The first to perform closed heart surgery in Singapore (1957). The first to perform open-heart surgery under hypothermia (1960). The first local Professor of Surgery at the University of Malaya (1955–62), as NUS was then known. Pre-eminent surgeon Professor Yeoh Ghim Seng was a trailblazer. He was also instrumental in the introduction of the Primary F.R.A.C.S. Examination in Singapore, which helped to establish qualified local surgeons in Singapore and the region. Prof Yeoh, born in 1918 in Ipoh, Malaysia, saw the patient-doctor relationship as ‘a vital force’, viewing “the human being and his suffering” as the “raison d’etre of this profession”. He studied at the University of Cambridge, St Thomas’ Hospital, London, and obtained his FRCS after training as a surgeon in various hospitals in England. In 1950 he joined the General Hospital (now SGH), contributing enormously to medical practice and education by training younger doctors. He founded the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, in 1957, with Professor Gordon Arthur Ransom and former President of Singapore Dr Benjamin Henry Sheares. Professor Low Cheng Hock, Emeritus Consultant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, reminisced, “Prof Yeoh was a great surgeon who was clear in his thoughts and teaching, confident in action, caring in spirit and precise in his surgery.” Prof Yeoh passed away in 1993. Prof Yeoh had always maintained a close relationship with NUS, as the first local Professor of Surgery and later as Chairman of the University Council. The University conferred the honorary Doctor of Letters degree upon him in 1981. To celebrate his outstanding achievements, NUS established the Yeoh Ghim Seng Professorship in Surgery. The Professorship was supported by gifts from friends, former students and patients, led by Professor Arthur Lim, Southeast Asia’s father of ophthalmology. The Professorship has enabled the University to welcome eminent professors from around the world to share their expertise as well as to collaborate in research and education with the University community.
