University Awards
Recognising Excellence

Young Researcher Award

My aspiration is to transform how societies prepare for population ageing by generating evidence that enables longer, healthier, and more socially and financially secure lives. Through real-world data, causal inference, health economics, and modelling, I aim to develop policy-relevant solutions that improve healthspan, equity and sustainability. I seek to translate evidence into programmes and policies for healthier ageing communities. ”
Associate Professor Cynthia Chen
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, University of Southern California
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Research interests

  • Impact evaluation
  • Economic evaluation
  • Economics of ageing
  • Healthcare and retirement financing
  • Public health and ageing

Research achievements

  • Associate Professor Chen is a leading expert in public health economics and ageing whose research has informed policy in Singapore. Her achievements include:
    • Developing the Future Elderly Model for Singapore using real-world data to project disease burden and healthcare expenditure. It has enabled government agencies to evaluate preventive strategies.
    • Creating a model integrating cost and benefits to evaluate Singapore’s Next Generation Electronic Medical Records system, informing investments in digital infrastructure.
    • Generating rigorous evidence that incentive-based, tracker-enabled programmes improve health behaviour in Singapore, providing the foundation for interventions.
    • Leading the creation of a 143-country index measuring societal adaptation to population ageing, informing policy planning on G20 and ASEAN platforms.

Publication credits

  • Authored 82 peer-reviewed articles in high impact factor journals including The Lancet Global Health, The Lancet Healthy Longevity, Nature Aging, Nature Communications, American Journal of Epidemiology, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
  • Accumulated over 800 citations, with a Hirsch index of 14.

International standing

  • Editorial Board Member of Nature Communications Medicine and Nature Scientific Report.
  • Academic Editor for PLOS Global Public Health.
  • Junior Member of the Independent Advisory Committee for Global Burden of Disease Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
  • Researcher for the Research Network on an Ageing Society and the Vaccine Impact Modelling Consortium.
  • Presented at multiple international conferences, including the IAGG world congress of gerontology and geriatrics (2026), Gerontological Society of America Conference (2025), International Health Economics Association World Congress (2023), ASEAN-ROK Conference on Care and Support for Older Persons (2025), the Programme Evaluation Guidelines Workshop (2025), and the Asian Universities Alliance Conference (2020).

Awards and accolades

  • HPHSR (Health Promotion, Preventive Health, Population Health & Health Services Research) Clinician Scientist Award, National Medical Research Council (2023–2026)
  • Oral Presenter Award, GlobeCores2025 (2025)
  • World’s Top 2% Scientists for 2025, published by the Elsevier
  • NUHS Young Achiever Award, Mochtar Riady Pinnacle Award (AY21/22)
  • Teaching Excellence Award (AY21/22), Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
  • Young Researcher Award (AY19/20), Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health

Education

  • PhD, MSc, BSc (National University of Singapore)
 Honour Roll Recipients