NUS News

Good afternoon! Keep up to date with the latest headlines from NUS News this week (10 – 14 Aug 2024): 🦾 NUS powers education, research and administration to new heights with AI through a strategic collaboration with OpenAI https://nus.edu/4z9R6oh ⚖ NUS study: Legal reforms shift public discourse on social issues, but institutional and societal conditions determine lasting change https://nus.edu/4xwTl3o 🔬 NUS researchers lead the way in strengthening Singapore’s biosurveillance capabilities https://nus.edu/4cup0KH 🛡️ NUS scientists uncover ‘hidden switch’ that helps cancer cells hide from the immune system https://nus.edu/4wlrguX 🌍 Same journey, different takeaways: Reflections from a 10-day trip to Ecuador https://nus.edu/3TVqk30 🏺 Looking beyond Raffles: New NUS course uncovers Singapore’s deeper history and heritage through art https://nus.edu/4xAvsbb 🇸🇬 National Day Awards 2026: NUS community honoured for contributions to Singapore society https://nus.edu/3ScuP8J

Congratulations to more than 250 members of the NUS community who were honoured at the annual National Day Awards this year! 🇸🇬 🎉 From staff and faculty to alumni and leaders, they received recognition across 14 out of 24 total award categories. Among the top winners was Mr Sundaresh Menon, who was awarded the Order of Temasek (With Distinction), Singapore’s highest civilian honour. Honoured with the prestigious Meritorious Service Medal were Ms Anita Fam Siu Ping, who chairs the advisory board of the Lien Centre for Palliative Care at the Duke-NUS Medical School, and Professor Chee Yam Cheng, Clinical Professor at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. ➡️ Read more and view the full list of recipients here: https://nus.edu/3ScuP8J @nusnews

Singapore’s 61st birthday bash is over, but its story is still being written — sometimes even rediscovered in a new light. ✨ Long before Raffles arrived in 1819, Singapore was already part of a wider world with centuries of history. This is explored in depth in “700 Years of Visual Arts: Singapore in the World”, a new Generation Education course, which will be available to NUS students from August 2026 and public learners from 2027. Featuring over 700 forms of visual and material culture — ceramics, textiles, artworks and more — it attempts to piece together Singapore’s longer history and heritage beyond the familiar colonial narrative. ➡️ https://nus.edu/4xAvsbb @nusnews

“What struck me most was how many (Indigenous communities) spoke about their natural surroundings as something to live alongside, rather than manage or control... It made me realise how culture and belief matter in sustainability matters, as much as policy does.” — Chloe Ribbon Chan, final-year Sociology and Political Science major Earlier this year, 17 NUS students from the Global Studies Programme at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences embarked on a 10-day field immersion trip to Ecuador to experience the country's environmental, political, social and cultural landscape through the NUS Study Trips for Engagement and EnRichment (STEER) initiative. Recalling treks through forests and engaging with local communities, three students reflect on how one journey inspired multiple ways of seeing and understanding the world. ➡️ https://nus.edu/3TVqk30 @nusnews

🧬 Researchers from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at NUS have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that helps cancer cells evade detection by the body’s immune system — a discovery that could pave the way for more effective cancer immunotherapies. Published in Science Immunology, the study identifies the RNA helicase DDX6 as a previously unrecognised ‘hidden switch’ that prevents the immune system from recognising cancer cells. Targeting DDX6 could make tumours more visible to the immune system, improving existing or new immunotherapies. ➡️ https://nus.edu/4wlrguX @nusnews

Five projects led by NUS and Duke-NUS Medical School will study how diseases move between wildlife and domestic animals, the environment and people in Singapore's urban landscape, as part of a national effort to strengthen the country’s long-term public health resilience, including: 🐦‍⬛ Tracking disease risks from urban birds 🕷️ Mapping tick-borne pathogens across Singapore 🦇 Understanding disease transmission in wildlife, like macaques and bats 🐾 Examining the risk of zoonotic disease transmission between companion animals and humans 🪽 Bird flu surveillance These projects were awarded grants under NParks’ Biosurveillance Research Programme, a S$15 million initiative under Singapore's Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 Plan. ➡️ https://nus.edu/4cup0KH @nusnews

