OPA Professional Development Resources

PDA_Mental & Wellness

Mental Health & Wellness

As academics, we face constant challenges, such as major grant deadlines, important presentations, and publication rejections, which can lead to burnout. It is essential to equip ourselves with the necessary knowledge, skills, and healthy habits to manage stress and allow time for recovery. It is important to maintain good physical and mental health while remaining meaningfully engaged in our work. We have compiled a list of useful resources to help you stay motivated and avoid burnout. 

PDA_Soft Skills

Soft Skills & Enrichment

Beyond their expert knowledge and technical skills, it is also important for scientists to equip themselves with soft skills, which are also crucial success factors for their careers such as improving collaboration and team productivity. These are some useful resources to help you get started.

PDA_Career Development

Career & Development

Postdoctoral fellows have multiple career paths to explore. You could reflect on the aspects you would like to incorporate into your future career and learn about the potential career options. Seeking guidance from your mentor or an Individual Development Plan can help you create a successful long-term strategy for postdoctoral training while considering your interests and values for a smooth transition into your preferred career.

PDA_Career Portral

Career Portals

PDA_Training Portal

Training Portals

Most jobs are dynamic, constantly changing, and adapting as the field grows. Hence it is important to upgrade your skills and broaden your skill expertise to stay relevant and improve your career prospects.

PDA_Teaching

Teaching

For postdoctoral fellows interested in education, here are some resources to enhance your pedagogy skills and help you get started on your teaching journey.
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A/Prof Kenneth Ban

Programme Director, National Supercomputing Cluster Singapore (NSCC)
Assoc Prof, Dept of Biochemistry, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

Prof Kenneth Ban graduated from NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and completed his PhD in Stanford University, As a medical educator and Phase I Director at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Kenneth is leading the development of a Health Informatics track aiming to build foundational competencies in data science for medical students.

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A/Prof Caroline Lee

Vice Dean, NUS Graduate School, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
Assoc Prof, Dept of Biochemistry, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

Prof Caroline Lee graduated with PhD from Baylor College of Medicine and did her post-doctoral training with Dr. Michael Gottesman at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. She has ~100 peer reviewed publications focused on the functional genomics of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and pharmacogenetics.
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Aaron Chua

Principal Lecturer and Consultant
Digital Strategy & Leadership Practice
NUS-ISS

His research interests comprise health-related quality-of-life studies, clinical trials, and modelling transmission of infectious disease. He has also worked with projects in various therapeutic areas including oncology, stroke, ophthalmology and orthopaedics.
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A/Prof Jason Yap

Associate Professor
NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health

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A/Prof Seth Gilbert

Dean’s Chair Associate Professor
Head, Department of Computer Science
NUS School of Computing

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A/Prof Ngiam Kee Yuan

Head, AI Office, National University Health System
Head & Senior Consultant, Division of General Surgery (Endocrine & Thyroid Surgery), Department of Surgery, National University Hospital
Professor, Department of Surgery, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
Senior Consultant, Division of Surgical Oncology, NCIS

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Dr Aoife Keohane

• Programme Director, MSc in Behavioural and Implementation Sciences
in Health (MSc BIS)
• Senior Lecturer, Centre for Behavioural and Implementation
Science Interventions (BISI) NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

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Prof Nick Sevdalis

• Academic Director, Centre for Behavioural and Implementation Science Interventions (BISI)
• Visiting Professor, Department of Psychological Medicine, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
• Academic Director (Joint), Quality Improvement & Implementation Science Clinical Academic Group, King's Health Partners, London, UK

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Dr Volker Patzel

Biomedical Innovation & Enterprise Course Coordinator
Senior Lecturer, Dept of Microbiology & Immunology, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

Dr Volker Patzel is a Senior Lecturer at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and holds a PhD from the Ruprecht Karls University in Heidelberg. With more than 20 years of teaching experience, he coordinates six modules at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and leads research on RNA technologies for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Dr Patzel has published over 50 papers, filed 15 patent families, and founded AVECRIS Pte Ltd in Singapore.

