Dr. Nicholas Syn is the inaugural Dean’s Fellow at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, where he graduated from in 2021. He has published over 300 scientific manuscripts with a H-index of 46 (September 2024), including articles in The Lancet, The Lancet Oncology, Nature Communications, BMC Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, BMJ Gut etc. He was named among the World’s Top 2% of Scientists ranking published by Stanford University and Elsevier for three consecutive years based on calendar year citations in 2022, 2023 and 2024. He is the principal investigator of the NUHS Clinician Scientist Programme grant and Changi Collaborative Grant, and a co-investigator or collaborator on several national and institutional grants.

Whilst in medical school, Nicholas obtained over SGD $100,000 in funding, grants, and awards, and upon graduation became the first recipient of the Dean's Research and Development Award (DRDA). He also attained several institutional awards including the Abbott Academic Excellence Prize, Yeoh Seang Aun Prize (in Tuberculosis and Infectious Diseases), SingHealth Medical Student Talent Development Awards twice (Project Award in 2018 and Travel Award in 2019), NUHS Department of Medicine Junior Research Award, Wong Hock Boon Society Research Fellowship Grant, NUS Medical Grand Challenge 2017 Change Maker Prize, and NUS Enterprise Innovation And Entrepreneurship Practicum Grant 2017.

Professionally, he currently serves as a member of the Vanguard Committee of the International Liver Transplantation Society, and as an associate editor for several journals in the BMC and Frontiers portfolio.  He is skilled in evidence synthesis, advanced biostatistics, neural networks, and bioinformatics, and serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor with the Department of Biomedical Informatics, NUS, where he teaches modules in evidence-based medicine and artificial intelligence to Masters and undergraduate students.

Qualifications: 

MBBS (NUS)

Awards 

• Principal Investigator, NUHS Clinician Scientist Programme (NCSP) v2.0 2023 (S$400,000), National University Health System, Singapore
• Dean’s Fellow. Recipient of Dean’s Research Development Award (DRDA) 2021 (S$60,000), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
• Principal Investigator, Changi Collaborative Grant 2023 (S$60,000), Clinician Scientist Development Unit, National University Health System, Singapore
• Principal Investigator, Junior Research Award 2020 (S$6,000), Department of Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore
• Abbott Academic Excellence Prize (S$1,500), Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Pte Ltd / National University of Singapore
• Yeoh Seang Aun Prize (S$1,000) (in Tuberculosis and Infectious Diseases), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
• SingHealth Medical Student Talent Development Award (SMSTDA)-Travel Award 2019 (S$3,000), SingHealth
• SingHealth Medical Student Talent Development Award (SMSTDA)-Project Award 2018 (S$7,000), SingHealth
• NUS Medical Grand Challenge (MGC) 2017 Change Maker Prize (S$5,000), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
• Innovation And Entrepreneurship Practicum Grant 2017 (S$10,000), NUS Enterprise
• NUS Medical Grand Challenge (MGC) 2017-2019 Prototype Development Funds (Total Sum: S$2,500), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
• Wong Hock Boon (WHB) Society Travel Support (S$700), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
• Harvard Medical School – Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (HMS-BIDMC) Electives Grant, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (S$9,000)
  
• Wong Hock Boon (WHB) Society Research Fellowship 2017 Grant (S$2,000), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
• Travel Award (¥100,000), 90^th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association
• Travel Award (US$1,000), 7th Biennial Congress of the Asian-Pacific Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association
• Top Team, Singapore-Stanford Biodesign (SSB) Innovation Class 2017
• Best Free Paper (HPB Track) (S$100), 5th Asian Congress of Robotic and Laparoscopic Surgery (ACRLS) 2019
• Best of ILTS Travel Award (US$1,000), International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS) 2023
• Young Investigator Award (US$1,000), International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS) 2023
• Honors with Distinction (HD), Harvard Medical School Exchange Clerkship (Clinical informatics)
• Top Team Award. Singapore-Stanford Biodesign (SSB) Innovation Class 2017
• Best Medical Oncology Abstract (Clinical Science Category). Jul 2016. 3^rd NCIS Annual Research Meeting
• Best Oral Presentation (Runner Up). Jul 2016. 3^rd NCIS Annual Research Meeting
• Junior Investigator Award. Jul 2016. 3^rd NCIS Annual Research Meeting
• Best Scoring Paper (Session: Best Liver; Type: Oral Presentation), 13th Congress of the European-African Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (E-AHPBA).
• Best Poster Award, 7th Biennial Congress of the Asian-Pacific Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association
• Best Free Paper Oral Presentation (HPB Track) (S$100), 5th Asian Congress of Robotic and Laparoscopic Surgery (ACRLS)
• Top Ten Papers. Oct 2021. International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO) 25th World Congress (Top Ten General Session)
• Free Paper (Session: Free Paper Session 10; Type: Oral Presentation), 14th Congress of the European-African Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (E-AHPBA), Sep 2021
• Best Scoring Paper (Session: Best of the Best; Type: Oral Presentation), 14th Congress of the European-African Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (E-AHPBA), Sep 2021