Our History

2001 - 2021 – 20 years!

As part of our 20th anniversary celebration, we spoke to our current and former leaders to find out more about the history of the school, how the school was constructed from nothing to where we are today – ranked 33rd worldwide and 6th in the Asia region in Biological Sciences by QS World University Rankings in 2021.

20th Anniversary Messages from Current Leaders

Simon Redfern, CoS Dean_lower res
Dean, College of Science

Prof. Simon Redfern

20th anniversary message
Chair, School of Biological Sciences

Prof. Lars Nordenskiöld

On 17 June 2001, Prof James Tam, the SBS founding Dean arrived at NTU to start the school. A few weeks later, I came to Singapore to be interviewed by him and the late Prof. Lee Sing Kong. The interview took place in the temporary offices at National Institute of Education (NIE). Although NIE is a beautiful campus, the SBS facilities were far from impressive. There were no laboratories, no nothing! But there was something very convincing and passionate in the enthusiasm of James and Sing Kong as well as others I met at NTU. I subsequently arrived in Singapore and at SBS in January 2002 and in July the same year our first batch of undergraduate (UG) and PhD students joined us. It is something of a miracle that it all went so exceptionally well, given the somewhat make-shift UG and research laboratories we had access to, scattered over the NTU campus. Our students from these first years of pioneering cohorts were fantastic; two of the UG students are no

20th Anniversary Messages from Past Leaders

Professor James P Tam at NTU SBS Building
Founding Dean, Year 2001 to 2006 & Chair, Year 2006 to 2007,

The Inception of SBS By Prof. James P Tam

As part of the founding team, I witnessed and played a part in how the school was constructed from nothing to where we are today...
 

Past Leaders' 20th Anniversary Messages

Let's hear from the former leaders of NTU SBS – Dr Alex Law, Dr Mark Featherstone and Prof. Peter Preiser.

 
More on Our 20th Anniversary Celebration