Alumni in the News

Dr Tan Lai Yong (MB,BS ’85) did his alma mater proud recently when he received the Singapore International Foundation Award from Deputy Prime Minister BG Lee Hsien Loong.

A medical doctor by profession, Dr Tan is the medical director of Asia Project Grace in Yunnan Province, China. He is actively involved in conducting primary and advance training sessions for village doctors.

e initiated a scholarship programme to help defray the cost of trainees’ studies. Dr Tan is also active in many non-medical related projects including planting fruit trees to help supplement and increase the income of the villagers, building a new village primary school and purchasing a small water-driven generator to make electricity for the school. Dr Tan has also helped to develop a small mobile library and to initiate several community development projects. These include animal rearing, village youth training and fish farming.

An outstanding tree house project has won Associate Professor Joseph Lim (BArch ’83), from the Department of Architecture, an Honourable Mention in the prestigious Kenneth F Brown Asia Pacific Architecture Award Programme for 2002.

Assoc Prof Lim’s project ‘Lee Treehouse’ required him to design an outdoor recreational space closely related to a tree dating back to the 19th century, which has been gazetted for preservation by the Singapore National Parks Board.

The jury comprised Prof Kenneth Frampton from Columbia University, William Lim of Singapore and Gregory Burgess, previous winner of the award. The jury cited the project as a compelling demonstration of a tree house in Singapore wherein a steel-framed, multi-level timber-slatted house and a tree are allowed to co-exist, without impinging on the other in any way.

Assoc Prof Lim is the second NUS don and Singaporean to have won an Honourable Mention in this award.

Associate Professor David Chan [BSocSci (Hons) ’90] from the Department of Social Work and Psychology has become the first non-American to receive the Distinguished Early Career Contributions Award. The award is presented by the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology (SIOP), American Psychological Association for 2003.

The award is in recognition of Assoc Prof Chan’s early career contributions to industrial-organisational psychology. He has made important early career contributions in personnel selection, longitudinal modelling, multi-level issues, and adaptation to changes at work.

The Distinguished Early Career Contributions Award, started in 1992, is given to an individual who has made distinguished contributions to the science and/or practice of industrial and organisational psychology within seven years of receiving the PhD degree.

This is not the first award for Assoc Prof Chan. He won SIOP’s William Owens Scholarly Achievement Award four years ago and in 1998, he won the Edwin Ghiselli Award for Innovative Research Design.

In addition to his scholarly achievements, Assoc Prof Chan is also a consultant for several private and government organisations in Singapore and the United States of America.

First class honours graduate, Edwin Chong [BSc(Bldg) ’02], from the Department of Building won the first prize in the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) 2002 Undergraduate Dissertation Competition.

Edwin, who is currently working with Davis Langdon & Seah Singapore Pte Ltd, submitted a dissertation on ‘Models for Predicting the Performance of Design and Build Projects’. His dissertation won him a commemorative medal and a cash prize of £500.

Professor George Ofori, Head of the Department of Building, said of Edwin’s win, “We are very proud of Edwin. The CIOB Dissertation Award is keenly contested as some of the submissions are from very good universities in the UK and overseas. Edwin’s success is another indication of the high standards we attain in the work we do in this department.”

The CIOB, based in the UK, is the leading professional body worldwide for managers in construction. The annual Dissertation Competition is open to final-year students on all CIOB accredited programmes. Students must demonstrate awareness of innovation and research in construction.