When laws change, does society follow? 🤔 A new study led by NUS Communications and New Media (CNM) Associate Professor Kokil Jaidka, published in Nature Human Behaviour, reveals that while legal changes do reshape public discourse, the path to social progress and acceptance depends heavily on the surrounding institutional and media environment. Analysing over 200,000 social media posts and survey responses from Singapore, India, Taiwan and Thailand, the findings offer valuable insights for policymakers, platforms and civil society organisations navigating periods of legal transition. ➡️ https://nus.edu/4xwTl3o @nusnews

NUS is supercharging its AI ecosystem with a new strategic collaboration with OpenAI, aimed at expanding the university’s suite of AI resources and capabilities. From 31 August 2026, all NUS students, faculty and staff will have access to ChatGPT Edu by OpenAI, which provides broader access to core capabilities within a secure, university-managed environment. Unlike the free ChatGPT, conversations and data within the NUS workspace will not be used to train OpenAI’s models. A new foundational AI competency course will also be introduced for all NUS freshmen from AY2026/27. ➡️ https://nus.edu/4z9R6oh @nusnews

Good afternoon! Keep up to date with the latest headlines from NUS News this week (3 – 8 Aug 2026): 🧘🏻‍♀ Dream, dabble, discover: How NUSOne supports students in their journeys of self-discovery https://nus.edu/4xkpgnK 👾 Razer and National University of Singapore establish joint AI research lab to advance gaming intelligence https://nus.edu/3TGXcMK 🏅 Professor Sir Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov conferred 2026 SNAS Fellowship https://nus.edu/4pVTjzv 🏌️‍♀️ NUS and Universiti Malaya celebrate historic ties through 55th golf tournament and academic symposium https://nus.edu/4hRhOfg 💡 More than a bootcamp, NUS Entrepreneurship Programme transformed perspectives https://nus.edu/4hezJMJ 🤝 NUS calls for ASEAN universities to push for “education diplomacy” https://nus.edu/4z91r4a 💝 NUS students create ripples of kindness through community service at RAG & Flag Day 2026 https://nus.edu/45krCqK @nusnews

It’s that time of the year again… 🤸🏻‍♀️ 💥 RAG & Flag Day’s 68th edition was a blast! Themed “Ripples Across Time”, this year’s event was about much more than raising funds — freshmen and their seniors volunteered with 16 social service agencies, building friendships with and understanding the needs of vulnerable communities. Together, they raised over S$330,000 for more than 300 critical programmes and projects supported by the Community Chest, which will benefit over 94,000 social service users annually. ➡️ https://nus.edu/45krCqK @nusnews

🇸🇬 Happy birthday, Singapore! Celebrate our nation's 61st birthday with these LiNUS stickers: https://nus.edu/3VXsD32 @nusnews

The future of ASEAN’s standing in global higher education depends not on the achievements of any single university, but the region’s ability to position itself as a regional ecosystem built on trust and collaboration. In other words, “education diplomacy”, as NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye put it in his keynote at the 17th ASEAN University Network (AUN) Rectors’ Meeting on 23 July. Hosted by NUS, the annual event gathered about 100 regional university leaders from nearly 30 leading universities in ASEAN to discuss solutions to issues from unequal access to educational opportunities and technology to growing concerns over student well-being. ➡️ https://nus.edu/4z91r4a @nusnews

👩‍🎓 200 students 🌎 20 countries 🏫 55 universities In the 2026 edition of the intensive two-week NUS Enterprise Summer Programme in Entrepreneurship (NUSSP), participants heard from visionary leaders and unicorn founders, visited tech giant companies, and even took to the water for dragon boating 🐉 — all in the name of teamwork and collaboration. The NUS-ASEAN SPARK Fellowship was also launched, an initiative designed to support the region's most promising young entrepreneurial talents and inspire the next generation of leaders. ➡️ https://nus.edu/4hezJMJ @nusnews

