Emeritus Professorships 2022
July 04, 2022The Faculty of Science congratulates Professor Ip Yuen Kwong, Alex, Professor Wong Sek Man and Professor Wang Shu from the Department of Biological Sciences, Professor Lai Choy Heng, Department of Physics and Professor Ho Chi-Lui, Paul, Department of Pharmacy who are awarded the title of Emeritus Professor from July 2022.
The Emeritus Professor title is awarded to full professors on retirement in recognition of their sustained and strong contributions in teaching, research and/or service to the University and its community.
Professor Ip Yuen Kwong, Alex, Department of Biological Sciences
Professor Ip obtained his PhD from Rice University in Houston, USA (1980). He joined NUS as a lecturer (1982) and was a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences since 2001.
His research areas include comparative animal biochemistry and molecular environmental physiology, where he drew inspiration from nature to solve human problems. He has published widely in international journals and book chapters, and delivered many presentations in international conferences. He also served on the editorial boards of several journals in his field.
Professor Ip is a passionate educator who taught General Physiology and Environmental Animal Physiology under the Life Sciences curriculum. He has received many awards in recognition of teaching excellence, including the NUS Outstanding Educator Award (2000 and 2005). He was a three-time recipient of the Faculty’s Distinguished Teaching Award. He also received the Faculty’s Teaching Excellence Award six times, the Science Meritorious Teaching Award thrice, and the Innovative Teaching Award in Science (1999).
Professor Ip served as Associate Director at the Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (2000 to 2006) and was a member of the NUS Teaching Academy (2010 to 2014). He was also one of the founding members of the Faculty’s Special Programme in Science, NUS’ first Talent Development Programme designed to provide small groups of students exposure to knowledge and skills beyond their academic specialisations.
Dean of Science Professor Sun Yeneng said, “I would like to thank Alex for his sustained commitment of care and responsibility to his students, and his efforts to create an environment where they can thrive and be well prepared for their future endeavours. Generations of students have benefitted enormously under his tutelage.”
Professor Ip said, “I am honoured to be awarded the Emeritus Professorship. I was fortunate to have developed a 40-year career in teaching and research in NUS, allowing me to contribute to the growth and development of thousands of students. I will continue to serve NUS and the community whenever and wherever I can after retirement.”
Professor Wang Shu, Department of Biological Sciences
Professor Wang received his PhD from the University of Göteborg, Sweden and joined NUS in 2001.
His research focused on the development of cell and gene-based biological therapy approaches applicable to cancer immunotherapy, especially building platform technologies essential for the generation, expansion and genetic modification of immune cells. His team developed several new cellular therapeutics in the area of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) adoptive immunotherapy for clinical trials. Professor Wang’s research was, in large part, supported by external grants from the National Medical Research Council (NMRC), Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). He has also published many papers in international journals and filed many patent applications.
Professor Wang was a dedicated educator, whose teaching impacted the lives of many undergraduate and graduate students. He taught 20 different undergraduate and graduate modules and supervised over 50 PhD and MSc students.
Professor Wang was also appointed to various administrative leadership roles. He was Deputy Head, Department of Biological Sciences (2012 to 2015) and served as a member or a committee chairperson on various University-, Faculty- and Department-level committees. He also served on national scientific advisory boards, such as the NMRC Local Review Panel, A*STAR Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) Local Review Panel, and A*STAR BMRC-SERC (Science and Engineering Research Council) Joint Review Panel.
Dean of Science Professor Sun Yeneng said, “Wang Shu has made notable contributions to address the need for new forms of cancer therapy. His work advances understanding of cancer therapeutics and can potentially treat a broad range of cancers, bringing hope of improved treatment outcomes for cancer patients.”
Thanking his colleagues, administrative staff, laboratory members and graduate students, Professor Wang said, “I am exceedingly proud to be a very small part of the NUS community for over 20 years and I am honoured to remain a member of the community under this lifelong appointment.”
Professor Wong Sek Man, Department of Biological Sciences
Professor Wong obtained his BSc from Nanyang University (1980) and his PhD from Cornell University, USA (1987). He joined NUS’ then Department of Botany in 1987 and was promoted to Professor (2006) in the Department of Biological Sciences.
Professor Wong is an internationally recognised plant virologist, and his research focuses on the molecular biology of plant viruses, discovery of new viruses, virus detection, replication and translation mechanisms and synergism in virus-virus and virus-host interactions for management of plant viral diseases. Of note, Professor Wong discovered and characterised a novel hibiscus latent virus in Singapore. He is a prolific researcher in the field of plant virology, mainly covering viruses infecting ornamental plants such as orchids and hibiscus.
Professor Wong served on the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses for more than 20 years and has been invited to many international symposia and plant pathology conferences as plenary speaker. He was a member of the American Phytopathological Society for over 40 years. He also served as President of the Asian Societies of Plant Pathology (2005 to 2007) and President of the Plant Protection Society Singapore since 2004. He received the NUS Outstanding Researcher Award (1999) and two gold medals (2016, 2021) from the International Society of Horticultural Science (ISHS). He is also a recipient of the National Day Public Administration Medal (Bronze) (2013), which recognises merit and contributions to Singapore.
Professor Wong introduced several new teaching modules in Plant Pathology, Plant Virology and Plant Diseases, and also taught modules in Biochemistry, and Cell and Molecular Biology to undergraduates from Years 1 to 4 and graduate students. As an educator, he has received several University- and Faculty-level teaching awards in NUS.
