A Publication of National University of Singapore

SEPTEMBER 2011

Rag & Flag 2011 on National Day

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First Kwa Geok Choo Professor in Property LawProf Kevin John Gray, Dean of Trinity College in the University of Cambridge, was appointed as the first Kwa Geok Choo Professor in Property Law, a new Chair which he will hold for a term of three years, starting from August 2011.

The Kwa Geok Choo Professorship is one of four key initiatives by NUS to honour the late Madam Kwa Geok Choo, a leading property lawyer and the wife of former Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. She co-founded Lee & Lee, one of Singapore’s top law firms, with her husband and his younger brother, and went on to excel as a conveyancing lawyer, mentoring many others in the process.

Honoured by the appointment, Prof Gray said: “I believe that an education in land law and its future development represents a vital interest of any nation, particularly for a land-

scarce city like Singapore. As the first appointee to this Professorship, I am devoted to making meaningful contributions to NUS and the entire

legal community.”

Dean of the NUS Faculty of Law Prof Tan Cheng Han said: “Professor Kevin Gray is a scholar of undoubted academic excellence and is acknowledged within the common law world as a leading scholar of land law.” He added that as the first holder of the Chair, Prof Gray will set the standard for future appointees and bring to the law school a wealth of experience that will benefit both his peers and the student community.

Besides the Professorship, NUS had also set up bursaries

and graduate scholarships and will establish a distinguished visitors programme, as a tribute to Madam Kwa.

New and improved financial schemes for sports achievers Starting from this academic year, NUS will award five Sports Scholarships per year to incoming students who have excelled both in sports and in their studies. It is the first local university to offer a full Sports Scholarship. In addition, the NUS Sports Grants given to five current students each year will also be enhanced to offer the same terms as the Scholarship. At steady state, a total of $523,000 will be made available annually to the 10 recipients from both schemes.

Said Dean of Students Assoc Prof Tan Teck Koon: “The new NUS Sports Scholarships and the enhanced NUS Sports Grants attest to the University’s commitment towards providing our students with a high quality educational experience that goes beyond academic performance.”

The Sports Scholarship covers tuition fee as well as living and accommodation allowance. Applicable throughout the recipient’s period of study, it is renewable yearly, subject to the student’s fulfillment of the award criteria. The Sports Grant is valid for one year and has benefitted some 26 students since its inception in 2006.

Inaugural Sports Scholarship recipientsMs Christel Fung Shufen (Business School) – Swimming

Mr Andrew Lim Xin En (Faculty of Dentistry) – Swimming

Ms Jaime Lye May-Yee (Faculty of Law) – Netball

Ms Goh Chui Ling (Faculty of Law) – Track & Field

Ms Maxine Lam Aiting (Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine) – Canoeing/Dragonboat

Kwa Geok Choo Professor in Property Law Kevin John Gray

We hope that the scholarships and grants will strongly encourage our student-athletes

and spur them on to achieve greater heights of sporting and academic excellence.

– Assoc Prof Tan Teck Koon

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NUS moves to 28th place in QS World University RankingsNUS moved up three spots from last year’s 31st position to 28th in the latest QS World University Rankings® 2011/12, which ranked the world’s top 300 universities.

NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan said: “We are delighted that NUS has been consistently placed amongst the leading universities in the world. This year’s placing reflects a strong recognition from global employers and academia of the world-class quality of NUS’ education and research. We will continue to build on our strengths in education and research, and create distinctive value for our students, graduates and Singapore.”

The rankings were based on six indicators – academic reputation, employer reputation,

citations per faculty, student-faculty ratio, international faculty and international students – reflected in surveys conducted with over 33,000 academics and 16,000 employers.

NUS had earlier clinched the 3rd spot in the 2011 QS Asian University Rankings released in May 2011. It was ranked 1st in Asia for employer reputation and 2nd in Asia for academic reputation, international faculty and international students.

