Gain valuable insights from experienced speakers as they share their career journeys, professional experiences, challenges, and lessons learned along the way. Each speaker will deliver a 15–20-minute talk, offering practical advice and inspiration for early-career researchers navigating their own career paths.
The session will conclude with an interactive panel discussion, providing an opportunity to exchange ideas, gain fresh perspectives, and learn directly from the speakers.
Early-career attendees (senior Ph.D. students, postdocs, and those in the first years of their professional careers) are welcome.
Indicate your interest at conference registration!*
*please note that attendance will be confirmed at a later date due to space limitations
Early-career attendees (senior Ph.D. students, postdocs, and those in the first years of their professional careers) are welcome.
He currently serves as Senior Associate Editor of Science Advances, and as Associate Editor of npj Flexible Electronics, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, and Sensors & Diagnostics. He is a recipient of the NSF Career Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, IAMBE Early Career Award, Sloan Research Fellowship, Pittcon Achievement Award, IEEE EMBS Early Career Achievement Award, IEEE EMBS Technical Achievement Award, IEEE Sensor Council Technical Achievement Award, MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35, and the Falling Walls Breakthrough of the Year in Engineering and Technology. He is also recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Scientist, and a Highly Cited Researcher (Web of Science, every year since 2020).
Prof. Gao is an elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). His research interests span wearable and implantable biosensors, digital medicine, bioelectronics, flexible electronics, additive manufacturing, and micro/nanorobotics.
For more information about his research, please visit www.gao.caltech.edu.
She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011, Assistant Head in 2014, Deputy Head in 2016, Assistant Dean(Research) (2017-2024) and Full Professor in 2024; she is currently Head of the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences at NUS.
Her research interest is focused on drug delivery, with the purpose of enhancing the pharmacological effects of bioactive agents (such as Pt-based anticancer complexes) while minimizing undesirable side effects. Recently, her BioNanoTechnology (BNT) group developed cell-derived nanovesicles (CDNs) and biohybrids as novel biocompatible Extracellular Vesicle mimetics for targeted drug delivery. Her approach of using unconventional yet efficacious cell-derived nanocarriers has become her signature program, resulting in new invention disclosures, industry engagements and even an international BioDrone award in 2021 and the European School of Medicinal Chemistry (ESMEC) Award in 2025. For the work performed by her BNT group in NUS, she has been invited at prestigious international conferences as plenary or keynote speaker.
He is the Associate Director of Institute of Digital Medicine at CityU, Associate Director of Hong Kong Centre for Cerebro-cardiovascular Health Engineering. Prof Yu is the recipient of NSFC Distinguished Young Scientist Grant (Scheme A), RGC Research Fellow, NSFC Excellent Young Scientist Grant (Hong Kong & Macao), Innovators under 35 China (MIT Technology Review), New Innovator of IEEE NanoMed, MINE Young Scientist Award, Stanford’s top 2% most highly cited scientists etc. Prof. Yu is the Associate Editor of Science Advances, Microsystem & NanoEngineering, Bio-Design and Manufacturing etc. Xinge Yu’s research group is focusing on skin-integrated electronics and systems for VR and biomedical applications. He has published 200 papers in Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Machine Intelligence, Nature Communications, Science Advances etc., and 50 patents filed/granted.
He is also the Chair of college of healthcare engineering, SingHealth Duke-NUS AMC. A/Prof. Zhong has broad research portfolio on cardiovascular imaging with artificial intelligence, computational modelling, digital twin and the development and application of a range of digital technology. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed papers and more than 12 patents. Prof Zhong has received numerous awards including Singapore Cardiac Society, Asean Federation College in Cardiology, Sijong Medical Award, Singhealth Duke-NUS research excellence award, China Ministry of Education award, Chinese Medical Association Award. He is also the recipient of Singapore National Day Award (Public Administration Medal (Bronze). He is associate editors of JACC Asia, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, JCMR and JMRI.
He is Associate Professor at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Adjunct Associate Professor at the Duke-NUS Prehospital Emergency Research Centre, and a Visiting Senior Consultant in the Emergency Department at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He has led national-scale digital health and AI programmes, including Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s Hospital without Walls initiative (S$58M, 130 active projects) and the National Healthcare Group’s Health Empowered by AI Launchpad (S$15M), and was the clinical architect behind Singapore’s myResponder crowdsourced-CPR app, now used by over 260,000 volunteers. His research, spanning more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, covers machine-learning triage tools, prehospital device evaluation, and vital-sign forecasting. At ICBME 2026, he brings a clinician’s frontline perspective to translating biomedical engineering research into real-world health-system impact.
