2022 NUS Graduate Education Virtual Open House
Live Talks Playback

Listen to Exciting, Cutting-Edge Research Talks by
World-Class NUS Professors From Diverse Disciplines!

Vice Provost’s Welcome

Professor Shen Zuowei

Vice Provost (Graduate Education & Special Duties)

Dean, NUS Graduate School

Professor Shen Zuowei is Vice Provost (Graduate Education & Special Duties) at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Prof Shen was Deputy Head of the NUS Department of Mathematics from 2006 to 2012, Head from 2012 to 2014, and Dean of the Faculty of Science from 2014 to 2020.Prof Shen received his PhD in 1991 from the University of Alberta, Canada and completed his postdoctoral training at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He joined NUS in 1993, was promoted to full professor in 2002, and Distinguished Professor in 2009. Since 2013, Prof Shen has been Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor.

A renowned mathematician, Professor Shen is well-known for his fundamental contributions in mathematical foundations of data science, especially in the areas of approximation and wavelet theory, image processing and compressed sensing, computer vision and machine learning. Together with his collaborators, he has several signature theorems and algorithms that include developing a duality analysis that leads to three mathematical principles: the duality principle, the unitary extension principle and the oblique extension principle in approximation and wavelet theory; sparsity based balanced model and algorithms by using redundant systems in image processing; and the singular value thresholding algorithm in compressed sensing. His recent research interests focus on approximation theory of deep neural networks.

Prof Shen is a prominent researcher in his various fields of research. He sits on several editorial boards of top journals and has been invited to speak at many international conferences and congresses, including the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in 2010 and the International Congress of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) in 2015. Both ICM and ICIAM, which are held every four years, are the most reputable congresses in mathematics and applied mathematics, and being an invited speaker at these events is testament to his expertise and leadership in these fields.

Prof Shen has received numerous awards and honours, including the NUS Outstanding University Researcher Award (2008 and 1997), Wavelet Pioneer Award from the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, US (2012), and the National Science Award of Singapore (1998). He has been elected as Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (2020), Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, US (2019), Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, US (2017), and inaugural Fellow of the Singapore National Academy of Science (2011).

Keynote – When Mathematics meet Management – Stories of OR and Analytics

Professor Teo Chung Piaw

Executive Director 

Provost’s Chair 

Department of Analytics and Operations,
NUS Business School 

“The purpose of teaching is not to convey information but to excite and inspire!” 

Prof Chung Piaw TEO  is Provost’s Chair Professor and Executive Director of the Institute of Operations Research and Analytics (IORA) in the National University of Singapore. Prior to the current appointments, he was a Head of Department, Acting Deputy Dean, Vice-Dean of the Research and Ph.D Program as well as Chair of the Ph.D Committee in the NUS Business School. 

He was a fellow in the Singapore-MIT Alliance Program, an Eschbach Scholar in Northwestern University (US), Professor in Sungkyunkwan Graduate School of Business (Korea), and a Distinguished Visiting Professor in YuanZe University (Taiwan). He is currently spearheading an effort to develop the IORA, as part of the University’s strategic initiatives in the Smart Nation Research Program, as well as a department editor for MS (Optimization), and a former area editor for OR (Operations and Supply Chains). 

He studied issues in service and manufacturing operations, supply chain management, discrete optimization, and machine learning. He has also served on several international committees such as the Chair of the Nicholson Paper Competition (INFORMS, US), member of the LANCHESTER and IMPACT Prize Committee (INFORMS, US), Fudan Prize Committee on Outstanding Contribution to Management (China). 

Cutting-Edge Research Talks by Faculty Professors

Professor Dean Ho

Provost’s Chair Professor

Director, Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM)
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

Director, N.1 Institute for Health (N.1)

Head, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Optimizing health to healthcare:  This is the vision of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in partnership with the Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM) and the N.1 Institute for Health (N.1). Using powerful AI-based approaches from our team, we have achieved life-saving outcomes in oncology, all the way to optimizing food security, nutrition, and physical performance. We will discuss our latest technology programmes and clinical trials that have accelerated our pathway towards the personalized and optimized healthcare of tomorrow.  

These include: 

  • PRECISE CURATE: Harnessing only a patient’s own data to optimize their care, dynamically. 
  • IDentif.AI: Achieving global health security through AI-optimized pandemic preparedness. 
  • WisDM Green: Food security, nutrition, and performance optimization. 

Professor Dean Ho is currently Provost’s Chair Professor, Director of The Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM) at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine; Director of The N.1 Institute for Health (N.1), and Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the National University of Singapore. 