In the 2011 QS World University Rankings® by Subject, NUS came up tops among Asian universities in most of the subjects and was also listed amongst the world’s top 30 universities across all these disciplines.

Law talents excelThe NUS Faculty of Law has bagged the top prize in two competitions – the International Negotiation Competition (INC) held in Denmark and the inaugural Attorney-General’s Cup in Singapore.

Beating 19 competitors from around the world, a duo of fourth-year students, Mr Andre Tan Qing Yang and Mr Marcus Lim Tao Shien, became the first Singapore team to win the annual INC, an international law student competition, since its launch in 1998.

Recounting his experience, Andre said: “What I like most about the competition is that we got to negotiate and compete with teams from different countries and different cultures. It provided a glimpse of the state of the current legal practice in our globalised world.”

In another competition, third-year law student Mr Chin Jincheng was declared the champion at the inaugural Attorney-General’s Cup, organised by the NUS Criminal Justice Club with support from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and the Singapore Management University (SMU) Moot Court Club.

Attorney-General Sundaresh Menon and Judges of Appeal Andrew Phang and V K Rajah presided over the finals at the NUS Moot Court, where the eight-member teams fielded by NUS and SMU engaged in rounds of one-on-one face-offs. Said Jincheng: “I have learnt a lot and the competition definitely helped to generate interest in the practice of criminal law.” The top four mooters were also awarded one-month internships at the AGC.

NUS student Mr Chin Jincheng receiving the top award from Attorney-General Sundaresh Menon (far left)

(From left) Coach Assoc Prof Joel Lee Tye Beng, INC winning duo Marcus Lim and Andre Tan, and Law Dean Prof Tan Cheng Han

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4The Faculty of Science’s Most Environmentally-friendly Float

First NUSSU Rag Day held together with National Day celebrationsIn conjunction with Singapore’s 46th birthday celebrations held at the Marina Bay, NUS students put up a dazzling display of floats and lively performances at The Promontory@Marina Bay on 9 August as part of NUS Students’ Union (NUSSU) Rag Day 2011. This is the first time that Rag Day was held together with the National Day Parade since the charity project started in 1957.

The NUSSU Rag Day is an annual event held to thank the public for their generous donations during Flag Day. This year, some 4,800 freshmen and seniors went all over Singapore on 3 August 2011 to raise funds for the needy. More than $480,000 was raised for 21 beneficiaries such as the NTUC Eldercare Co-operative Ltd, the Metta Welfare Association, the Singapore Children’s Society and the Singapore Heart Foundation.

NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost Prof Tan Eng Chye said: “It is indeed a privilege for NUS to be a part of this year’s National Day celebrations. The University is highly supportive of NUSSU’s initiative to bring Rag Day 2011 out of campus to celebrate our nation’s 46th birthday.”

Business School won the most awards at Rag & Flag 2011, including the NUS Chancellor’s Shield for Best Overall Rag & Flag

Carrying the theme “EXperience NUS”, the NUSSU Rag Day 2011 featured 15 vibrant floats – 14 built by students representing different Faculties and Halls of Residence, and one by the NUS alumni. All the floats were cleverly and painstakingly constructed into magnificent displays from recycled materials such as bottles, newspapers and drink cans.

NUSSU President Christopher Cheong said: “EXperience NUS is a theme chosen in line with staying close to home, even when venturing beyond. We hope to garner generous contributions from the public to the various charitable organisations we represent and also awe the audience visually with our stunning array of floats as a gesture of appreciation for their donations.”

The highlight of the event was the competitive float displays and performances from the various Faculties and Schools. Celebrating the diversity and vibrancy of the NUS spirit, the floats featured themes such as Disco, Alumni Spirit, Love, Shanghai Bund and more. The highest award, the Chancellor’s Shield, went to the Business School, the overall champion of the event.

