact Lines in Complex Fluids / 3 Years / $262,800

Note: In total, 47 external projects were approved in 2012/2013. Abbreviations: A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) • CRP (Competitive Research Programme) • DSTA (Defense Science & Technology Agency) HSR CRG (Health Services Research Competitive Research Grant) • MOH (Ministry of Health) • NEA (National Environment Agency) NRF (National Research Foundation) • PSF (Public Sector Funding) • SERC (Science and Engineering Research Council)

120

Facts& Figures Conferences and Symposiums

Date Conferences and Symposiums Organiser No. of Attendees

23-25 Sep 2012 8th Singapore-China Joint Symposium on Department of Physics & Department of Physics 100 Research Frontiers in Physics Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China

15 Nov 2012 DBS Research Lab Talks Department of Biological Sciences 400

8 – 10 Dec 2012 17th Biological Sciences Graduate Congress Department of Biological Sciences 180

13 – 16 Dec 2012 3rd Xiamen Winter Symposium – Department of Biological Sciences 300 ‘Metabolic Regulations and Diseases’

16-19 Dec 2012 7th Singapore International Chemistry Department of Chemistry 63 Conference (SICC7) and the 12th Asia-Pacific International Symposium on Capillary Electrophoresis and Microscale Separation and Analysis (APCE 2012)

25-27 Feb 2013 6th India-Singapore Joint Physics Symposium Department of Physics & Department of Physics, 160 (ISJPS-2013) Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India

26 – 27 Feb 2013 Third Singapore Conference on Department of Statistics and Applied Probability 100 Statistical Science

3 Apr 2013 Annual Pharmacy Research Awareness Department of Pharmacy 210 Symposium 2013

6 Apr 2013 BioBiz 2013 Department of Pharmacy & 400 Department of BioEngineering

18-19 May 2013 2nd Singapore-China Bilateral Symposium Department of Chemistry 50 on Carbon-based Nanomaterials for Energy

29 – 31 May 2013 8th PharmSci@Asia Symposium 2013 Department of Pharmacy 90

7 – 8 Jun 2013 1st Chulalongkorn University-National Faculty of Science 61 University of Singapore Faculty of Science Bilateral Symposium

28-29 June 2013 2nd NUS-IMCE Bilateral Workshop Department of Chemistry 60

28-29 June 2013 9th Singapore-China Joint Symposium on Department of Physics and Institute of 100 Research Frontiers in Physics Advanced Studies & School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences at Nanyang Technological University

30 Jun – 5 Jul 2013 7th International conference on materials Materials Research Society, Singapore 2400 for advanced technologies* *Chaired by Prof B.V. R. Chowdari from Department of Physics

8-11 July 2013 7th International Workshop on High Resolution Depth Profiling Department of Physics 27

121

Facts& Figures Staff Population Profile

Overall01 Academic Staff 290

02 Teaching Staff 87

03 Research Staff 363

04 *Executive & Professional Staff 99

05 *Non-Academic Staff 193

Total 1032

*Includes staff employed under grant

Breakdown of Academic Staff Population01 Professor 83

02 Associate Professor 118

03 Assistant Professor 89

Total 290

Breakdown of Teaching Staff Population01 Senior Lecturer 12

02 Lecturer 31

03 Teaching Assistant 24

04 Instructor 20

Total 87

Breakdown of Research Staff Population01 Senior Research Fellow 11

02 Research Fellow 171

03 Research Associate 38

04 Research Assistant 143

Total 363

0103

01

0202

04

0104

03

02

0203

05

0402

01

03

122

Facts& Figures Budget Summary

Budget Summary Finance

01 Operating Budget $75,841,400

02 Research Scholarships $20,046,263

03 Equipment Budget $4,615,000

04 Strategic Budget for Undergraduate $147,459 Overseas Initiatives

05 Strategic Initiatives Budget $134,000

06 Start-up Grants $2,106,000

07 Academic Research Fund (FRC allocations only) $7,200,000

Total $110,090,122

07

03

0405

06

02

01

defining the shape of things to comeScience Matters

Dean’S Office

Faculty of Science Block S16, Level 9, 6 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117546

Tel: (65) 6516 8471 Undergraduate

Tel: (65) 6516 8780 Graduate

Tel: (65) 6516 2833 Research

Tel: (65) 6516 7641 Outreach

Fax: (65) 6777 4279

www.science.nus.edu.sg

Documents

Science Matters - National University of · PDF fileScience Matters defining the shape of things to come Report Annual 12 • 13 Photo by Kuang Jianhong, DemoLab. ... • Topological