Lee Chuen Neng ("CN")

Lee Chuen Neng ("CN" as he prefers to be called) is currently Professor in Surgery and Professor in Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His specialty is in Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery (he is a heart surgeon primarily). He founded Cardiothoracic surgery at the National University Hospital (NUH) in Singapore upon returning from Mayo clinic, USA in 1985. After a period of 10 years in private practice, he was invited to return to NUS in 2001 where he became Chair of Surgery, NUH and NUS.

He is involved in setting up the Engineering in Medicine program. The multi-storey E7 building housing Bio-engineering programs and start up /spin offs has been completed. A new program on Nanotechnology for Medicine (Nano-diagnostics and Nano-Therapeutics) has been set up to develop nanomedicines, especially for common diseases with poor diagnostic tools and therapy such as liver disease and Alzheimer's. This program will be established in NUS’s Brenner Centre with 30 collaborative research groups from the Faculties of Science, Engineering and Medicine.

His interest in education has been recognised by awards such as The Gold Overseas medal from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and The National Clinician Mentor award from the Ministry of Health of Singapore.

Apart from his clinical, research and education interests, CN is keen on visiting and photographing areas less travelled: Antarctica, the Arctic circle, the Karakoram Highway, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, organising a drive from Singapore to Stockholm, etc.