CQT's Deputy Director joins leadership team of new Yale-NUS College

CQT's Deputy Director, Professor Lai Choy Heng, has been appointed to the leadership team for the new Yale-NUS College, which will be offering a liberal arts education to students in Singapore from August 2013. Choy Heng will be Executive Vice President (Academic affairs) at Yale-NUS with effect from 1 July 2012, retaining concurrently his position at the Centre for Quantum Technologies.

The Yale-NUS College in Singapore is a partnership between the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Yale University, one of the United State's Ivy League schools. It is the first new college Yale is launching in its 300-year history.

At the new college, students will gain a broad-based education. They will take courses spanning arts, humanities, social sciences, natural and physical sciences, and mathematics, choosing over their four-year, fully residential degree to specialise in a 'major'. The college will grow to accept up to 250 students per year and will have permanent faculty as well as hosting top professors from Yale and NUS.

Choy Heng, a theoretical physicist, has been CQT's Deputy Directory since 2007. He has also been Vice Provost for Academic Personnel at NUS since 2003.

"Yale-NUS is very fortunate to attract Professor Lai to this important academic position," said NUS President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan. "Apart from his distinguished record of research and administrative leadership accomplishments, Professor Lai is passionate about liberal arts education and deeply believes in the potential for Yale-NUS College to pioneer a new model for Asia for the future. With his strong personal interest and expertise in Western classical music and Chinese Classics, he brings highly complementary qualities to the Yale-NUS leadership team." CQT congratules Choy Heng on the appointment.

The President of the Yale-NUS College was announced simultaneously. This position will be held by Pericles Lewis, Yale Professor of English and Comparative Literature. Read more on the Yale-NUS website.