Professor Subra Suresh President and Distinguished University Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Subra Suresh is an eminent American scientist, engineer and entrepreneur with decades of distinguished and impactful leadership in academia, industry and government. Previously the President of Carnegie Mellon University, he began his tenure as NTU President on 1st January, 2018 and in recognition of his scholarly and scientific achievements in research, he was also named the inaugural Distinguished University Professor,the highest honour given to a faculty member at NTU. He served as Director of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2010 to 2013, and Dean of the School of Engineering from 2007 to 2010 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was a faculty member for two decades. He has a deep understanding of higher education and research systems in North America, Europe, Singapore, India and China, having actively engaged with various public and private agencies, boards and individual researchers across these regions, to advance research, education and innovation. His research in materials science and engineering, biomedical engineering and computational biology, has helped to shape disciplines and technologies at the intersections of engineering, science and medicine.
Simone Buitendijk is Vice-Provost (Education) and leads Imperial College London's vision for an innovative and globally-leading learning and teaching environment, and an excellent student educational experience. She studied Medicine in Utrecht, received a Master’s degree in Public Health at the Yale School of Medicine in the US and earned her PhD degree at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Simone is an internationally respected expert in maternal and child health. She held the Netherlands’ first professorial chair for Midwifery Studies at the Amsterdam Medical Centre and a chair in Child Public Health at Leiden University Medical Centre. She was Vice-Rector for Education and Diversity at Leiden University from 2011 to 2016, where she was responsible for education and student affairs. Simone is Chair of the League of European Research Universities’ (LERU) Steering Group for Learning and Teaching and is co-author of the 2014 LERU Advice Paper 'Online Learning at Research Intensive Universities'.
Professor Dame Parveen Kumar Professor of Medicine and Education, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
After qualifying as a physician and gastroenterologist, Parveen Kumar spent most of her career working in the National Health Service at the Homerton, Barts and the Royal London Hospitals. As a student Parveen Kumar found textbooks rather boring and therefore went on to co-found and co-edit the textbook “Kumar and Clark’s Clinical Medicine” (currently in its 9th edition) which is used in medical schools around the world. She has also published many other textbooks on medicine. Parveen's research interests have been in disorders of the small bowel particularly coeliac disease in which she completed her MD and published widely on the topic. Parveen now teaches, lectures and examines for MBBS, MRCP and postgraduate degrees in the UK and other countries. She is on several committees including Genomics England for the 100,000 genome project. She developed the first MSc in Gastroenterology in the UK. Parveen was a founding Non-Executive Director of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, and the Chairman of the Medicines Commission UK. She was Vice President, Director of CPD, and Associate Director for International Education for the Royal College of Physicians, the President of the British Medical Association, the Royal Society of Medicine and the Medical Women’s Federation. Currently, she is President of the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund and trustee of many other charities including Barts Charity, and the British Youth Opera. She also has a major interest in Global Health and has just co-edited a book on the Essentials of Global Health (2018) written by over 120 medical students from all around the world. Parveen has received many honours and honorary degrees and was awarded CBE for services to medicine in 2000 and DBE for services to medicine and medical education in 2017.
Professor Henk Schmidt Professor of Psychology, Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University, Netherlands Visiting Professor, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Hendricus Schmidt’s areas of interest are learning and memory. He has published more than 250 articles in refereed journals, chapters in books, and books on problem-based learning, long-term memory, and the development of expertise in medicine; alone or together with his 30-plus PhD students. In 2004, the Karolinska Institutet announced him to be the winner of its international medical education research prize for his work in medical expertise and problem-based learning. In 2006, he received the Distinguished Career Award of the American Educational Research Association, Division I. In 2005 the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW) selected him as one of the top 200 Dutch scientists. The founding dean of the problem-based psychology curriculum at Erasmus School of Social Behavioural Sciences in the Netherlands’ Erasmus University, he was the Rector Magnificus of Erasmus University Rotterdam. In addition, he has been the president of the Dutch Psychological Association (NIP), the chairman of the Dutch Society for Research into Higher Education (CRWO), and the associate secretary general of the Network of community-oriented educational institutions for health sciences, a WHO-supported NGO. He was invited by the Nobel Prize Committee to be a speaker at the Nobel Forum.
Professor Peter Abrahams Emeritus Professor of Clinical Anatomy, Warwick Medical School, United Kingdom Life Fellow of Girton College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Visiting Professor, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Trained as a medic in London after teaching with VSO in the jungles of Borneo, Peter Abrahams is passionate about how technology can enhance teaching. In 1997, he was awarded the BMA electronic publishing prize for Interactive Skeleton CD-ROM. In 2005 with Craven and Lumley, he won The Richard Asher Prize from the Royal Society of Medicine, for the best new medical textbook. Also an anatomical consultant for the WHO, his major educational contributions include the McMinn “Clinical Atlas of Human Anatomy” in its 8th edition and with Weir “Imaging Atlas of Human Anatomy” in its 5th edition. In 2006, the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA) recognised his contributions with “Honoured Member - for authorship of anatomical textbooks and electronic resources in many languages”. He has created educational apps to improve student engagement, and is involved with the development of 3D printing for medical and educational purposes at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. Alongside this, Peter heads up the Anatomy Section of The West Midlands Surgical Training Centre, making it the first centre in the UK to order a complete collection of plastinated prosections and cross sections for anatomy teaching.
