Professor Nanyang Technological University, Institute of Catastrophe Risk Management, Singapore

Professor Tso-Chien PAN obtained his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, USA, in 1983 and 1978, respectively.  He obtained his B.S. (Civil Engineering) from the National Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan, in 1975.  After graduation from Berkeley, he held senior engineering positions with the Nuclear Fuel Operations, Bechtel National Inc. and URS/John A Blume & Assoc, in S.F., California.

In September 1985, Dr Pan joined the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.  He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1993 and Full Professor in 2000.  In June 2005, Prof Pan was appointed Dean of the School of CEE.  From 1 July 2006, he was concurrently appointed Dean of the College of Engineering (CoE) at NTU to provide strategic leadership to six Engineering Schools of 600 faculty members and 16,000 students.

Prof Pan spearheaded the establishment of the Protective Technology Research Centre as its Founding Director in April 1998 to formulate inter-school R&D in protective technology for defence applications.  More recently, Prof Pan has taken on the role as Founding Executive Director to spearhead the development of NTU’s interdisciplinary Institute of Catastrophe Risk Management, which looks into the effects of natural and man-made disasters on the society. 

In 2004, Prof Pan was awarded the Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards for outstanding results in R&D and project management by the Institution of Engineers, Singapore. In recognition of his contributions to education in Singapore, Prof Pan was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver), National Day Honours 2006, by the President of the Republic of Singapore. In the same year, he was also awarded the Defence Technology Prize Team Award by the Ministry of Defence for outstanding contributions of PTRC in defence science and technology.  Later in 2010, Prof Pan received the Defence Technology Prize Individual R&D Award from the Ministry of Defence, for his outstanding leadership and contributions to Singapore’s defence.