This year, the Halls of Residence opted out from the competitive segment and teamed up to offer a much grander showcase of floats and performances before the 7,000-strong crowd.

Some 4,800 freshmen and seniors participated in the island-wide fund-raising effort on Flag Day

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5The Faculty of Science’s Most Environmentally-friendly Float

The Faculty of Law’s spectacular performance won them the NUS President’s Challenge Shield for Best Rag performance

First NUSSU Rag Day held together with National Day celebrations

Winners at NUSSU Rag & Flag 2011NUS Chancellor’s Shield Best Overall: Business School

NUS President’s Challenge Shield Best Rag: Faculty of Law

NUS President’s Shield Best Total Collection for Faculty Clubs: Business School Best Total Collection for Halls of Residence: Kent Ridge Hall

NUSSU Challenge Shield Best Total Coin Collection for Faculty Clubs: Business School Best per Capita Collection for Faculty Clubs: Business School Most Environmentally-friendly Float: Faculty of Science Best Costume: Business School Best Presentation: Faculty of Law Best Float: Business School

Putting together such a big float, together with 60 dancers, wasn’t an easy task. But the three months of non-stop preparation has taught me that if you put your heart into something and give it your absolute 100 per cent, anything is possible. More importantly,

Rag is so unique and special becauseof the incredible friendships forged. As we always say, in Rag, we’re a family.– Ms Claire Neo, fourth-year student from NUS Business School and Head of the School’s Rag team.

Business School won the most awards at Rag & Flag 2011, including the NUS Chancellor’s Shield for Best Overall Rag & Flag

(From left to right) Mr Eugene Kwek (Vice Head), Ms Claire Neo (Head) and Mr Benjamin Tan (Vice Head) of the Business School Rag Team

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Assoc Prof Patrick Tan and team have embarked on a clinical trial to test if the cancer gene subtype can be used to help clinicians customise therapy best suited for the patient

New findings on stomach cancer point the way to more effective treatment Some types of gastric cancer may respond better to chemotherapy drugs and patients with these types of the disease stand a greater chance of survival. Based on a new way of classifying types of stomach cancers through their genetic make-up, researchers from the Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium (SGCC) are proposing to customise treatment according to the individual patient’s type of tumour.

The SGCC team succeeded in identifying two new subtypes of gastric cancer, and demonstrated that the classification of these new subtypes may be associated with differences in patient survival and responses to standard chemotherapy. The study, led by Assoc Prof Patrick Tan from Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School (Duke-NUS), the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore), was published in the August issue of Gastroenterology, a top journal in gastrointestinal disease. Applying their newfound knowledge, the team has embarked on a clinical trial to test if the cancer gene subtype can be used to help clinicians customise therapy best suited for the patient.

SGCC’s Lead Principal Investigator Assoc Prof Yeoh Khay Guan, Vice-Dean (Academic Affairs) at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, said: “The study and the ensuing clinical trial is a good illustration of translational research, marshalling the power of science to address a critical clinical need. Singapore’s strength is the ability to integrate and combine clinical and scientific expertise to solve important clinical questions, and to bring together different disciplines, approaches and capabilities to solve difficult problems.”

The SGCC comprises a multi-disciplinary group of scientists and clinicians from Duke-NUS; the National University Health System; National University Cancer Institute, Singapore; National Cancer Centre Singapore; CSI Singapore; GIS and four public hospitals.

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Our study provides evidence that a genomic classification of gastric

cancer could move patients from being treated with uniform

‘one-size-fits-all’ protocols to personalised and optimised treatment

strategies, based on the specific genetic profile of their cancer.

- Assoc Prof Patrick Tan

Oncology drug database greatly benefits elderly cancer patients Polypharmacy (multiple medication use) has become more prevalent among older people as a wider array of drugs is being used to prevent or treat a growing number of medical problems. To help healthcare professionals identify drug combinations that are high-risk and offer appropriate management plans, Dr Alexandre Chan and his team from the NUS Department of Pharmacy, together with Dr Kevin Yap from the

University of Warwick, developed a new database for oncology drugs known as OncoRx.

