The S R Nathan Professorship in Social Work was established by the Department of Social Work, National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2012 to honour Mr S R Nathan, who was the Sixth President of the Republic of Singapore and former NUS Chancellor, as well as an eminent alumnus of the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The aim of the Professorship is to support the long-term goal of promoting social work education and encouraging research among scholars in Singapore and Asia on issues related to social development, poverty and asset building.

Renowned social policy expert Professor Michael Sherraden was appointed the first S R Nathan Professor. Professor Sherraden is also the Youngdahl Professor of Social Development and Founding Director of the Center for Social Development at Washington University. He is the creator of Individual Development Accounts, a matched savings programme designed to help the working poor save money and accumulate assets.

As part of the professorship, Professor Sherraden gave the inaugural S R Nathan Professor Lecture titled "Innovations in Asset Building" on 17 February 2014, during which he discussed asset building as a social policy strategy.

Subsequently, Professor Ian Shaw was appointed S R Nathan Professor with the Department of Social Work. He is also the Professor of Social Work in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Aalborg University, and Emeritus Professor at the University of York. Professor Shaw's next appointment as the S R Nathan Professor will be from August 2017 to June 2018.

As part of the professorship, Professor Shaw gave a public lecture entitled "Developing Good Practitioner Research: An Agenda for Research Commissioners, Agencies and Practitioners" on 5 July 2016.

Our current S R Nathan Professors can be found on our Academic Staff page.

To donate and support the professorship, please contact our department's office at 6516 3812 or swksec@nus.edu.sg.