We thank Prof Berrick for his contributions to the Department and wish him all the best as he embarks on an exciting new chapter of his career at NUS-Yale College from 1 July 2013. Prof Berrick concurrently holds a courtesy appointment as Professor at our Department.
Prof Berrick joined the Department of Mathematics in 1981 and became Professor in 1996. He had previously held faculty positions at Oxford and Imperial College London. Prof Berrick received his undergraduate degree (Hons I) from Sydney University and his PhD from Oxford University. He is the recipient of a number of awards, including A*Star National Science Award and NUS Science Faculty Outstanding Scientist and Teaching Excellence Awards, and has received numerous international invitations for visiting professorships, as principal speaker at conferences, and other scholarly activities.
Prof Berrick specializes in algebraic topology and K-theory. He has authored or co-authored three books, and edited several others. He has published over sixty articles, most recently in Journal of the American Mathematical Society, Mathematische Annalen, American Journal of Mathematics, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society and Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik.
On the occasion of Prof Lee’s retirement on 30 June 2013, we would like to thank him for his valuable contributions to the department and faculty, and wish him a fun-filled and relaxing retirement.
Prof Lee joined the Department of Mathematics in 1987 as an Associate Professor. Prior to joining NUS, his previous appointment was as a Professor at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang where he had worked for twelve years. He was promoted to Professor in NUS in 1997.
Throughout his 26-year career, Prof Lee served the Department and Faculty in various important roles, with his key administrative roles being the Deputy Head from 1 July 1996 to June 2000, and the Head from 2000 to 2006. He was a member of the Management Board, Institute for Mathematical Sciences, NUS, from 2001 to 2006, as well as a member of the Faculty Promotion and Tenure Committee from 2006 to 2008.
After stepping down as Head in July 2006, Prof Lee took on an important administrative role as the Director of the Department’s new Masters Programme in Quantitative Finance.
Prof Lee’s research centers around Wavelets and its applications in approximation and Information Processing. One of his greatest achievements was his effort in setting up the Wavelets Strategic Research Programme in 1996, which subsequently developed into the Centre for Wavelets, Approximation and Information Processing. For his research work on wavelets, he, together with Shen Zuowei and Wayne Lawton, were jointly awarded the National Science and Technology Award in 1998 (now known as the ASTAR’s President Science & Technology Award).
On the occasion of Prof Koh’s retirement on 30 June 2014, we would like to thank him for his valuable contributions to the department and faculty, and wish him a fun-filled and relaxing retirement.
Prof Koh was an alumnus of Nanyang University (B.Sc, 1968) and University of Manitoba, Canada (Ph.D. 1971).
After completing his graduate studies, he returned to Singapore and began his academic career in 1972 as Lecturer at the Nanyang University, which was subsequently merged with the University of Singapore to form the National University of Singapore in 1980. Prof Koh was promoted to Professor in 1996.
Having dedicated 42 years to a teaching and research career, Prof Koh has been an inspiring figure to many mathematics graduates and younger faculty members. He has won 20 teaching awards including the prestigious University Outstanding Educator Award. He is also the co-author of eight books comprising six textbooks and two solution manuals, several of which have received positive reviews and are widely used in schools and universities in Singapore and overseas.
When asked about his feelings on teaching and his retirement, Prof Koh shares that “Teaching is not my occupation but my calling. Mathematical results are not inexplicable products but crystallisations of the collective wisdom of mankind. As a mathematics educator, I relish the challenge of transforming the abstract into something concrete, the dull into something interesting, and the impractical into something relevant. It is a satisfying and meaningful task that I value and constantly seek to achieve in my teaching.”
Prof Koh’s research interests are in graph theory and combinatorial analysis. He, with a total of 21 students, has published more than 160 research and conference papers; some of them are in reputable international journals such as Journal of Graph Theory, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Journal on Discrete Mathematics, Discrete Mathematics and Discrete Applied Mathematics.
Prof Leong retires from the Department of Mathematics on 30 June 2014 after a fulfilling career spanning 42 years. We would like to thank him for his valuable contributions to the Department and Faculty, and wish him a fun-filled and relaxing retirement ahead.
After completing his undergraduate studies at the then University of Singapore (now NUS) in 1969, Prof Leong pursued his graduate studies at the Australian National University before joining the Department of Mathematics at NUS as a lecturer in 1972. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999.
