Outstanding Service Award

Professor LIM Pin

Department of Medicine

NUS honours Prof Lim Pin, its first University Professor, with the Outstanding Service Award for 19 years of dedicated and inspiring stewardship as Vice-Chancellor, during which time the foundations of NUS as a leading Asia Pacific university were laid.

Prof Lim Pin became the Vice-Chancellor of NUS in 1981, soon after the university emerged as a new entity following the merger of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University. Nineteen years later, Sir Alec N. Broers, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, was prompted by the University's expanded horizons to comment, "Prof Lim Pin has ensured the National University of Singapore a place among the world's top universities."

The transformation was an inside out reinvention. NUS developed from a teaching-focused university training manpower for Singapore's industrialisation to one with a close teaching-research nexus that prepares graduates for a world where change prevails. The University also acquired a reputation as a centre of graduate education with its MBA programme listed amongst the best in rankings compiled by several regional publications.

In championing the establishment of a strong research culture, Prof Lim was equally cognisant of the practical applications of scientific research. He actively encouraged research and development collaborations with industry. NUS Technology Holdings Pte Ltd was formed in 1995 to commercialise NUS research breakthroughs into spin-offs. As forwardlooking as he was outward-looking, Prof Lim spearheaded the University's global campus initiative that connected the wired community at NUS to the best teaching and research resources in the world.

Prof Lim brought to his office a leadership style described by Dr Tony Tan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence as "fair in his assessment and management of people and thorough in his work." Taking the long and broad view, he cultivated the development of arts and culture as part of the University's pursuit of excellence. The alumni body was reconnected to the alma mater as he welcomed the installation of the National University of Singapore Society's Guild House on campus.

In receiving the University's highest tribute to service excellence, Prof Lim credits his achievements to "the many talented and committed colleagues whom I have had the good fortune to work with." The gesture is in keeping with the unassuming and affable personality of a man who led the University through a quiet evolution that was revolutionary in its results.