Professor Wong also contributed significantly to administration and service. As the Faculty’s Vice Dean (Special Duties) (2006 to 2014), Professor Wong oversaw student affairs, laboratory safety, promotion and tenure, annual appraisal and crisis management matters. He also served as the Director of NUS’ Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI) (2014 to 2021). Under Professor Wong’s leadership, NUS researchers secured the bulk of the $25 million competitive research grants under the national Marine Science Research and Development Programme (MSRDP). His team also successfully installed infrastructural facilities at TMSI’s St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory which led to significant savings in energy and operating costs – this in turn paved the way for future facility expansion and sustainability.
Dean of Science Professor Sun Yeneng said, “My sincere congratulations to Sek Man! He is well-deserving of this award for his research discoveries in plant virology and sharing his expertise with the scientific community for the advancement of biological and marine science. I also appreciate his committed service to the Faculty and University.”
Professor Wong said, “I am humbled to receive the Emeritus Professorship. I will continue to contribute to NUS by sharing my knowledge and experience with future generations of staff and students.”
Professor Lai Choy Heng, Department of Physics
Professor Lai received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Chicago, USA. Following his postdoctoral research at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, he joined NUS in 1980.
Professor Lai’s research interests evolved over the years. He began his graduate training in weak interactions phenomenology, and embarked on perturbative quantum chromodynamics as a postdoctoral researcher. Upon joining NUS, he worked on particle production and the geometric picture of hadronic interactions, and within a few years switched over to classical gauge field theories, followed by quantum field theory, conformal field theory and applications in the fractional quantum Hall effect. Thereafter, he engaged in studies in complex dynamical systems and chaotic behaviour, and the physics underlying modern machine/deep learning. Most recently, he was also involved in projects on urban resilience from the complexity science perspective.
Professor Lai has served on multiple Steering/Advisory/Management Committees and Boards overseeing the University’s administrative development and evolution to its present standing. As Head of Physics (1998 to 2000) and Dean of Science (2000 to 2003), he steered the Physics Department from the traditional discipline-based focus towards multidisciplinarity and executed the first Research Centre of Excellence proposal which led to the formation of the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) in 2007. As NUS’ Vice Provost (Academic Personnel) (2003 to 2012), Professor Lai worked on setting out policies on faculty recruitment, academic assessment and recognition, and promotion and tenure review practices. Professor Lai also contributed to the Yale-NUS College leadership team as its Executive Vice President (Academic Affairs) (2012 to 2014) overseeing faculty recruitment, curriculum planning and academic affairs.
In recognition of his wide-ranging accomplishments, Professor Lai was conferred the honour of Chevalier dans L’Ordre Des Palmes Academiques by the French Government (2002) for his contributions to bilateral collaboration within academia, the National Day Public Administration Medal (Silver) (2003) and the Suzhou Municipal Science and Technology Cooperation Award (2014) for outstanding contributions to the establishment of NUS (Suzhou) Research Institute.
Dean of Science Professor Sun Yeneng said, “We deeply appreciate Choy Heng’s leadership and contributions to a broad range of initiatives, including academic personnel matters, performance evaluation, benchmarking, university resources and space allocation that have benefitted the University and Faculty tremendously.”
Professor Lai said, “I am pleased to be able to join the ranks of my esteemed colleagues, Bernard Tan, Oh Choo Hiap and Lim Hock – they all were, in one way or another, my role models in my NUS career.”
Professor Paul Chi-Lui Ho, Department of Pharmacy
Professor Paul Ho received his BPharm (Hons) and PhD degrees in pharmacy from the University of Queensland, Australia. Thereafter, he assumed post-doctoral fellowships at the Upjohn Center for Clinical Pharmacology, University of Michigan, USA and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Australia, before joining NUS in 1993.
While focusing on pharmacokinetic research, Professor Ho ventured into different areas, ranging from therapeutics and delivery systems for cancer and more recently, neurodegenerative diseases. In recognition of his scientific contributions, Professor Ho received various accolades, including the outstanding Medical Graduate Drug Technology Mentor Award by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (2011) and the Faculty of Science’s Outstanding Scientist Award (2011). He was also conferred Honorary Professorship at Xi’an Jiaotong University.
Professor Ho was a key member at NUS’ Drug Development Unit, which was set up to advance early stage drug discovery efforts and translate them into therapeutic relevance. He also represented the Faculty at NUS’ Additive Manufacturing Centre, during which the Faculty secured significant research projects and research grants. Professor Ho has lent his expertise in various capacities, including serving on external review committees for the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) in Singapore and research grantor agencies in Asia and Europe. In addition, he consulted with some international and regional pharmaceutical companies.
Professor Ho also contributed to administrative leadership over the years. He was the Acting Head (2005) and Deputy Head of the Department of Pharmacy (2006 to 2015) and a committee member of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and Institutional Review Board (IRB), taking care of the welfare of animals and humans, respectively, within the NUS community.
Dean of Science Prof Sun Yeneng said, “I would like to commend Paul for his commitment to teaching, especially his guidance of young scientists and practitioners, as well as his scientific scholarship in advancing the discipline of pharmacology. Congratulations, Paul!”
Professor Ho said, “I am thrilled and humbled to receive the Emeritus Professorship. I am grateful to NUS for providing the environment and resources that have enabled me to get to where I am today.” He added, “I would also like to share a poem from Cáo Cāo（曹操）to encourage my colleagues and myself, moving ahead – ‘Lying low in a stable, an old steed still aspires to gallop a thousand miles away, while a warrior retains high aspirations even in his twilight’ (老骥伏枥, 志在千里; 烈士暮年, 壮心不已).”