Prof Leong was a dedicated teacher and had immense rapport with his students. His General Education module “Living with Mathematics” and Freshman Seminar Module “Analogy and Intuition in Mathematics” were extremely well received by many students.
Many of us know Prof Leong not just as a mathematician, but also as our residential poet and grammarian, who dishes out a limerick on demand. He contributed his literary talent by serving as Editor of “Mathematical Medley”, a publication of the Singapore Mathematical Society for several years. He was also the founding editor of “Imprints”, a newsletter published by the Institute for Mathematical Sciences (IMS), NUS, from 2002 to 2006. The concept of a newsletter with interviews of distinguished mathematicians and scientists as a regular feature was conceived arising from discussions with Prof Louis Chen, Director of IMS from 2000 to 2012. Prof Leong conducted every interview personally from 2003 to 2009, despite having relinquished his position as editor in 2006. This series of interviews has since been compiled into a book entitled “Creative Minds, Charmed Lives” published by World Scientific Publishing Company, to commemorate IMS’s 10th anniversary with the theme “10 years of mathematical synergy”.
In 1985, he had also conducted, jointly with Prof Chi Tat Chong, an interview of the legendary French mathematician Jean-Pierre Serre, who became the youngest recipient of the Fields Medal (the mathematical counterpart of the Nobel Prize) in 1954 at the age of 28. The interview was first published in the June 1985 issue of “Mathematical Medley”, a publication of the Singapore Mathematical Society, and later in Volume 8 (1986) of the Mathematical Intelligencer. Since then, it has been translated into several languages including Czech, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese and Russian.
On the occasion of Prof Quek’s retirement on 30 June 2014, we would like to thank him for his valuable contributions to the department and faculty, and wish him a fun-filled and relaxing retirement.
Prof Quek did both his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Singapore. After receiving his PhD in 1980, he joined the Department as Lecturer in 1981, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1996.
During his 33-year career, Prof Quek was a dedicated teacher and was a recipient of the Faculty of Science Teaching Award in 1992. He was also an active member of the Department Student Advice Committee from 2005 to 2012.
Prof Quek was also a member of the Singapore Mathematical Society and the Southeast Asian Mathematical Society.
His research areas include Fourier analysis and abstract harmonic analysis.
Prof Chen retires from the Department of Mathematics on 1 July 2015 after a fulfilling career spanning 43 years. We would like to thank him for his valuable contributions to the Department, Faculty and University, and wish him a fun-filled and relaxing retirement ahead. 
After completing his undergraduate studies at the then University of Singapore (now NUS) in 1964, Prof Chen pursued his graduate studies in Statistics at Stanford University before joining the Department of Mathematics of the University of Singapore as a lecturer in 1972. He was promoted to Professor in 1989, and was Head of the Department from July 1996 to June 2000. He was also Head of the Department of Statistics and Applied Probability from July 2002 to June 2004. From July 2000 to December 2012, he served as the founding director of the Institute for Mathematical Sciences (IMS), which he built into one of the finest in the world.
Prof Chen’s research interests are in probability, Stein’s method and computational biology. In his seminal work on Poisson approximation in 1975, he developed a method of approximating the probabilities of occurrences of dependent rare events. This method, which is now commonly known as the Chen-Stein or Stein-Chen method, has found wide-ranging applications in many fields, with lasting impact in science and technology. It has developed into one of the most important areas of discrete probability.
He was elected President of the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability in 1997-1999, President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 2004-2005, and Vice-President of the International Statistical Institute in 2009-2011.
In recognition of his sustained contributions in distinguished scholarship and service to the University, Prof Chen has been conferred the title of Emeritus Professor from 1 July 2015.
On the occasion of Prof Tay’s retirement on 30 June 2016, we would like to thank him for his valuable
contributions to the department and faculty, and wish him a fun-filled and relaxing retirement.
Prof Tay pursued his undergraduate and post-graduate studies at University of Waterloo, and received his PhD in 1981. He stayed on as Teaching Assistant at the University of Waterloo, and began his academic career at NUS as Lecturer in 1982. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1998. His research interests are in combinatorics, rigidity of structures and related areas.
Prof Tay dedicated 34 years to a teaching and research career at NUS, and has been an inspiring figure to many aspiring mathematicians, having trained generations of students to participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad with fantastic results.
Prof Chew retires from the Department of Mathematics on 30 June 2017 after a fulfilling career spanning 35 years. We would like to thank him for his valuable contributions to the Department and Faculty, and wish him a fun-filled and relaxing retirement ahead.