On average, an elderly cancer patient consumes about six types of medications. “This is due to the co-morbidities (i.e. hypertension, arthritis and coronary artery disease) that are common among the elderly. In addition, cancer patients often receive supportive care medications that are prescribed to alleviate side effects of cancer and cancer treatment. The interactions of the numerous drugs can result in sub-therapeutic effects or increased toxicities which may compromise the outcome of chemotherapy,” explained Dr Chan.

OncoRx contains records of 256 anti-cancer regimens and over 200 non-anti-cancer drugs as well as complementary and alternative medicines. With this database, healthcare professionals can search for drug interactions using the names of the anti-cancer regimens and the common names of other drugs. OncoRx is the first and only database that meets this need.Dr Alexandre Chan (far left) and team

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Major boost for food research projectsUnder the National Research Foundation’s (NRF) Competitive Research Programme (CRP) Funding Scheme, three research projects dealing with future food demands were awarded grants of up to S$10 million each – two are from the NUS Department of Biological Sciences, and the third from Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL).

One of the successful NUS projects is “Rice for the Future: Novel Strategies to Develop Elite and Improved Varieties for Sustainable Rice Production”, led by NUS Prof Prakash Kumar and Dr Naweed Naqvi from TLL. Said Prof Kumar: “This award will enable our team to improve rice yield and adapt the crop to rapidly changing environmental conditions. The results will be of great interest to agri-biotechnology companies.” The NRF grant will support NUS’ new rice research programme with TLL, in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute.

The other NUS project, “Development of Virus-Controlling Biotechnologies for Cost-Efficient and Sustainable Aquaculture”, is led by Assoc Prof Hong Yunhan and fellow Principal Investigators. According to Assoc Prof Hong, their programme features a multi-disciplinary strategy that allows for the development of virus-resistant seed fish and antivirals towards cost-efficient and sustainable production of food fish.

The three projects were chosen from numerous proposals submitted in response to NRF’s 7th CRP grant call on “Meeting Future Food Demands for Singapore”. The International Evaluation Panel, which assessed the submissions, had high praise for the quality of the successful proposals and their relevance to Singapore’s development of long-term solutions to rising demands on the food eco-system.

Prof Kumar (right) and Dr Naqvi examining immature rice grains at the TLL greenhouse

A T A G L A N C E

Mr Alessandro Marco Bosshard (left), student presenter for the winning team from ETH Zurich, receiving the top award from Guest-of-Honour Mr Lim Eng Hwee, Chief Planner and Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Planning) of Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority

• Prof Andrew Nee, Director of the Division of Research Administration at the NUS Office of Deputy President (Research & Technology), has been appointed President of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP), a globally-acclaimed production engineering research outfit based in Paris. He is the first Singaporean and ethnic Chinese to hold the position in 60 years of CIRP’s history.

Rocking one in a pair of Roly Polys will cause a corresponding reaction in its partner

the text. “Roly Poly” allows two individuals who are physically apart to sense each other’s presence through mirrored movements in a pair of objects.

• Winners of the inaugural Vertical Cities Asia International Design Competition, organised by the NUS School of Design and Environment and sponsored by the World Future Foundation, were announced at a recent awards presentation ceremony. The top prize of S$15,000 went to a team from ETH Zurich for their winning entry, “Symbio City”. An NUS team received special commendation for their entry “Village City – The Coupling of Village and City Lifestyle and Infrastructure”. The six-month-long competition saw the participation of nine universities from Asia, Europe and the United States.

• Two innovative designs from the NUS Design and Incubation Centre are currently being showcased at the renowned Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. They are the first Singapore designs to be selected for a formal exhibition at MoMA.