Dr. Sia is a Consultant Cardiologist at the National University Heart Centre Singapore with masters in internal medicine, clinical investigation, and business administration. Supported by the NMRC Transition Award, his clinical and research interests include Neurocardiology, multi-modality cardiac imaging, and cardiomyopathies. He has published over 270 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Sia is the Specialty Editor for the *Singapore Medical Journal*, Deputy Director of the NUS Clinician Scientist Development Unit, and serves on the executive committee of the CADENCE National Clinical Trials Programme, leading a use case in the use of artificial intelligence in echocardiography.
Dr Rena Dharmawan believes that with the right innovation, one can improve the lives of millions at a time. She is a Consultant Surgeon at Department of Head & Neck Surgery in National Cancer Centre Singapore and Singapore General Hospital. Dr Rena also holds a joint appointment as Assistant Dean and Assistant Professor of Innovation Education & Ecosystem Development (IE2D) at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore. Rena is also Co-Director of the recently approved College of Healthcare Engineering in Singhealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Center (AMC).
In 2014, she was one of four nationally-selected fellows in the Singapore-Stanford Biodesign (SSB) Programme, a year-long fellowship that aims to train and nurture the next generation of medical technology innovators for Singapore and Asia. After the fellowship, she co-founded a few Singapore-based medtech startups (Privi Medical, Jaga-Me and CATALYST) and is currently Programme Director for the Duke-NUS Healthcare Innovation Programme (D-HIP) to train & develop the next generation of Clinician- & health-Innovators.
Prior to medicine, Rena graduated summa cum laude with a BSc in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She then joined the inaugural batch and completed her medical degree at Duke-NUS Medical School (Singapore) in 2011 and completed her MBA in January 2023 at INSEAD’s Global Executive MBA programme, where she was named the “Best & Brightest EMBA in 2022” by Poets & Quants.
After completing his Residency training in 2019, he obtained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and was accredited as a Specialist in General Surgery by the Specialist Accreditation Board. Dr Gao has a sub-specialty interest in hepatobiliary, pancreatic, and liver transplant surgery and joined the Division of Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery in 2020. He is currently the Deputy Undergraduate Medical Education Director in the Department of Surgery, National University Hospital.
Apart from his clinical work, Dr Gao is deeply involved in undergraduate medical education at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, serving as a Clinical Lecturer and participating actively in curriculum planning and review. He is a member of the Systems Block Workgroup (Gastrointestinal and Metabolism) committee and Medical Education Technology Enterprise (METE) committee.
Dr Gao also has special interests in Health Informatics, Artificial Intelligence, Data Transformation, and Medical Technology, taking the lead in NGEMR change for the Department of Surgery, and spearheading various other projects including the development of Holomedicine, Mixed Virtual Reality devices, and Applications for medical education and clinical medicine.
A/Prof Charlene Liew is the Deputy Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Changi General Hospital and Director of innovation for Radiology, SingHealth. She has held numerous leadership positions in local and international professional bodies, and is the founding chair for the Singapore Radiological Society’s AI subsection. She co-chairs the National AI- enabled medical imaging platform, also known as “AimSG” and is the founding chairperson for this project.
Dr Gideon Ooi is a dually-specialised Consultant Diagnostic Radiologist at National Cancer Center Singapore and Nuclear Medicine Physician at Singapore General Hospital. Dr Ooi also received the prestigious National Medical Research Council Research Training Fellowship to be among few nationally-selected Innovation Fellows in the Singapore Biodesign Programme that aims to nurture the next generation of medtech innovators for Singapore and Asia. During the fellowship, he underwent clinical immersion at Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital in China, and received training at Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign at Stanford University and at Fogarty Innovation In-stitute in California, USA.
Dr Ooi has research interests in oncologic imaging, radiopharmaceutical theranostics as well as medical artificial intelligence. He is a Core Faculty member of the Nuclear Medicine Senior Residency Programme and Clinical Assistant Professor with Duke-NUS Medical School.
Dr. Alvin Soon is a Consultant Head and Neck Radiologist at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He is also an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, contributing to undergraduate education in digital health. He strongly believes in an AI-augmented future for medicine and radiology and serves concurrently as the Chair of the Singapore Radiological Society (SRS) – AI and Imaging Informatics Subsection (RADII) as well as on the Executive Committee of SRS. He is currently involved in development, validation and deployment of AI in Diagnostic Radiology.