Ms Farhana Nakhooda Director, Healthcare & Social Services , IBM Asia Pacific, Singapore Farhana Nakhooda is the IBM Asia Pacific Healthcare and Life Sciences Director who assists healthcare and social services organisations to improve outcomes, access, efficiency and effectiveness. She has more than 20 years of international experience in the healthcare, social services and life sciences industry. In May 2012, Farhana was inducted into the IBM Industry Academy, an honour only given to a select number of leading industry experts at IBM. She is a strategic advisor to clients and has a strong focus on the applicability of cloud, analytics, AI, blockchain, mobile and security in the healthcare and life sciences sector. She is a strong advocate of digital transformation, patient-centred healthcare systems and the move towards better patient engagement and population health management. She also has helped drive a number of cutting-edge cognitive computing (IBM Watson) healthcare engagements across Asia Pacific.
Professor Debra Nestel Professor of Surgical Education, Department of Surgery, University of Melbourne, Australia Professor of Simulation Education in Healthcare, Monash University, Australia Debra Nestel is programme lead for the Master of Surgical Education (Department of Surgery, University of Melbourne and Royal Australasian College of Surgeons), a programme designed for surgeons interested in advancing their educational practice. She co-leads the Master of Surgical Science, University of Melbourne – a programme designed for junior doctors interested in pursuing a career in surgery. Debra is an honorary professorial fellow at Imperial College London and Graduate Faculty Scholar in the College of Graduate Studies at the University of Central Florida. She leads a national programme for simulation educators – NHET-Sim and a state-based network in simulated patient methodology. She has published over 140 peer-reviewed papers in health professions education, and recently published a book on simulated patient methodology (2015), healthcare simulation (2017) and is working with colleagues on a book about research methods for healthcare simulation.
Associate Professor Josip Car Director, Centre for Population Health Sciences, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Josip Car is Founding Director of the Centre for Population Health Sciences and Chair, Health Services and Outcomes Research Programme at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Director of the Global eHealth Unit at Imperial College London, and a practicing physician. He works or has worked with the World Health Organization, OECD, World Bank, the Global Fund, Singapore Ministry of Health amongst others. He is a Board Member of the BMC Medicine and Journal of Global Health; an Editor of the Cochran Collaboration and Acta Dermato-Venereologica. Josip has a track record of blending academic, policy, management and clinical work. His key skills, knowledge and results areas include digital health, mHealth, digital learning, clinical leadership, primary and secondary healthcare services commissioning, health system innovations for quality improvement (e.g. integrated care), and investigation of management of long-term diseases.
Professor Adrian Freeman Professor of Medical Education (E & S), University of Exeter Medical School, United Kingdom Adrian Freeman is a Professor of Medical Education at University of Exeter Medical School. He is a practising General Practitioner (Family Medicine Specialist), heavily involved in medical education at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His particular interest is in assessments in education. He is an examiner for the Royal College of General Practitioners and led the development of the licensing examination of Clinical Skills for the College, also chairing the MRCGP INT board of the College. This programme accredits overseas training programmes and assessments in Family Medicine and is active in 9 countries around the world. With experience working on such projects in Oman, Dubai, Malta, Kosovo and China, he has also worked on related projects in Egypt and Libya and delivered teaching courses in Indonesia and Canada. Additionally, he is President of the European Board of Medical Assessors, Deputy chair of the GMC Panel for Tests of Competence, and a member of the International Board of the American Board of Medical Examiners. He is currently on the Board of the UK Medical Schools Council Assessment Alliance and a Council member for the Academy of Medical Educators.
After graduating from Monash University, Adeeba Kamarulzaman trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Monash Medical Centre and Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. In Malaysia she established the Centre of Excellence for Research on AIDS (CERiA) that conducts multi-disciplinary research on HIV ranging from clinical to public health and policy research. Adeeba has used her clinical and academic leadership to engage in the national and community response to HIV/AIDS. She presently serves as Chairman of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation and an Executive Council member of the Malaysian AIDS Council, the peak HIV NGO in Malaysia, as well as an Executive Council Member of the International AIDS Society and a member of the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel on HIV. Recognised through several national and international awards including the Tun Mahathir Science and Merdeka Awards, as well as the Advance Australia Global Award, she has also played a key role in the establishment and ongoing activities and collaborations of a regional HIV research network initiative; TREAT Asia.