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A/Prof Gautam Sethi

Drug Discovery and Development Specialisation Coordinator
Capstone Project Co-Coordinator
Associate Professor, Dept of Pharmacology, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

A/Prof Gautam Sethi is a tenured Associate Professor at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, focusing on oncogenic transcription factor activation and cancer therapy. His work has led to over 400 scientific publications in high-impact journals. A/Prof Sethi is an editorial board member for numerous international journals and has been recognized as one of the world’s most highly cited researchers in 2020 and 2021 by Clarivate.

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Dr Sham Lok-To (Chris)

Capstone Project Coordinator
Assistant Professor, Dept of Microbiology & Immunology, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

Dr Chris Sham is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Microbiology & Immunology, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, where he teaches multiple microbiology-related courses, including Microbiology and Infection and Immunity He also serves as the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme coordinator and the Deputy Research Director of the Infectious Diseases Translational Research Programme. His research focuses on bacterial cell envelope synthesis, and in 2019, he received the prestigious National Research Foundation Fellowship.

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Dr Png Chin Wen

Vaccinology and Immunotherapy Specialisation Coordinator
Lecturer, Dept of Microbiology & Immunology, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

Dr Png Chin Wen earned his PhD from the University of Queensland and is a Lecturer at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, where he teaches topics such as immunology, cellular signaling, and vaccine development. His research focuses on gut microbiome and mucosal inflammation related to gastrointestinal cancers. Dr Png collaborates with clinicians to explore the role of gut bacteria in disease progression and serves as course coordinator for the MSc in Applied Biomedicine’s Vaccinology and Immunotherapy specialisation.

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Dr Jaishree Tripathi

Infectious Diseases Management Specialisation Coordinator
Lecturer, Dept of Microbiology & Immunology, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

Dr Jaishree Tripathi is a Lecturer at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, where she leads the Infectious Diseases Management track for the MSc in Applied Biomedicine programme. She has over 11 years of research experience in malaria parasite biology, including drug resistance and host-parasite interactions. Dr Tripathi holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Cambridge and has made significant contributions to malaria research using stem-cell-based models and single-cell transcriptomics.
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A/Prof Zhang Yongliang

Co-Programme Director, MSc in Applied Biomedicine (ABM)
Associate Professor, Dept of Microbiology & Immunology, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

A/Prof Zhang Yongliang is a tenured Associate Professor and Deputy Research Director of the Translational Immunology Programme at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. With over 15 years of teaching experience, he has created several programmes focused on infection and cancer. A/Prof Zhang’s contributions to immunology research have earned him recognition, including the Graduate Mentor of the Year award in 2019.

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A/Prof Kevin Tan Shyong Wei

Programme Director, MSc in Applied Biomedicine (ABM)
Associate Professor and Head, Dept of Microbiology & Immunology, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

A/Prof Kevin Tan is the Head of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at NUS and Vice-Dean (Graduate Studies) at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. He has 20 years of teaching experience and played a key role in developing the world’s first online course on the biomedical aspects of COVID-19. A/Prof Tan has received numerous teaching awards, including the Faculty Teaching Excellence Award and Graduate Mentor of the Year.
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Dr Lee Chun Fan

Assistant Professor, Centre for Quantitative Medicine, Duke-NUS Medical School

Dr Lee Chun Fan is an assistant professor at the Centre for Quantitative Medicine at the Duke-NUS Medical School. Prior to this, he was also affiliated with the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Public Health at The University of Hong Kong and the Singapore Clinical Research Institute.
His research interests comprise health-related quality-of-life studies, clinical trials, and modelling transmission of infectious disease. He has also worked with projects in various therapeutic areas including oncology, stroke, ophthalmology and orthopaedics.
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Dr Cindy Lin Xinyi

