Brenda Yeoh Saw Ai () is a Singaporean academic and geographer, currently serving as Raffles Professor of Social Sciences at the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

Biography

In 1985, Yeoh received a Bachelor of Arts in geography from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, earning a

first class honours degree The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

. She went on to read a Diploma in Education from the

Institute of Education The UCL Institute of Education (IOE) is the faculty of education and society of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior t ...

before completing a stint as a teacher at

Victoria Junior College Victoria Junior College (VJC) is a co-educational junior college in Singapore offering pre-university education to boarding and day-students. Founded in 1984, the school stands on Marine Vista, less than one kilometre from the affiliated Victor ...

. After leaving the teaching service, she read a DPhil in geography from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, and joined the National University of Singapore as an academic. She joined NUS as a senior tutor in 1987, was made full professor in 2005, and served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences from 2010–2016. In 2000, she received a

Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

scholarship to study at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Yeoh is editor of the journal ''Asian Population Studies'' and a member of the

International Geographical Union The International Geographical Union (IGU; , UGI) is an international geographical society. The first International Geographical Congress was held in Antwerp in 1871. Subsequent meetings led to the establishment of the permanent organization i ...

’s Population Geography Commission. In 2021, Yeoh received the

Vautrin Lud Prize The ''Prix International de Géographie Vautrin-Lud'', known in English as the Vautrin Lud Prize, is the highest award in the field of geography. Established in 1991, the award is named after the 16th Century French scholar , who first named, in 1 ...

"for her contributions to migration and transnationalism studies". The award is one of the highest honours presented for developments in geography, and widely considered the 'Nobel Prize in Geography'. In the same year she was elected a

corresponding fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeoh, Brenda Living people Academic staff of the National University of Singapore Alumni of the University of Oxford Alumni of the University of Cambridge People associated with Victoria schools, Singapore Year of birth missing (living people) Recipients of the Vautrin Lud International Geography Prize