Prof Ho and collaborators successfully developed and validated CURATE.AI, a powerful artificial intelligence platform that personalizes human treatment for a broad spectrum of indications ranging from oncology, to digital therapeutics and infectious diseases, among others. His team also developed IDentif.AI to optimize combination therapy design against SARS-CoV-2 and to address antimicrobial resistance. Recently, his team unveiled WisDM Green, a technology platform to sustainably address food security and optimize yield while preserving nutritional content. 

Prof. Ho is an elected Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors (NAI), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He was also recently named to the HIMSS Future50 Class of 2021 for his internationally-recognized leadership in digital health. Prof. Ho is also a Subgroup Lead in the World Health Organization (WHO) Working Group for the regulation of AI for Health. Prof Ho has appeared on the National Geographic Channel Program “Known Universe,” and Channel News Asia’s “The Hidden Layer: Healthcare Trailblazers”. His discoveries have been featured on CNN, The Economist, National Geographic, Forbes, Washington Post, NPR and other international news outlets.  

Prof. Ho is a recipient of the Tech Heroes from Crisis Pathfinder Award from the Singapore Computer Society, NSF CAREER Award, Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Translational Research Award, and V Foundation for Cancer Research Scholar Award, among others. He has also served as the President of the Board of Directors of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), a leading global drug development organization. 

Professor Liu Bin

Senior Vice Provost (Faculty & Institutional Development)
Distinguished Professor

Materials Innovations for Biomedical Applications

Dr. Bin Liu is currently a Professor and Senior Vice Provost of the National University of Singapore. She is a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Singapore National Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Engineering Singapore, the Asia-Pacific Academy of Materials, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. She received her B.S. degree from Nanjing University and a Ph.D. degree from the National University of Singapore (NUS), before her postdoctoral training at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She joined NUS in late 2005 and was promoted to Dean’s Chair Professor in 2014, Provost’s Chair Professor in 2017, and Distinguished Professor in 2022.     

Liu’s research is focused on organic nanomaterials for energy and biomedical applications.  She is among the World’s Most Influential Minds and the Top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in Materials Science and Chemistry 2014-2021. Liu has received many prestigious awards, and the recent ones include ACS Nano Lectureship Award 2019 and the RSC Centenary Prize and Medal 2021. Liu is passionate about nurturing the next generation of research leaders and encouraging more women to pursue careers in science, engineering, and nanotechnology.

Associate Professor Low Boon Chuan

Deputy Head, Department of Biological Sciences
Principal Investigator, Mechanobiology Institute (MBI)

Understanding how our body functions require dissecting, re-constructing and integrating various physical and chemical processes across multiple levels of precision and organization. In this talk, I will explore how the use of genetic, physical, biochemical, and engineering principles and tools have allowed us to unravel the mystery of life (and diseases) underpinned by cells’ capabilities versus malfunctions in communicating with one another and with the tissue microenvironment. Some of the latest advancements in the field of mechanobiology and the prospects of offering new avenues to treatment will be discussed.

Associate Professor Boon Chuan Low is a Principal Investigator at the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) and Deputy Head of the Department of Biological Sciences, NUS. He discovered the novel BCH protein domains in 2000 and leads an interdisciplinary research team that elucidate their versatile functions in scaffolding key signalling proteins such as GTPases, kinases and metabolic enzymes to control cell and tissue growth, differentiation, and cell dynamics. Their work is paving the ways for better understanding of cancer, neurological disorders, and cardiac ageing. A/P Low was a founding member of MBI and now also serving as Associate Dean at the NUS College to promote interdisciplinary education.  

More info: https://www.mbi.nus.edu.sg/low-boon-chuan/  

Associate Professor Yang Hong Shun

Associate Professor

Department of Food Science & Technology

Foodomics: A Bridge Connects Food Science and Nutrition 

My overall research interests are sustainable food processing and safety engineering. Our mission is to improve the sustainability and safety of food production through applying processing and engineering knowledge and technology, and develop rapid detection and processing technology for detecting and controlling hazards unintentionally or intentionally added into food supply chain. The goal of our research is to provide valid solutions to improve our capability in food security and defense in addition to sustainability. Our group has also established a strong collaboration with food companies.

