Singapore surgeon recognized as pioneer

Singapore surgeon recognized as pioneer

Singapore's pioneering transplant surgeon, Dr Susan Lim, has
become the first Singaporean and the youngest person to become a
Fellow of Australia's Trinity College, the institution's highest
honor, which is awarded to individuals of outstanding
achievement.

She joins the highly distinguished, international community of
academic, business and professional leaders, including Thailand's
"condom crusader" Senator Mechai Viravaidja, Dame Elisabeth
Murdoch and the Rt. Revd. Dr Peter Hollingworth.

In 1990, Lim performed Asia's first successful liver
transplant in Asia, and since then has continued to pioneer new
techniques, including advancing the use of minimal access surgery
for breast lumps and cancer, and championing robotic surgery.

Today she is the founder, chair and CEO of Stem Cell
Technologies (SCTi) which, in collaboration with the National
University of Singapore's department of surgery, is conducting
research into the use of adult stem cells for a cure for
diabetes.

"The field of medicine is so exciting and offers tremendous
potential for innovation and pioneering work that will help
mankind," Lim, who has been described as a medical dynamo by her
peers, said.

Lim, and husband Deepak Sharma, head of Citigroup Private Bank
for Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Japan, established the
Indiapore Trust Fund in 2001 to assist children from
underprivileged areas in Singapore and the region.

Singaporean-born Lim was selected in 1974 for the Colombo Plan
Scholarship to study medicine in Australia, where she became a
resident student at Trinity College. She completed her MBBS with
first-class honors in 1979, sharing the prize for the highest
aggregate marks in the first three pre-clinical years.

In 1984 Lim became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons
of Edinburgh, and the following year was awarded a Churchill
Scholarship to pursue a doctorate in transplantation immunology
at the University of Cambridge.

In 2000 she received Singapore's Spirit of the Century award
in recognition of her personal excellence and global
achievements. Lim was also chosen through a public poll to have
her hands immortalized at Madame Tussaud's in Singapore. -- JP