Tembusu College held its first ‘Lo-Hei’ dinner or Chinese New Year dinner at Prince Georges Park Residence.
The dinner was attended by Tembusu students, Provost Prof. Tan Eng Chye, Vice Provost Prof. Tan Tai Yong, Master A/P Gregory Clancey and other Fellows of the college.
Professor William C. Summers’ formal education at the University of Wisconsin included mathematics, molecular biology, medicine, and he received his M.D. and Ph.D. in 1967. His research has included molecular biology and genetics of cancer and viruses, history of medicine and science, and the relations between science and the humanities.
He has taught and published on various topics such as quantum mechanics to viral genetics to the biology of gender and sexuality, and as well as East Asian studies. He has recently completed a book on the geopolitics of plague in Manchuria, and is also working on the history of the American Phage Group. His continuing interest in Asian medicine and public health is now focused on the recent history within the ASEAN group of nations.
The first formal dinner saw five different houses of Tembusu College named after five endangered species of Asian animals in its native language. The elephant or Gaja, the red panda or Ponya, the crane or Tancho, the Komodo dragon or Ora, and the snow leopard or Shan.
During the dinner, Prof. Tommy Koh shared his ambitions for Tembusu College to have the happiest students, the most international, inclusive and harmonious student body, and also to have the richest collegiate life, intellectually, socially and culturally.
Topic: The Battle Within
Speaker: Assoc. Prof. Lina Lim
Abstract:
In this work-in-progress seminar, I will discuss my laboratory’s research on breast cancer. It is of utmost importance to understand the ways by which normal cells in the body transform into malignant cells, and how these cancers grow, and ultimately spread or metastasize. Through this understanding, we can attempt to alter the cancer phenotype in the effort to treat and prevent this cruel act of nature. Who will win in the end?
Topic: Business Knowledge for Climate Change Policy – Social and Critical Implications
Speaker: Dr. Jerome Whitington
Abstract:
Social scientists have long studied forms of scientific and governmental knowledge as a way to understand the organization and political structures of society. Increasingly, business knowledge has come to dominate actual practices relevant to these structures and the policy debates for social problems with economic implications. A striking example is climate change policy, in which policy makers must ask what the private sector is willing and able to provide, and adapt politics to the ‘realities’ of the market. My research begins by asking what the private sector has been doing to push this process forward, with particular emphasis on greenhouse gas accounting and management techniques.
The presentation will review this new field of business consulting, showing the dynamism of the way in which it apprehends climate change as a social problem. I will then discuss some possible implications for how society and environment are organized, and some possible future orientations. Since climate change policy is actually meant to re-design basic social practices, the results of this form of business knowledge will be highly relevant.
Tembusu College Office University Town, NUS 28 College Avenue East, #B1-01 Singapore 138598
tembusu@nus.edu.sg
