NUS Faculty of Science is proud to announce our inaugural Provost’s Chair and the Dean’s Chairs to 4 faculty members. These Chairs are for a 3-year term, and are bestowed in recognition of their excellent academic contributions to the Faculty and international recognition in their field of research.

Our Provost’s Chair recipients (for the term 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2013) are Professor BG Englert and Professor Ding Jeak Ling.

Professor Englert joined NUS in 2002 as a Visiting Professor before accepting a Professorship appointment in 2003. His research activities span more than two decades and diverse topics in theoretical quantum physics. He was part of the Center for Quantum Technology (CQT) team that won the National Science Award in 2006.Professor Englert is a passionate teacher and this can be reflected by the regular nominations for teaching awards. His innovative approach in teaching quantum mechanics is well received by students. Being an experienced senior faculty member, he has contributed significantly to the Department and the University in many areas, including managing the graduate programme in Physics and setting up the graduate programme for CQT.

Professor Ding joined NUS in 1982 as a Research Scientist. She progressed through the ranks and was promoted to Professor in 2001. Professor Ding's most significant contribution is the discovery of a more basic mechanism for immunosurveillance in horseshoe crabs. She discovered that bacteria and viruses can be neutralized by a blast of highly reactive molecules (ROS) from mitochondria, the main respiratory center in cells. She  also demonstrated that this mechanism operates in human cells. Professor Ding’s outstanding discoveries earned her the National Science and Technology Award (1995), Far Eastern Economic Review Award (2000) and NUS Outstanding Researcher Award (2001). She is a fine example of a successful “home-growth” scientist.

Our Dean’s Chair recipients (for the term 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2013) are Associate Professor Yao Shao Qin and Associate Professor Christian Kurtsiefer.

A/Prof Yao joined NUS in 2001 as an Assistant Professor and was later promoted to Associate Professor in 2006. He is considered the pioneer of the emerging field “Catalomics” – the interface between chemistry and biology where the focus is to develop (chemical and biological) strategies for high-throughput (in vitro and in vivo) studies of enzymes at the organism level. For his research achievements, he was awarded the 2008 ASAIHL (Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher learning)-Scopus Young Scientist Award (Life Sciences category), the 2007 Outstanding Scientist Award at the Faculty of Science of NUS, the 2006 Mr and Mrs Sun Chan Memorial Award (International), 2005 University Young Researcher Award of NUS and the 2002 BMRC Young Investigator from the Singapore Government.  He is one of the world’s foremost authorities in microarray-based technologies, and a leading expert in Chemical Biology and Chemical Proteomics.

A/Prof Kurtsiefer joined NUS in 2003 and rapidly established an internationally recognized experimental research group on quantum optics. His active research interest lies in photonic quantum information, one of the few systems which allow one to experimentally investigate the predictions of quantum information science. For his excellent research achievements, he was part of the CQT team that won the National Science Award in 2008 . He is one of the NUS pioneers who put together the proposal for the RCE in quantum information.

Congratulations to you all!