Happy New Year to all!

A new year promises fresh beginnings and a chance to goal-set through resolutions that we will inevitably not keep. Looking back at the year that was, the Department welcomed Matthias Wacker as Associate Professor; Gloryn Chia as Assistant Professor; Wang Aiwen as Lecturer (a joint appointment with Singapore General Hospital); Soong Jie Lin as Lecturer (joint appointment with Singapore General Hospital); Wong Pei Shieen as Lecturer (joint appointment with Singapore General Hospital); Mr Cao Xujun who is now doing his PhD in Stanford University under the Overseas Graduate Scholarship which will see him return to NUS Pharmacy as Faculty after his studies, and Mr Eng Chun Heng who joined us as a Teaching Assistant. We also celebrated the promotion of A/P Eric Chan to Professor, Dr Yau Wai Ping to Senior Lecturer and her induction to the Teaching Academy, and Dr Yau Wai Ping, A/P Joyce Lee and Dr Han Zhe for winning the Faculty Teaching Awards! Our “newbies” Assistant Professor Brandon Morinaka received an NUS Early Career award, and Assistant Professor Gloryn Chia won an NRF fellowship and was also a runner-up in the 2019 L’Oreal Women in Science Fellowship. Other noteworthy events were the Departmental Visiting Committee visit in May; a whole suite of amazing Alumni events and the very interesting PharmConnect spearheaded by Dr Chng Hui Ting; the launch of the first immunisation workshop by A/P Joyce Lee; the launch of the fund raising campaign for Alfred and Lucy Wan scholarship headed by A/P Paul Heng. In October this year, we also launched a campaign of #PassionPridePurpose, as a reminder to all that being a pharmacist is a noble profession. 2019 ended on a sad note with the relocation of A/P Alexandre Chan and A/P Joyce Lee to the UC Irvine, US. Alex will be full professor and founding chair of the new Department of Clinical Pharmacy Practice in UCI. Both Alex and Joyce have done so much to elevate the reputation of NUS Pharmacy both locally and globally, through their research, students and leadership. Their can-do attitude, and their creative thinking are attributes that we can aspire to. We wish them well, as they embark on their next stage of their career. With Alex’s departure, Prof Paul Gallagher will take over from Alex as Deputy Head for Clinical.

The year 2020 for NUS Pharmacy will be exciting.  It will be the year where we will celebrate the new and the old. The integrated curriculum for the undergraduate programme will go live in the academic year 2020/21, along with the re-structured pharmaceutical science programme. Our new graduate certificates in Pharmaceutical Process and Technology, Advanced Pharmacy Practice and Community Based Geriatric Pharmaceutical Care will also be launched. Among these new beginnings, we also celebrate the “old” –  our 115th anniversary – we have a number of alumni events in store and look forward to your participation. Stay tuned!

Wishing you and your loved ones much happiness and good health,

Christina