Assistant Professor, Centre for Quantitative Medicine, Duke-NUS Medical School

Dr. Xinyi (Cindy) Lin is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Quantitative Medicine, Duke- NUS Medical School. She serves as the course coordinator for two modular courses in in the MCI programme: MCI5001 (Design and Planning of Clinical Studies) and MCI5006 (Design and Planning of Epidemiological Studies). Dr. Lin has extensive experience utilising advanced statistical methods in clinical research studies and genetic epidemiology investigations. She has taught biostatistics coursework to a diverse audience, including PhD students and clinical researchers.
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Mihir Gandhi

Assistant Professor, Centre for Quantitative Medicine, Duke-NUS Medical School

Mihir Gandhi is an Assistant Professor in the Signature Program in Health Services & Systems Research, Lien Centre for Palliative Care, as well as the Head of Biostatistics Core team at the Centre for Quantitative Medicine, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore. He is also affiliated with the Singapore Clinical Research Institute, Singapore as the Head of Biostatistics Department and the Global Health Group at the Center for Child Health Research, Tampere University, Finland as a Visiting Researcher.
He is primarily working on planning, analysis and reporting of clinical trials. He has experience in wide range of therapeutic areas such as oncology, paediatrics, and hypertension for drug and health services interventional trials. In addition to clinical trials, he has research interest in applied statistics, health-related quality of life, quality of healthcare and health state valuation.
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A/Prof Edwin Chan

Associate Professor, Centre for Quantitative Medicine
Office of Clinical Sciences, Duke-NUS Medical School

A/Prof Chan is a clinical epidemiologist with over twenty years of experience in clinical research and evidence synthesis as the Chief Scientific Officer of the Singapore Clinical Research Institute (SCRI). He has been the Director of Cochrane Singapore since its establishment and is currently the Senior Scientific Advisor to SCRI. He teaches research literature critical appraisal skills and mentors students in clinical research (MCI programme, NUS). He has taught many research methodology courses on clinical trials, biostatistics, epidemiology, clinical practice guidelines (CPG) development, meta-analysis & evidence- based medicine (EBM). His interests are in the teaching of critical appraisal skills, epidemiology, health technology assessment and evidence synthesis.
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Prof Cheung Yin Bun

Professor, Centre for Quantitative Medicine
Deputy Director, Centre for Quantitative Medicine, Duke-NUS Medical School

CHEUNG Yin Bun is Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, and Adjunct Professor at Tampere University, Finland. Prior to joining Duke-NUS, he was a Senior Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Chief Scientific Officer at the Singapore Clinical Research Institute.
He received his degrees in social science, medical demography, statistics and paediatric epidemiology from institutions in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. He has broad interest in the studies of global child health, statistical methodology, and quality of life in palliative care setting. He has been the principal investigator of multiple research grants on statistical methodology and quality of life research. He is the author of Statistical Analysis of Human Growth and Development (CRC Press, 2014) and co-author of Survival Analysis: A Practical Approach (Wiley, 2006). He is the developer of the Singapore Caregiver Quality of Life Scale.
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Makoto Yawata,M.D., Ph.D.

Programme Director and Clinical-Scientist Mentor
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Principal Investigator, Immunology Programme, Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore Principal Investigator, NUSMED Immunology Translational Research Programme, National University of Singapore

Makoto YAWATA is the Director of the MCI Programme, where he also serves as a clinician-scientist mentor guiding the students in designing and planning their clinical studies and as coordinator of the MCI wet lab experiential research workshop. He is affiliated with the Department of Paediatrics at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and a Principal Investigator in the Immunology Programme in the NUS Life Sciences Institute and the NUS Medicine Immunology Translational Research Programme. His clinical background is autoimmune diseases; however the research he conducted as postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Structural Biology in Stanford University School of Medicine has led him to become more involved in hematology and transplantation. His laboratory has been investigating the mechanisms of human natural killer cell responses against particular types of virus infections and cancer, and also in transplantation immunology.

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