Celebrating our outstanding alumni

Congratulations to five Faculty of Science alumni who were honoured at the NUS Alumni Awards held on 2 November 2023.  

The biennial NUS Alumni Awards recognise alumni who have distinguished themselves through significant and impactful contributions to their alma mater, society and the world.

Distinguished Alumni Service Award (2023)

Mathematics alumnus (1990) Mr KOK Heng Leun, founder of the Drama Box theatre group, was among eight alumni who received the Distinguished Alumni Service Award.

From the time he ventured into the world of theatre in the early 90s, Mr Kok has spent over three decades breaking boundaries – bringing theatre to spaces like HDB void decks and offshore islands, producing cross-cultural works in different languages, and working with unusual collaborators to explore taboo topics.

Over the years, Mr Kok has directed over 90 plays which aim to inspire dialogue, reflection and change. Mr Kok also served as a key voice for the arts community in Singapore as a Nominated Member of Parliament between 2016 and 2018. For his contributions to the arts scene and community development, Mr Kok was awarded Singapore’s highest cultural accolade, the Cultural Medallion last year.

Outstanding Young Alumni Award (2023)

Life Sciences alumnus (2010) Dr Izzuddin Bin Mohd ARIS, Life Sciences alumnus (2007) Mr Raghuram NATARAJAN, and Materials Science alumna (2007) Ms Frances THO Siao Ting were among 12 young alumni who received the Outstanding Young Alumni award.

After graduating from NUS with a biomedical sciences degree in 2010 and a PhD in epidemiology in 2015, Dr Izzuddin Bin Mohd Aris went on to become a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, one of the top medical universities in the world, and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.

He is recognised as a global expert in obesity and one of the top authors in the field worldwide with over 140 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals.

He has received multiple local and global awards and is a regular speaker at national and international conferences.

Life Sciences alumnus (2007) Mr Raghuram Natarajan has more than 17 years of experience in the sustainability field, where he not only helps to advance regional Net Zero targets by investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency and infrastructure projects, but also nurtures a new generation of sustainability focused talents and entrepreneurs. In his career, he has developed renewable energy projects totalling more than 15 gigawatts (GW) and delivered four GW projects into commercial operations across Asia, Australia, and the Middle East.

Since 2021, he has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Blueleaf Energy, a portfolio company of Macquarie’s Green Investment Group that leads the acceleration of energy transition in Asia Pacific through the development, financing and operation of innovative renewable energy generation and storage assets.

He has actively mentored NUS graduates, served as a participant on various NUS and Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) forums, and provided advisory services and early-stage angel investments to multiple climate technology and NUS-incubated start-ups.

Materials Science alumna (2007) Ms Frances Tho went on to build a successful career working for top multinational companies during which she pivoted to sales leadership roles in financial technology. Today, she is the Vice President of Sales at Numerix – a leading independent analytics technology provider for financial institutions and corporates – where she is responsible for its sales and commercial engagements in ASEAN.

Ms Tho actively contributes her talents to her alma mater. She served as a volunteer panel judge at the NUS Business Case Competition from 2011 to 2018. More recently, she mentored NUS students through the NUS Women in Business group and the Science Faculty’s Alumni-Student Mentorship Programme.

Team (Alumni) Award (2023)

Chemistry alumna (2007) Ms Li Jiaying Grace is part of the REACH (Response, Early Intervention and Assessment in Community mental Health) team at the Institute of Mental Health that received the Team (Alumni) award. REACH is a community-based mental health service set up to work closely with schools, community agencies and family doctors to help students with emotional, behavioural and/or developmental disorders. To date, the team has helped more than 5,000 children and trained over 2,000 school counsellors and special educational needs officers to identify mental health issues.

We thank our alumni for their continued contributions to NUS and the wider community and we wish you all the best in your future endeavours!

Read their citations here and more at https://news.nus.edu.sg/nus-alumni-awards-2023-celebrating-outstanding-changemakers-and-trailblazers/