Professor Tan Chorh Chuan

President, National University of Singapore

Professor Tan Chorh Chuan was appointed President of the National University of Singapore in December 2008. Currently the Deputy Chairman of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Prof Tan also serves as Senior Advisor to the Governing Board of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School.

A renal physician, he obtained his medical training at NUS, and research training at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford. He was Dean of the NUS Faculty of Medicine from 1997 to 2000. He served as the Director of Medical Services, Ministry of Health, from 2000 to 2004, in which capacity he was responsible for leading the public health response to the 2003 SARS epidemic. He held the positions of NUS Provost, then Senior Deputy President from 2004- 2008. As Deputy Chairman of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Governing Board from 2004-2007, he played a key role in setting up the partnership. As the inaugural Chief Executive of the National University Health System in 2008, he brought the NUS Medical and Dental Schools and the National University Hospital under single governance.

Prof Tan is a key leader in Singapore’s Biomedical Sciences Initiative since its inception in 2000, for which he was awarded the National Science and Technology Medal in 2008. He also received the Public Service Star in 2003 for outstanding contributions to overcoming SARS in Singapore, and the Public Administration Gold Medal in 2004 for his work in the Ministry of Health. Other awards include the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal from the Polish Academy of Medicine and the 1996 Singapore Youth Award.

Prof Tan has been a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global University Leaders Forum since 2008. He is also currently Chair of the International Alliance of Research Universities, a consortium of 10 leading research-intensive universities.

Prof Tan was previously a Commonwealth Medical Fellow, Wellcome Fellow, University of Oxford, and a Visiting Scholar to Wolfson College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Royal College of Physicians of London, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the American College of Physicians, elected Fellow of the Polish Academy of Medicine and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, UK.