NTU president Subra Suresh to leave post, return to family in US 'sooner than originally envisioned'

SINGAPORE — Professor Subra Suresh will be stepping down as the president of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) at the end of December 2022, after five years at the helm of the university, to return to his family in the United States. 

A search committee will be launched shortly to identify his successor, NTU said in a press release on Monday (June 6). 

“The lingering effects of a global pandemic have precluded my immediate and close-knit family, like so many others separated across continents, from coming together over a protracted time, even for significant family life events,” Prof Suresh, 66, wrote in an email message to the campus community. 

He added that the "much-anticipated" birth of his first grandchild later this year and a “strong desire to be in closer geographical proximity as a family” have convinced him and his wife to return to the US "sooner than we had originally envisioned".

Prof Suresh is the fourth president of NTU since its founding in 1991. He joined the university in January 2018, after serving as president of Carnegie Mellon University in the US from 2013 to 2017.

His predecessor, Professor Bertil Andersson, served as president for seven years while Professor Su Guaning, the second NTU president, served for nine years. Prof Cham Tao Soon, the founding president, served as president of Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI) from 1981 to 1990 and for another 12 years after NTI was reconstituted as NTU in 1991. 

Since joining NTU, Prof Suresh has overseen a number of key university initiatives such as a university-wide consultation and development of the NTU 2025 Strategic Plan to chart NTU’s next phase of growth, as well as the creation of numerous postdoctoral fellowships and chair professorships. 

He has been awarded 19 honorary doctorates, seven of which were conferred on him during his tenure as NTU president. He is also the inaugural holder of the Distinguished University Professorship, the highest faculty rank at NTU.

In a university-wide message, Ms Goh Swee Chen, chair of the NTU board of trustees, thanked Prof Suresh for his contributions and achievements.

“Under his leadership, Subra and his team introduced curriculum innovations and digital technologies, offering a top quality education to our students. NTU has made progress over the last three decades and Subra’s vision for higher learning will continue this momentum,” she said. 

The university had attained global top positions in four subject rankings, and moved into the Top 50 rankings by QS, Times Higher Education, and US News and World Report from 2019. 

“At this time of reflection, there have been so many accomplishments by all of you, our faculty, staff, students and our leadership team, during the past few years in which I take great pride,” Prof Suresh said.

“I will leave knowing that NTU is a world leader taking its rightful place among the top universities of the world.”