Singapore, 20 May 2016 (Friday) – The Singapore Management University (SMU) has announced today the appointment of Professor Pang Hwee Hwa as the next Dean of the SMU School of Information Systems (SIS) with effect from 1 July 2016 for a term of five years.

Selected from a global pool of candidates after an extensive and rigorous global search which started in October 2015, Prof Pang’s strong commitment to research in information systems and a passion for excellence in education, make him the ideal candidate to lead the School of Information Systems.

Prof Pang succeeds Prof Steven Miller, who is completing 13.5 years as SIS’s founding dean. Prof Miller will continue with his role as Vice Provost (Research).

Prior to joining SMU in July 2005, Prof Pang was with the A*Star Institute of Infocomm Research where, as Division Director and Principal Scientist, he was responsible for strategic planning, project management, industry and government agency engagement, leading and managing research staff. Under his leadership, the division was one of the most successful in transferring technology to industry.  

At SMU, Prof Pang has played a central role in supporting the development and growth of the PhD programmes at the university. He served as PhD Programme Director at SIS from 2006 to 2014, and took on additional responsibilities as Director, and later Dean for Postgraduate Research at the university level from 2011.

Prof Pang’s research interests include Data Security & Privacy, Database Systems, Information Retrieval & Multimedia Analytics, Spatial and Context Aware Data Management, Recommender Systems & Preference Analytics. His strength in research is evident from the more than 20 high-quality papers he has published in top-tier refereed journals, including ACM Transactions of Database Systems, Very Large Database Journal, and IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering. He has also presented 50 papers at numerous conferences in the US, Europe, China, Korea and Japan. His research output also includes a number of commercial systems and 14 patents. He is highly regarded in his professional area and has served in the programme committees of prestigious conferences such as ACM SIGMOD, Very Large Data Bases, and IEEE International on Data Engineering.

SIS Dean-designate Prof Pang said, “I am honoured and excited to have this opportunity to chart SIS’s next phase of development. SIS already has a reputation of producing graduates who are versatile and highly sought after by employers, as well as impactful research. I will work closely with my colleagues to further develop the School into an institution that is internationally admired for our research and education. To achieve this, my priorities would be to strengthen the practical relevance of our School’s research, further our contribution to academic knowledge, and train our students to become professionals who employ IT innovatively to create business value.”

In expressing her appreciation to Professor Steven Miller, SMU Provost Professor Lily Kong said, “We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Prof Miller for his unwavering commitment and tremendous contributions to SMU and SIS. As founding Dean, his foresight, leadership, dedication and tireless efforts are legendary, and he has built a school that not only has a very strong foundation but is also very highly regarded by academia and industry. We are pleased that Prof Miller will continue with us as Vice Provost (Research) and guide SMU in growing our research strengths.”

“Prof Pang brings with him an admirable track record of teaching and research. Within SMU, Prof Pang enjoys a strong reputation as a dedicated educator, a meticulous planner and an able administrator, known for his integrity and highly respected by faculty, staff and students. We are confident that Prof Pang’s expertise and experience will lead the School to even greater heights,” added Prof Kong. 

For more information, please contact:

Teo Chang Ching (Mr)

Senior Assistant Director, Corporate Communications

Office of Corporate Communications & Marketing

DID: 6828 0451

Email: ccteo [at] smu.edu.sg