Surgery students get new resource centre, thanks to gift from renowned plastic surgeon Dr Khoo Boo Chai

April 2008

A gift of rare medical books and $1,064,800 worth of shares from renowned plastic surgeon Dr Khoo Boo Chai (’54) will be used to set up the Khoo Boo Chai Athenaeum for surgery students at NUS. The Athenaeum, a Greek word referring to an institution for the promotion of literary or scientific learning, will be located at Khoo Teck Puat – Advanced Surgery Training Centre (KTP-ASTC) at the National University Hospital.

It will contain Dr Khoo’s medical books collected over his long and distinguished career as a plastic surgeon, many of them autographed by authors, as well as other books, journals and materials. The Athenaeum will help advance medical research in the field of surgery.

Dr Khoo, who has an abiding interest in graduate education, had once served as director of Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation (PSEF), the educational and research arm of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. He said: “I hope that these two donations will go some way in the training of our future surgeons and also help in training surgeons of the surrounding countries of ASEAN.”