FACULTY AND STAFF UPDATES
New Faculty and Staff
Dr Pieter Herthogs
Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture
Dr Pieter Herthogs' research in computational design focuses on approaches for Design Evaluation and Knowledge Representation that bridge disciplines and domains. Together with his team, Dr Herthogs applies these to three areas: computational city planning & simulation, building adaptation & circular economy, and public space quality & walkability. Applications bridging human and artificial intelligence can help us navigate design processes in a goal-driven way. Examples include search engines for planning regulations and urban design cases, automated site and SWOT analysis workflows, mid-level ontologies for urban metabolism simulations, or formal floor plan evaluation methods.
Before joining the department, he worked as a Senior Researcher and Investigator at the Singapore-ETH Centre and its Future Cities Laboratory, on projects including Cities Knowledge Graph, Circular Future Cities, Semantic Urban Elements, and the Centre for Energy and Emissions Modelling 2.0.
Dr Herthogs holds a Doctorate in Engineering and a Master's and Bachelor's degree in Architectural Engineering from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium).
Dr Saptarshi Sanyal
Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture
Dr Saptarshi Sanyal's research examines architectural modernity through its processual aspects at the intersections of colonialism, authorship, histories of work and labour, and spatial production, with a focus on South Asia. His PhD, completed at the Bartlett, University College London, was supported by the UK Commonwealth Scholarship (2018 - 2022), and his doctoral thesis won an honourable mention at the University of California at Berkeley’s South Asia Art and Architecture Dissertation Prize (2023). Before joining the department, Dr Sanyal served as an Assistant Professor at the School of Planning and Architecture New Delhi from 2013 to 2025.
Dr Rui Shengjie
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Prior to joining the department, Dr Rui Shengjie was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) in Norway, where he conducted research in marine renewable energy development, offshore geotechnics, and ocean engineering.
He led a European Union-funded project through the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship 2022, was awarded full marks, and has published over 50 research papers, including 45 peer-reviewed journal articles. He serves as a corresponding or nominated member of several Technical Committees under the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE), including TC104 (Physical Modelling), TC209 (Offshore Geotechnics), and TC213 (Scour and Erosion). He is also an editorial board member of Ocean Engineering, Associate Editor for the KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, and has been invited to serve as Guest Editor for five SCI journals.
He has visited many universities and presented his work at several world-leading institutions such as the University of Oxford, MIT, Imperial College London, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and ETH Zürich. In addition, he actively reviews for more than 35 SCI journals. His contributions have been recognised with several honours and awards, including the Bright Spark Lecturer Award from ISSMGE, the Best Paper Award at OMAE 2024, the LIU Huixian Earthquake Engineering Scholarship Award, and the Excellent PhD Thesis Award from the Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics & Engineering (CSRME).
Miss Goh Zhi Xian Sheryl
Executive, Department of Architecture
Miss Sheryl Goh assists the department with logistical as well as safety and health-related matters. Sheryl brings with her experience working with facilities management in public healthcare, overseeing upgrading and reconfiguration projects across various clinics in Singapore.
Ms Siti Nurfatin Binte Mohamad Zaidi
Management Assistant Officer, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Ms Siti Nurfatin manages the Master of Science in Energy Systems programme. Prior to joining the department, Fatin worked with companies specialising in immigration and visa services for both corporate and individual clients.
Management Updates
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| Professor Liew Jat Yuen, Richard | Re-appointed as Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering effective 1 July 2025. |
| Professor Dean Ho | Re-appointed as Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering effective 1 July 2025. |
| Professor Chew Yit Lin, Michael | Re-appointed as Head of the Department of the Built Environment effective 1 July 2025. |
Promotions
| Name of Staff | Department/Division | Promotion |
| Mark Chong Seow Khoon | Biomedical Engineering | Associate Professor (Educator Track) on open contract with retrospective effect from 1 January 2025. |
| Jangam Sachin Vinayak | Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Associate Professor (Educator Track) on open contract with retrospective effect from 1 January 2025. |
| Justin Yeoh Ker-Wei | Civil and Environmental Engineering | Associate Professor (Educator Track) on open contract with retrospective effect from 1 January 2025. |
| Donn Koh Zhenglong | Division of Industrial Design | Associate Professor (Educator Track) on open contract with retrospective effect from 1 January 2025. |