The designs, “Touch Hear” and “Roly Poly”, are on display as part of the “Talk to Me” exhibition which focuses on communication between people and objects. “Touch Hear” is a device that relates information such as the pronunciation or meaning of a word or phrase upon contact with

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Editor: Fua Lee Na Contributors: Jessey Beh; Veronique Ah Sen Distribution Manager: Matthew Seah

Office of Corporate Relations, National University of Singapore University Hall, Lee Kong Chian Wing UHL#05-03, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119077Tel: (65) 6601 1341 Fax: (65) 6775 6386 E-mail: Knowledge_Enterprise@nus.edu.sg Website: newshub.nus.edu.sg

ISSN 0219-614X Company Registration Number: 200604346E Cover photo: Education Minister Mr Heng Swee Keat (centre) with two new graduates.

KNOWLEDGE ENTERPRISE n SEPTEMBER 2011 VOLUME 11 NO. 03

(From left) Chief Defence Scientist and Chief Research & Technology Officer of the Singapore Ministry of Defence Prof Quek Tong Boon, Minister Ng Eng Hen and Assoc Prof Vincent Tan of the NUS Department of Mechanical Engineering at TDSI’s 10th Anniversary celebration

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Temasek Defence Systems InstituteThe Temasek Defence Systems Institute (TDSI) at NUS can take pride in having played a significant role in grooming many of Singapore’s key technology drivers, across organisational boundaries, over the last 10 years, said Singapore Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen at TDSI’s 10th anniversary celebration held in NUS on 12 July 2011. “TDSI must stay focused and continue to train a vital pool of systems thinkers and engineers who will develop new concepts and capabilities for our defence. As our needs in defence capabilities become even more challenging and demanding, TDSI needs to continuously enhance its programmes to stay relevant and ahead,” urged Dr Ng. NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan said that the 10th year celebration of TDSI, a strategic alliance between NUS and the US Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), is a very special milestone in this partnership. He said: “By working together, we have been able to leverage on our complementary strengths to produce outstanding graduates, as well as develop world-class defence-related educational programmes that will contribute meaningfully to our national defence.”

TDSI’s flagship dual-degree Master of Defence Technology and Systems (MDTS) Programme and other defence-related education programmes had produced more than 1,000 graduates. TDSI had also completed 24 research projects with an additional 39 still ongoing.

The TDSI 10th anniversary celebration was attended by some 300 guests, including representatives from the Ministry of Defence, NPS, Defence Science and Technology Agency, DSO National Laboratories and ST Engineering.

Alumni bond through group gifts “A Class Gift is special because the sum of it is more than what each of us can give,” said NUS alumnus and donor Dr Francis Seow (’81). The Class of ’81 raised more than S$130,000 for the MBBS Class of ’81 Student Bursary. Similar acts of generosity and camaraderie are seen across NUS Faculties as cohorts come together to make gifts to their alma mater.

For example, the Class of ’72 Student Bursary Fund was made possible by contributions from more than 170 donors. The first NUS Class Gift to surpass

S$1 million, it has benefitted 160 students in the last six years.

The Faculty Of Dentistry’s Class of ’81 has also recently raised S$180,000 at a symposium cum fundraising event for their Bursary Fund.

Another instance is the Bennett Lam Scholarship Fund, set up by the Faculty of Law’s Class of ’86 to honour a classmate who went missing at sea, which has awarded 32 scholarships.

Said alumna Juliana Lim (’72) of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences: “Being one of the donors of a Class Gift enabled me to commemorate my father’s life affordably and help students.” Ms Lim made a gift in her father’s memory as a part of the Class of ’72 Student Bursary Fund.

Dr Seow added: “We have benefitted from NUS and successful alumni should give so that others may also succeed.”

For more information on making a gift to NUS, please call Ms Ho Yuen Kwan at 6516 5755 or email askdvo@nus.edu.sg.

The NUS Faculty of Dentistry’s Class of ‘81 Reunion symposium cum fund-raising event