Singapore has one of the world’s most rapidly ageing populations. By 2030, the elderly will comprise up to 20 per cent of Singapore’s population. The understanding and management of cognitive disorders in the elderly are of crucial importance to the country and is one of the areas that will benefit from the establishment of the Tan Geok Yin Professorship at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine’s Department of Psychology. The Professorship is named after Madam Tan Geok Yin, the first wife of Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat. Mr and Mrs Khoo married when he was just 16 years old in 1934. She was a devoted wife and mother, instilling values and ethics to her seven children – two boys and five girls. Madam Tan passed away in 1972.

The research team at the Department studied aspects of cognitive impairment in the elderly and determined the impact of risk factors such as nutrition, cardiometabolic factors, gene interactions, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory biomarkers on cognition. The team reaches out to the community to identify the elderly at risk of cognitive decline and explore psychological, social and lifestyle measures to pre-empt potential cognitive disorders. They have also developed interventions, such as Brief Integrative Psychological Therapy and Mindfulness Therapy. The Department also runs the Gerontology Research Programme, which aims to help the understanding of population ageing transition and provide the scientific information needed for formulating strategies of disease prevention and health promotion. Multi-disciplinary research groups establish cohorts of elderly subjects, both healthy and ill, for research, addressing all levels of intervention and care: primary preventive, primary care, hospital, community hospital, and nursing homes. Projects include: dementia, depression, mind-body nexus and active ageing. The Tan Geok Yin Professorship will help the University build on its achievements in the areas of ageing, psychiatry and neuroscience over the next few years. The Professorship was established by Mdm Lucy Khoo to commemorate her mother, Mdm Tan Geok Yin.

Professor Kua Ee Heok is the Tan Geok Yin Professor in Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, and Emeritus Consultant, National University Hospital.

“I was born in the Year of the Bull and so was destined to work long and hard for someone else,” Mr Lin Jo Yan once quipped. Indeed, it was hard work that Mr Lin also named as an important value that brought him success with the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) in the five decades of his career there. Mr Lin joined OCBC in 1932 as one of its first employees, a humble clerk earning all of $35 a month. Singapore’s oldest bank was to be his one and only employer, for Mr Lin rose quickly through the ranks, working through its crucial growing years to eventually lead it as General Manager and Director. As the largest local banking organisation in the 1960s, OCBC played an active role in the economic development of Malaysia and Singapore, a time that gave Mr Lin great satisfaction. Until the two countries separated, he also held the post of Chairman of the Association of Banks in Malaysia and Singapore for eight years. Under Mr Lin’s leadership, OCBC continued its surge forward, with a newspaper calling it “solid as a rock” in a tribute. He retired in 1977, but stayed on the bank’s board for another ten years before stepping down. Mr Lin always described himself firmly as “a practical man”. Although not given to sentimentality, Mr Lin cared greatly about good relations between management and staff, and between staff and customers.

The Lin Jo Yan and Yeo Boon Khim Professorship in Mental Health was established by Mr Lin Tah Hwa in 2017 to commemorate his parents, Mr Lin Jo Yan and Madam Yeo Boon Khim. With the endowment, NUS Medicine aims to appoint an expert in psychiatric and psychological medicine to advance the field. The role will be pivotal in enhancing the Department of Psychological Medicine’s ongoing efforts to develop mental health in young Singaporeans, and energise the collaboration with other specialties such as paediatrics and adult psychiatry. The post encompasses the teaching and supervision of students as well as translational research.

Associate Professor John Wong Chee Meng is the Lin Jo Yan and Yeo Boon Khim Professor in Mental Health and Neuroscience at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore,

Director, Mind Science Centre and Senior Consultant Psychiatrist, Dept of Psychological Medicine, National University of Singapore & National University Hospital.