To celebrate the long-standing ties between both universities, NUS hosted Universiti Malaya for the UM-NUS Inter-University Tunku Chancellor Golf Tournament and UM-NUS Joint Academic Symposium, held from 29 to 30 July in Singapore. More than 200 university leaders, academics, alumni and golfers from UM and NUS attended the two-day event, which saw them exchanging insights on the use of AI in areas from computing to healthcare at the symposium, before taking to the fairway in a show of camaraderie and sportsmanship. PS: Congrats to Team NUS for clinching this year’s Tunku Chancellor Cup! 🏆 ➡️ https://nus.edu/4hRhOfg @nusnews

Professor Sir Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov FRS has been elected as a Singapore National Academy of Science (SNAS) Fellow, the pinnacle of scientific recognition conferred by a Science society in Singapore. An established physicist, Prof Novoselov holds a Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professorship at NUS, where he is also Director of the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials and a faculty member of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in NUS College of Design and Engineering. He was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his role in the groundbreaking discovery of the material graphene, opening a new realm of multidisciplinary research. ➡️ https://nus.edu/4pVTjzv @nusnews

🎮 NUS is stepping up its game. Literally. On 5 August 2026, Razer, leading lifestyle brand for gamers, and NUS School of Computing, announced the launch of the Razer-NUS Joint AI Research Lab. The first-of-its-kind research initiative focuses on advancing AI gaming innovations across hardware, software and services. For starters, a new research domain focused on purpose-built AI models for interactive digital environments is being introduced, with the potential to power an AI teammate that can adapt to players, generate context-aware dialogue in real time and adjust gameplay difficulty during live matches for fairness. ➡️ https://nus.edu/3TGXcMK @nusnews

From repurposing used soap into circular hygiene products 🫧 and bonding over balloon animals 🎈, NUSOne’s “Dabble & Discover” initiative has got something for everyone. It offers a diverse curation of workshops for students to choose from, providing them with a rich, holistic university experience where fun and learning go hand in hand. More good news: ongoing research by the NUSOne research workgroup suggests that students who participate in student life activities are more likely to develop important attributes such as resilience, adaptability and social intelligence. ➡️ https://nus.edu/4xkpgnK @nusnews

Good evening! Keep up to date with the latest headlines from NUS News this week (27 – 31 Jul 2026): 🎊Commencement 2026🎊 🔷 Commencement Dinner: A toast to the NUS Class of 2026 and the community behind them https://nus.edu/4gZlfjD News round-up 📢 🎖 Associate Professor Zhou Wentao from NUS Nursing receives President's Award for Nurses 2026 https://nus.edu/4gZxXPu 💡 Lightbulb-inspired reactor tackles three major decarbonisation challenges https://nus.edu/3TpT3g8 ⛈ NUS researchers study Singapore’s rainfall and runoff to predict urban floods https://nus.edu/4fV4u7h 👩🏻‍⚖️ NUS Law freshmen pledge commitment to integrity and service as they take first steps towards legal profession https://nus.edu/4fC96yQ 🏛 NUS Law alumni celebrate new home at Kent Ridge https://nus.edu/4vX8iKY @nusnews

📍 Bukit Timah > Kent Ridge Campus After two decades at the Bukit Timah Campus, NUS Law has moved back to Kent Ridge, rejoining the wider NUS ecosystem.   Alumni from the inaugural Class of 1961 to the Class of 2026 gathered on 25 July at the faculty's new campus — which officially relocated in January this year — to reconnect with each other and reacquaint themselves with their alma mater. The event celebrated the start of a new chapter for NUS Law, with students looking forward to more opportunities for interdisciplinary learning and innovation, as well as a more connected and vibrant university experience.  ➡️ https://nus.edu/4vX8iKY @nusnews