Assoc Profs T.C. Chang, David Higgitt and Dr Pow C.P. have each won a Faculty Teaching Excellence Award 2008. The award recognizes their contributions to “the quality of the education [FASS] offers” and “the intellectual growth [they] have helped foster in our students”. In addition, Assoc Prof T.C. Chang also won the University’s Annual Teaching Excellence Award 2008. This award is given by the University to recognize faculty members who have demonstrated a very high level of commitment to, and achievement of, good teaching.

With collaborator Dr Samuel Etienne from the University of French Polynesia, Assoc Prof James Terry was awarded EUR6000 by the French Government in 2009 for scientific research on the nature of cyclone mega-clast deposits on coral reefs in the South Pacific.

Prof Lily Kong, a faculty member and also Vice President of the University and Global Relations was appointed to the Public Service Commission (PSC) for a term of five years starting January 2009. The PSC tends to the appointment and promotion of senior civil servants, the award of scholarships, as well as maintaining discipline within the civil service.

Profs Lily Kong and Brenda Yeoh have been appointed as Provost Chairs in FASS from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2012. These appointments recognize their “superior and impactful scholarly accomplishments” and anticipate their “continued leadership and successful contributions to the growing international profile and standing of the University”.

Prof Brenda Yeoh was the keynote speaker for 2009 ISSBD Asia Pacific Workshop on Human Development in the Context of Movement within and across National Boundaries, 4-5 July 2009, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, where she talked about “Families/Households in Motion: Transnational Strategies and their Implications for Human Development in Asia.”