NUS University Awards 2024: Eight exemplary individuals honoured for their relentless drive toward excellence

Eight outstanding educators, researchers and professionals were lauded for their contributions to the University, Singapore and the global community at the NUS University Awards 2024. The annual Awards pay tribute to members of the NUS community who, through their consistently high performance and resolute commitment, raised the bar in the areas of education, research and service.

Speaking at the awards ceremony held at Conrad Singapore Orchard on 30 August, NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye highlighted that excellence is an enduring core value at NUS. He hopes that this eye to excellence will continue to motivate members of the NUS community to think of how they as individuals can be quicker, better and more productive in their pursuits.

Noting how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming every industry with great velocity, and our graduates will be moving on to jobs and sectors being changed and challenged with AI, Prof Tan said that we too must position ourselves strongly for AI. He added that this has prompted NUS to do two things in relation to its education mission, “First, we need to take a hard look at how AI will impact jobs and the industry sectors that our graduates will move on to, and the skills and knowledge they need to thrive. Are our courses building skills that are relevant? Do our students need exposure and engagement with AI, to work competently in a future which is AI-driven? Second, AI is disrupting various sectors of the knowledge economy. AI can process information and produce content almost instantly. How can we leverage on AI to ‘superpower’ teaching and learning?”

Top accolade - Outstanding Service Award

This year, the prestigious Outstanding Service Award was conferred on Mr Bilahari Kausikan, Chairman of the Middle East Institute at NUS and former Singapore diplomat, and Dr Teh Kok Peng, Chairman of the East Asian Institute at NUS and a veteran in Singapore’s finance and economic development, in recognition of their inspiring leadership and dedicated service. Both are accomplished leaders who have made sustained contributions in selflessly serving the University and society.

Inaugural Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award

This new award honours faculty members who have excelled in graduate mentoring through their dedication in developing students holistically, commitment in producing research leaders who excel globally, and have been identified by their colleagues and students as deserving of special recognition.

The University presented the inaugural Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award to Provost’s Chair Professor Abhik Roychoudhury from the Department of Computer Science at NUS School of Computing.

Prof Roychoudhury has fostered a culture of holistic mentorship that emphasises collaboration and creativity over traditional supervision, encouraging imagination and original thought among his students. Through a distinct mentorship approach, he has opened the pathway for talent from around the world to become faculty members at highly ranked universities globally. He has nurtured research leaders who have excelled on the global stage, garnering international esteemed research awards and leadership recognition both during and beyond their PhD studies.

Trailblazers in education and research

NUS also honoured the achievements of five outstanding educators and researchers from the College of Design and Engineering (CDE), Duke-NUS Medical School, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), NUS College, and Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.

University Research Recognition Award

Professor Wang Linfa from Duke-NUS Medical School, and Professor Brenda Yeoh Saw Ai from the Department of Geography, FASS, were both recognised for their groundbreaking research that has placed NUS at the forefront of their respective fields.

Internationally recognised for his stellar contributions to the field of emerging bat viruses and bat biology, Prof Wang has fuelled discoveries and biomedical innovations that have helped combat several viral outbreaks, from the Hendra virus in Australia to the global COVID-19 pandemic. He was featured in Clarivate’s list of Highly Cited Researchers, which recognises researchers who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their fields in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Holding a joint appointment as research leader of the Asian Migration Research Cluster at the Asia Research Institute at NUS, Prof Yeoh is known for her outstanding research record and reputation in the field of migration and transnationalism studies in the context of Asia. She was recognised by election as Fellow (International) of the British Academy in 2022, and accorded the Vautrin Lud Prize, one of the highest international awards for outstanding achievements in Geography, in 2021.

Young Researcher Award

Two promising researchers were commended for conducting groundbreaking research with the potential to extend the frontiers of knowledge in their respective fields:

1) Assistant Professor Jasper Tromp from NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health

Asst Prof Tromp is a distinguished researcher who focuses on heart failure, artificial intelligence, and health systems research. His pioneering work in leveraging machine learning algorithms to enhance the detection and management of heart failure has profound implications for the field of cardiology.

2) Assistant Professor Wang Xinchao from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Design and Engineering at NUS

Asst Professor Wang is known internationally for his work on efficient and trustworthy machine learning for applications, including computer vision and natural language processing. He invented the world’s most popular structural pruning approach, DepGraph, for pruning deep neural networks with one line of code in a fully automatic manner. The software has been downloaded over 125,000 times.

Outstanding Educator Award

Assoc Prof Peter Thomas Vail from NUS College was honoured for being an exemplary educator who has excelled in engaging and inspiring students in their quest for knowledge. He led the design, development and coordination of the compulsory Impact Experience (IEx) capstone course. One of NUS College’s flagship programmes, IEx allows students to undertake community service and development projects in countries across Southeast Asia and Singapore. He also crafted and piloted the NUS College Global Experience course, GEx Bali — Lombok, which focuses on marine conservation and participatory development strategies.

Website: International Research Awards

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