Dr. LI Rong joins the Department of Mechanical Engineering (NUS) as a Professor (courtesy appointment). She is also the Director of the Mechanobiology Institute, a Research Centre of Excellence hosted at NUS, and is also appointed as a Distinguished Professor of the Department of Biological Sciences, NUS. Prior to joining NUS, she was a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Cell Biology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Li is a globally respected leader in the study of cellular dynamics and mechanics. Her interdisciplinary research integrates genetics, quantitative imaging, biophysical measurements, mathematical modelling, genomics and proteomics — to understand how eukaryotic cells transmit their genomes, adapt to the environment, and establish distinct organisation to perform specialised functions.