  1. Organic Food Processing
  2. Food Safety Engineering
  3. Food Metabolomics
  4. Sustainable Food Processing via Byproduct Utilization
  5. Food Nanotechnology
  6. Food Security

Associate Professor Hahn Jungpil

Associate Professor
Deputy Director (AI Governance), AI Singapore
Deputy Director, Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & the Law
Director, NUS Fintech Lab

Making the Crowd Wiser: (Re)combination through Teaming in Crowdsourcing

Jungpil Hahn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Information Systems and Analytics at the School of Computing at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He served as the Head of the Department of Information Systems and Analytics from July 2015 to June 2021. Prior to joining NUS, he was an Assistant Professor of Management at the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University in West Lafayette (IN) and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Information Systems at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (PA). He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Business Administration from Yonsei University in Seoul Korea and he earned his Ph.D. in Information and Decision Sciences from the Carlson School of Management at The University of Minnesota. Professor Hahn’s research focuses on open innovation, organizational learning and knowledge management, software development processes, software project management and human-computer interaction. His research has been published in Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Organization Science, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Management Information Systems, Information Systems Frontiers, International Journal of Business and Globalization, Theoretical Issues in Ergonomic Science, the ACM Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction and the Korean Management Science Review as well as in proceedings of major conferences such as the International Conference on Information Systems, the Annual Workshop on HCI Research in MIS, the International Conference on Electronic Commerce, the International Conference on Open Source Systems, the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences and the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. His research has also been presented at major conferences such as the INFORMS Annual Meeting, the INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technology, the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, the Association of Consumer Research Pre-Conference on Consumer Behavior Online, the Workshop on Information Systems and Economics, the Workshop on Information Technology and Systems and the Annual Meeting of the Productions and Operations Management Society. Professor Hahn has also contributed essays to multiple edited volumes including Economics, Information Systems and Electronic Commerce: Empirical Advances (R. J. Kauffman and P. P. Tallon, eds.), IT-enabled Strategic Management: Increasing Returns for the Organization (B. A. Walters and A. Tang, eds.) and E-Business Management: Integration of Web Technologies with Business Models (M. Shaw, ed.). Professor Hahn has received numerous awards and accolades for his research, teaching and service. He is a recipient of three “Best Paper in Track” Awards for the Sharing Economy, Platforms and Crowd, Advances in Research Methods and the IS Development and Project Management Tracks at the International Conference in Information Systems (2021 and 2022), the “Best Paper Award” at the Workshop on Information Technology and Systems (WITS) in 2016, and the “Best 2013 Published Paper Award” from the Organizational Communication and Information Systems (OCIS) Division of the Academy of Management. He was nominated for the “Best Paper Award” at the International Conference on Electronic Commerce in 2007 and for the “Best Division Paper Award” at the Academy of Management in 2011 (Organization and Management Theory Division) and 2017 (Entrepreneurship Division) . Professor Hahn was named “Krannert Distinguished Teacher” numerous times in the MBA program at the Krannert Graduate School of Management and received the Faculty Teaching Excellence Award (FTEA) at NUS School of Computing in 2014. Professor Hahn’s service to the academic community was also recognized by being named “Outstanding Reviewer” for IEEE Internet Computing in 2002 and was awarded the “Best Reviewer Award” in 2009 by the INFORMS Information Systems Society for his outstanding service for Information Systems Research.

Assistant Professor John Chen Yu-Shen

Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology

Pathogenicity Islands co-opt virulence factors from the 
Staphylococcus aureus chromosome by a novel form of Lateral Transduction

Research in the Chen lab focuses on the bacteriophages and pathogenicity islands of the bacterial pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. Recently, his laboratory has identified and characterized several novel and powerful mechanisms of gene transfer that are proposed to be the major means by which S. aureus evolves and acquires the antibiotic resistance and virulence factors that accelerate the emergence of new and progressively more pathogenic strains. 

Dr. Chen received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his Ph.D. from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine in the New York University School of Medicine before joining the National University of Singapore faculty in 2015.  

Associate Professor Polly Chen Leilei

Principal Investigator, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore 

Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, 

How changes in Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) Contributes to Cancer

Dr Polly Leilei Chen got her Bachelor of Medicine in 2002 from Jiangsu University, China, followed by a 2-year specialized training program in Obstetrics & Genecology. In 2006-2012, she completed her PhD in Cancer Genetics in Professor Xin-Yuan Guan’s laboratory at the University of Hong Kong and had her postdoctoral training in the same laboratory. In 2014, Dr Chen joined National University of Singapore (NUS) as an Assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy and Principal Investigator at Cancer Science Institute of Singapore. She has recently been promoted to Associate Professor. Dr Chen currently places her research focus on functional and mechanistic investigation of RNA changes leading to cancer initiation, relapse post treatment, and drug resistance; and understanding how pre-neoplastic and tumor cells develop immune evasion mechanisms through impairing RNA sensing and immune activation.  