Prof Chew was an alumnus of Nanyang University (BSc Hons 1970 and MSc 1973) and thereafter, he held a short stint as Graduate Assistant at Nanyang University.
He pursued his interest in Mathematics and continued his graduate study at National University of Singapore. In 1982, he joined the Department of Mathematics, NUS as Senior Tutor and was appointed as Lecturer after completing his PhD studies in 1986. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1998.
Prof Chew was a dedicated teacher and had immense rapport with his students. In recognition of his dedication and teaching achievements, Prof Chew received numerous university and faculty teaching awards. His research focused primarily on Henstock integrals, and then later in Feynman integrals and stochastic integrals.
Prof Chew was also an active member of the Singapore Mathematical Society, having held appointments as Assistant Treasurer (2016 – 2017, 2011, 2010) and Honorary Treasurer (2012 to 2015).
He also held appointments as Council Member of the Singapore National Academy Of science(1991-92) and Vice-President of the Southeast Asian Mathematical Society(1996-97).
Dr Lou retires from the Department of Mathematics on 30 June 2018 after a fulfilling career spanning 35 years. We would like to thank him for his valuable contributions to the Department and Faculty, and wish him a fun-filled and relaxing retirement ahead.
Dr Lou pursued his undergraduate studies at National Taiwan University and post-graduate studies at Cornell University. He received his PhD in Mathematics in 1983 and embarked on his academic career at NUS shortly thereafter. His teaching focused primarily on probability and computational/quantitative finance, and pursued research in limit theorems and inequalities in probability, self-similar processes, Brownian excursion.
Dr Lou was a key faculty member in the Department’s new undergraduate programme in Computational Finance from 2000 to 2003, serving as its deputy director from 2000 to 2002 and its director from 2002 to 2003. The program changed its name to Quantitative Finance in academic year 2004/2005. He has been heavily involved in the teaching and supervision of the programme ever since. Dr Lou also served in other departmental committees such as the Committee on MSc in Quantitative Finance.
Prof Leung retires from the Department of Mathematics on 30 June 2020 after a fulfilling career spanning 38 years. We would like to thank him for his valuable contributions to the Department and Faculty, and wish him a fulfilling and relaxing retirement ahead.
Prof Leung obtained the BA in mathematics from the University of Hong Kong in 1975, MA in mathematics from York University in Canada in 1977 and PhD in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame in USA in 1981.
He was an assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame in the academic year 1981-1982. He joined NUS as a lecturer on 5 September 1982, became senior lecturer in 1989 and associate professor in 1998.
Over the approximately 38 years period at NUS, Prof Leung has taught many modules for mathematics majors in Calculus, Advanced Calculus, Linear Algebra, Real Analysis, Complex Analysis, Topology, Differential Equations, Differential Geometry, Number Theory, Mathematical Modelling.
He has also taught Advanced Calculus for Arts and Social Science majors, Real Analysis for students from the Business faculty, Engineering Mathematics for students from the Engineering faculty and Calculus for students from the School of Computing.
In addition to the above, he has taught very small classes of one to three students in the Direct Honours programme, as well as large classes of over 1800 Engineering students.
Prof Leung has also supervised sixteen Honours Projects at NUS
Prof Leung’s research area is in differential geometry.
In view of his contributions, Prof Leung has been awarded the Honorary Fellowship from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2025.
Prof Tang retires from the Department of Mathematics on 30 June 2021 after a fulfilling career spanning 34 years. We would like to thank him for his valuable contributions to the Department and Faculty, and wish him a fulfilling and relaxing retirement ahead.
Prof Tang obtained his B. Sc. (Hons) degree from University of Hong Kong in 1979, and M. Sc. degree in 1980 and Ph. D. degree in 1984 from University of Toronto, Canada. He taught in North America (St. Louis University, U. S. A., and then St. Mary’s University, Canada) for three years before joining the Department of Mathematics, NUS, as lecturer in June 1987.
During the 34 years of service at NUS, Prof Tang has taught a variety of courses in analysis and introductory numerical analysis. He has supervised one Ph. D. student, four M. Sc. students and over 30 Honours Project students. His service to the Department involves mainly curriculum and student advising, having served as chairman/deputy chairman of Departmental Curriculum Committee for more than 10 years.
His research areas are in operator theory and operator algebras, wavelet and frame analysis, and more recently linear algebraic aspects of quantum information theory.