Ms Yu Meng Li Year 4 medical Student, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Yu Meng Li is a Year 4 medical student at Imperial College. She took part in the first Imperial College Enables (ICE) expedition to Nepal in collaboration with the Community Action Nepal charity. Along with her team, she trekked through the Himalayan mountain range over three weeks, assisting at local health posts and schools. She also spent time participating in research at the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in China, as part of the new Clinical Research & Innovation module within the School of Medicine. Recently, she collaborated with faculty members at Imperial College to conduct medical education research and is presenting at the Transform MedEd conference this year. In her free time, she has given academic lectures to help new students and organised fundraising events for RainCatcher, a charity focused on supplying clean water to developing countries. She also enjoys visiting art galleries and travelling to places with good food.
Professor Luke Kang Kwong Kapathy Chair, School of Humanities & Associate Dean (Research), College of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Luke Kapathy is a believer in the importance of using new techniques and innovative methodologies to crack old puzzles and his research is characterised by a high degree of interdisciplinary. He has a close working relationship with specialists in such diverse fields as Psychology, Sociology, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Natural Language Processing in many parts of the world. His vast experience in academia and administration includes his role as Founding Head of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong from 1997 to 2005. He researches and teaches a wide range of topics from Phonology and Syntax to Sociolinguistics, Computational Linguistics and Neurolinguistics. In spite of their apparent diversity, these topics can all be traced back to a common theme and Luke’s passion -- the interface between language structure and language function. His ground-breaking work on the neuro-cognitive processing of syntax and semantics in Chinese and English bilinguals has achieved international recognition.
Dr Dujeepa Samarasekera Director, Centre for Medical Education (CenMED), NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Singapore
After graduating as a medical doctor from the University of Colombo, Dujeepa Samarasekera trained further in medical education at University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. He is a medical educationalist who has been involved in health professional education since 2000. He is co-chair for faculty development at the National University Health System (NUHS) Residency programme, a member of the Graduate Medical Education Committee of NUHS and Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and also head of the Continuous Quality Improvement section of the deanery education of Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. He serves on the boards of Association of Asian Medical Educators, Association of Medical Education in the Western Pacific Region and is also an International Liaisons Person for the Association of Medical Education Europe. He provides educational expertise to health professional institutions and currently serves as an educational consultant to Ministry of Health, Singapore. He is also on the editorial advisory boards of South East Asian Journal of Medical Education, Korean Journal of Medical Education and is a peer reviewer for Medical Education, Annals of Academic Medicine, Singapore Medical Journal, Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, and SpringerPlus. His main research interests are in effective teaching, learning behaviours and assessment, and has published in peer-reviewed journals as well as authored book chapters relating to Medical and Health Professional Education.
Mr Gideon Shimshon Director, Digital Learning Hub, Imperial College London, UK Gideon Shimshon is Imperial College London’s Director of Digital Learning Hub where he is tasked with designing and delivering on Imperia’s digital learning strategy and in increasing the level of online and digital innovative education-related activity across Imperial. Motivated by his passion for learning and teaching, Gideon leads a diverse portfolio of projects that examine the future of digital and campus education.Before joining Imperial, he was the director of the Centre for Innovation at Leiden University where he co-founded the Online Learning and New Media Labs, which now offer online courses to over 750,000 students worldwide, as well as HumanityX – an initiative which works with UN organisations, companies and NGOs to develop digital innovations for the peace, justice and humanitarian sectors.
Associate Professor Tham Kum Ying Education Director and Senior Consultant, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore Assistant Dean, Year 5, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Apart from her role at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine as Assistant Dean for Year 5, Tham Kum Ying is Education Director and a Senior Consultant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore. She has been actively involved in the education of medical students, nurses, paramedics, house officers, medical officers and trainees since 1994, while playing an active leadership role in the teaching and faculty development at the National Healthcare Group, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, LKCMedicine and Singapore’s other undergraduate medical school, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Nationally and regionally, she is a much sought-after teacher, lecturer and educator in resuscitation, trauma, emergency medicine and medical education. Her current research interests focus on trauma resuscitation and the teaching and learning of medical professionalism. Outside of Singapore, she has contributed to the clinical and educational capacity-building project for emergency medical services in Malang, Indonesia. She continues to lead the capacity building project for two rural districts in Sichuan, China.
Professor Helen Ward Professor of Public Health, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Helen Ward is a clinical academic, Professor of Public Health based in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Consultant in Public Health at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. She is Director of Education for the School of Public Health, a role in which she leads the development and delivery of high-quality undergraduate and postgraduate education across the School, and directs the Imperial Patient Experience Research Centre (PERC), leading on patient and public involvement and engagement for the Imperial Biomedical Research Centre and the College. In addition to her responsibilities at Imperial, Helen is the UK-Ireland academic representative on the European Supervisory Board for EIT-Health, a Europe-wide partnership of 140 universities, public bodies and businesses promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in healthy living and active ageing.