Welcome to the DSFP Blog

Reimagining Universities & Retirement for the 100-Year Life

Discover how the Distinguished Senior Fellowship Programme (DSFP) lies at the heart of NUS' evolution to meet the challenges and leverage the opportunities of a 100-year life.

Discovering Purpose and Significance in Leadership

Reflections on Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative and NUS’ Distinguished Senior Fellowship Programme (DSFP).

Thriving in the 100-Year Life: New NUS programme inspires senior leaders to pursue significance in their next chapter

Learn how NUS’s new programme equips senior leaders to discover meaning and purpose for their next chapter in an era of longevity.

Unlocking the Elixir of Life: How Immune Cell Therapy Is Redefining the Future of Healthcare

Explore how groundbreaking advances in immune cell therapy are revolutionising medicine and extending human healthspan through innovative biotechnological frontiers.

Healthier Futures by Design

Explore how DSFP’s elective seminar on Climate Change & the Urban Ecosystem brings together senior fellows to craft sustainable, health-focused solutions that benefit communities.

Innovation with a Purpose: Designing Sustainable Impact for Future Generations

Uncover how Dr Jovan Tan’s DSFP seminar empowers senior leaders to design sustainable innovations that create real-world impact — blending purpose, strategy, and long-term value for future generations.

From Sick Care to Healthspan: Rethinking the Economics of Healthcare

Join Dr Jeremy Lim in unpacking the systems, choices, and policies shaping how we age — what it costs, and what is at stake.

The Art of Impact: Design, Meaning and Cultural Stewardship

Explore how two arts appreciation seminars led by Assoc Prof Greg Petersen invite senior leaders to reflect on the power, purpose, and patronage of art in shaping identity and society.

Decoding the World: Global Affairs, Media Literacy, and the Mind of the Informed Citizen

Two elective seminars by Adjunct Professor Ajay Makhija equip senior leaders with tools to interpret geopolitical shifts and navigate media complexity with discernment and confidence.

Culture, History, and the Intercultural Currents That Shape Us

Under the guidance of Dr Lai Ah Eng, discover how music, marriage and religion reveal the deep intercultural flows of our region.

Bridging Intergenerational Relationships: The Necessary Connection

Join Assoc Prof Thang Leng Leng to explore how intergenerational connection can transform the ageing experience into one of meaning, contribution and mutual growth.

Earning More Time: The New Science of Ageing

Recap on Prof Andrea Maier’s insightful keynote at the DSFP Orientation on how the new science of ageing helps us not just add years to life, but life to years.

Fellow Voices: The LIVeD Lens, Part 1 — Navigating Learning

How do we truly thrive across a century-long lifespan? DSFP Candidate Stanley Sia shares the first of his five-part LIVeD framework on his blog, starting with learning, where all change begins.

The University Reimagined: A School of Wisdom for Renewing Purpose

NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye reflected on the evolving role of universities as he welcomed the first cohort of DSFP Candidates as trailblazers shaping a new chapter of lifelong learning, community and impact beyond traditional careers.

Fellow Voices: The LIVeD Lens, Part 2 — Income & Financial Wellness

Join DSFP Candidate Stanley Sia in reflecting on why financial wellness is less about wealth, and more about creating peace of mind and freedom to thrive in life’s Third Act.

Fellow Voices: From Reflection to Action — A Week of Purpose in Cambodia

Join DSFP Candidate Stephen Keys as he reflects on lessons of authenticity, community and impact from the cohort’s week-long immersion at Smiling Gecko Cambodia.

Fellow Voices: Building Freedom in the Third Act of Life

DSFP Candidate Bill Ang expounds on his ‘Freedom Quartet’ — financial, physical, social and purpose freedom — in reimagining life’s third act as a pursuit to be composed, not awaited.

Fellow Voices: Reflections from the Field — Learning, Leadership and the Smiling Gecko Experience

DSFP Candidate Dr Tan Kok Heng reflects on how experiential learning during the DSFP Impact Trip to Smiling Gecko Cambodia reframed his understanding of sustainable leadership.

Fellow Voices: The LIVeD Lens, Part 3 — Value in Work

How might we find renewed meaning in our Third Act? DSFP Candidate Stanley Sia reflects on the evolving role of work in a 100-year life, and how reinventing it can create value beyond titles and careers.

Fellow Voices: Expanding Horizons and Rediscovering Purpose Through the NUS DSFP

DSFP Candidate Connie Tsang reflects on how the DSFP has helped her reframe longevity — not as more years to fill, but as time to live with renewed curiosity, connection and contribution.

Fellow Voices: Reflections on an 80-Year Study into What Makes Us Human

What truly keeps us healthy and happy across a lifetime? DSFP Candidate Stephen Keys revisits findings from Harvard’s 80-year study on human flourishing, and reflects on why, beyond success or wealth, it’s the quality of our relationships that defines a life well-lived.

Fellow Voices: The LIVeD Lens, Part 4 — Enduring Health

Reimagining the healthspan ecosystem, DSFP Candidate Stanley Sia advocates for intentional health planning — physical, mental and emotional — as central to helping us live not just longer, but better, in the 100-year life.

Fellow Voices: Engineering Longevity, Purpose and Philosophy

DSFP Candidate Stephen Keys distils the wisdom of Professor Virginia Cha, Academic Director of the DSFP, as she shares how the programme was built on purpose, philosophy and the freedom to thrive in life’s Third Act.