Happy 2021 to everyone! Wishing you all good health and happiness in this brand new year. 2020 has been a really hard year for a number of people, and we hope that you made it through 2020 with your chin up. This is especially so for our healthcare workers who have worked so hard in their relentless efforts to keep us safe and well.

2020 saw the departures of Dr Esther Woon (Asst Prof) to University College London, Dr Lin Haishu (Asst Prof) who is returning to China to reunite with his family, Mr Fan Wenjie (Teaching Assistant) who joined Home Teams, Ms Lesley Ooi (Teaching Assistant) who joined Roquette SG; they are sorely missed and we wish them well in their careers!

On a positive note, despite the challenges of AY 2020, the first ever integrated Bachelor of Pharmacy curriculum in NUS Pharmacy’s 115^th year history was launched. Professor Paul Gallagher, A/P Chui Wai Keung are the programme co-creators as well as the programme co-leads while Dr Han Zhe was the Year 1 lead. The three of them and their teaching teams successfully kicked-off the first cohort in August 2020 in spite of the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic that necessitated ‘Plan B’ in the delivery of the modules. We were also grateful to one of our alumni who championed the COVID-19 Pharmily United Fund for needy NUS Pharmacy students and through the generosity of our alumni, a total of 79 students received some financial aid. Another alumni championed the support of his company for a bursary each for Pharmacy and Nursing students.

We turned 115 years old in the year 2020! Unfortunately, our plans for celebrations and Pharmily gatherings could not proceed. Nevertheless, Dr Chng Hui Ting and her team held online competitions on social media throughout the year, and our 115^th anniversary celebration culminated in an awesome 115^th online Carnival on the 12.12. The highlights included a Last Lecture by Professor Lim Lee Yong, an ex-Faculty member and alumni with her inspiring talk ‘A Leap of Faith’ and my personal favourite, a cooking ‘’competition’’ with our Pharmily’s Master Chefs!

In 2020, we also celebrated with our ‘star’ teacher, A/P Ho Han Kiat who won the ultimate teaching award in NUS: the Outstanding Educator Award. Dr Han Zhe was also promoted to Senior Lecturer. Congratulations to them all! We are proud of you! In addition, under the stewardship of the safety chair A/P Go Mei Lin, the Department won the Excellence Award for Safety and Health Performance in the University.

In 2020, we also welcomed Dr Shruti Bhatt as Asst Prof (Pharmaceutical Biology), Dr Leroy Koh as Lecturer (Pharmacy Practice), Dr Doreen Tan as Assoc Prof (Pharmacy Practice), Dr Rajamani Lakshminarayanan as an Associate Professor and a joint appointee with SERI (Pharmaceutical Technology) into our Pharmily.

Effective 8^th Jan, there were changes to the leadership team of the Department as A/P Ho Han Kiat steps down as Deputy Head of Education to take on other duties in the University. A/P Gigi Chiu will take over as Deputy Head (Education). We also welcome Dr Yau Wai Ping as Asst Head to be part of the new leadership team. Please give them the support that they will need. We thank Han Kiat for all his contributions to the Department as Deputy Head in the last 5 years, and we wish him all the best.

There is no doubt that we are looking to 2021 with hope and some trepidation. However what 2020 had shown us was that we are indeed much more resilient than we think that we are, and certainly more adaptable to change when change becomes a necessity. What is clear is that we need to continue to support each other through these difficult times and remain ‘Pharmily United’.

Stay safe and happy, everyone!

With best wishes,

Christina Chai