15th S R Nathan Fellow – Lily Kong
Professor Lily Kong, BBM, PBM, FBA, was appointed President of Singapore Management University (SMU) in 2019. She is the fifth President and the first Singaporean to lead the university, established in 2000. She is also the first Singaporean woman to serve as President of any university in Singapore. She previously served as Provost of SMU from 2015 to 2018, making her the first woman to hold the position of Provost at any university in Singapore. Before joining SMU, she held various senior management roles at the National University of Singapore.
An award-winning researcher and teacher, Professor Kong has received numerous international awards and accolades, including the British Academy Fellowship, Commonwealth Fellowship, Fulbright Fellowship, Geographical Society of China Fellowship, Robert Stoddard Award from the Association of American Geographers, and the Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).
Professor Kong was conferred the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2006 and Public Service Star (Bintang Bakti Masyarakat) award in 2020 as part of Singapore’s National Day Awards. She was recognised in Forbes Asia’s Power Businesswomen list (2020), Forbes inaugural 50 over 50 (Asia 2022) and Tatler’s Asia’s Most Influential (2022). Professor Kong was inducted into Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame in 2022.
15th IPS-Nathan Lecture Series — Universities Reinvented: Shaping Legacy and Impact for a New World
In this three-part lecture series, President of Singapore Management University and 15th S R Nathan Fellow Professor Lily Kong will reflect on the idea of the university and how it has evolved over time. She will examine the public value of universities, and the potential and reality of their contributions to societal development. In the first lecture entitled “Through the Looking Glass: Insights into the Origin and Evolution of Universities”, she illustrates how, throughout history, the university has reflected changing societal contexts. The contemporary university is no different — a condition of our post-industrial, post-truth world. In the second lecture entitled “At the Crossroads: Universities for the 100-Year Life”, Prof Kong examines what a university stands for if humanity contemplates and confronts the very real possibility of a 100-year life. The relevance of the university will of necessity extend beyond the narrow slice of three to four years in the first of four quartiles in human life. In her third lecture, she invites discussion about the responsibility of universities — as brain trust — to the world beyond its walls. Entitled “Beyond the Ivory Tower: Research and the Dilemmas of Quality and Relevance”, she addresses questions of misinformation, manipulation, and misconduct in research, but also, more optimistically, research that is creative, catalytic, and consequential.
To find out more about the S R Nathan Fellowship for the Study of Singapore, please click
here.