Eminent Alumni Insights – The Heart of Data and AI

Dr Tok Wee Hyong

Senior Director
Cloud and AI
Microsoft

Wee Hyong is Senior Director with the Cloud and AI organization at Microsoft. He is a seasoned Data and AI leader with a proven track record of running a multi-million dollar business, and growing it to sustained industry leadership positions. He deeply believes in building enduring and empowered teams and is responsible for managing global and multi-disciplinary teams of product managers, engineers and data scientists over his career at Microsoft. He has worn many hats -developer, product manager, data scientist, researcher, and technical advisor. In addition, he is the author of more than 10 Data and AI books. These rich career experiences have given him unique super powers to solve some of the world’s most complex technology problems.

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Cutting-Edge Research Talks by Faculty Professors

Assistant Professor Selina Ho

Co-Director of Centre on Asia and Globalisation

Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

Infrastructure and Chinese Power: Insights from China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Selina Hois Assistant Professor in International Affairs and Co-Director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. She researches Chinese politics and foreign policy, with a focus on how China wields power and influence via infrastructure and water disputes in Southeast Asia and South Asia. Selina is the author ofThirsty Cities: Social Contracts and Public Goods Provision in China and India and co-author ofRivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia. Her articles are published in top international relations and area studies journals. 

A/P Ong Wei Jee

Assistant Professor, NUS Business School

How Do Leaders Respond To Social Constraints Experiments and Field Studies in Emotions and Ethics

Wei Jee Ong is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organisation at NUS Business School. He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the University of Washington. His research focuses on leadership, ethics, and job design. He is interested in how individuals respond to different types of constraints in these domains, such as how social norms and job characteristics constrain leaders and other organizational members. His research uses a combination of field and experimental studies, and has been published in leading management journals. 

Professor Paul Simon Kench

Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee

Professor, Department of Geography

The Response of Coral Reef Islands to Sea-level Rise

Dr Kench is Professor of Tropical Coastal Dynamics in the Department of Geography, NUS. His research focusses on understanding the evolution and dynamics of coral reef islands in response to climatic variability and sea level change. His research has made a significant contribution to global discussion regarding the physical stability of atoll islands, and the future adaptation options for small island nations. Having worked extensively with agencies and communities in the Maldives and Pacific to explore responses to environmental change, he was invited to present the findings of his work at the UN General Assembly in 2018.

Assistant Professor Trevor Erik Carlson

Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science

Security in Computer Architecture Research: Protecting Processors with Low-Overhead Methodologies

Trevor E. Carlson is an Assistant Professor at the School of Computing at the National University of Singapore. He has previously worked as a Computer Architect at IBM, Intel and IMEC, and has studied at Carnegie Mellon (BS, MS), Ghent University (PhD) worked at Uppsala University as a postdoctoral researcher. His interests lie in secure and efficient computing and accelerator design, as well as simulation and sampling methodologies. He has recently been awarded Amazon, Intel and VMWare Research Awards. His work has received six Best Paper or Best Paper Nominations in conferences such as the International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO) and the International Symposium on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software (ISPASS).

Vice Dean Roundtable Forum

In the Vice Dean Roundtable Forum, hear highlights about the multitude of graduate programs in the major faculties at NUS. Click their pictures to read their biographies.

Arts & Social Sciences

Associate Professor Bruce Lockhart

Vice Dean for Graduate Studies Division

Computing

 

Professor Dong Jin Song

 

Assistant Dean, Graduate Studies

Design & Engineering

Professor Wong Nyuk Hien

 

Vice Dean, Graduate Research Programmes

Medicine

 

Associate Professor Kevin Tan

Vice-Dean, Graduate Studies

Public Policy

Professor Suzaina Bte Abdul Kadir 

Vice Dean,
Academic Affairs

Science

Professor Bao Weizhu

Vice Dean for Graduate Matters and Academic Affairs, Faculty of Science

Duke-NUS

Professor Silke Vogel

Senior Associate Dean, Graduate Studies

Discussion Forum with NUS PhD Alumni and Students

Find out if graduate studies at NUS is right for you by listening to our alumni and graduate students during the Alumni / Graduate Student Discussion Forum.

Alumni

Business

Professor Long Zhouyu Daniel

Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Computing

Professor Liu Yang

 

Professor, Nanyang Technological University

Program Director, HP-NTU Corporate Lab

Deputy Director, National Satellite of Excellence of Singapore

Arts & Social Sciences

Arts n Social Sciences Zhuo Chen- sq

Dr Chen Zhuo

 

Assistant Professor
Peking University

Medicine

Medicine WANG YU-Square

Dr Wang Yu

Chief Technology Officer
Precision Genomics Biotechnology

Graduate Students

Arts

Ma Xiaofen

Admit Year: 2016

Business

Yan Liuxin

Admit Year: 2020

Computing

Alagappan Lakshmi

Admit Year: 2019

Medicine

Claire Neo Wen Ying

Admit Year: 2019

Science

Tang Wei Tat Lloyd

Admit Year: 2019

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