Associate Professor Neil Clarke appointed Rector of Cendana College

In the upcoming academic year, Cendana Residential College (RC) will be welcoming a familiar face back into the fold. With Professor of Science (Chemistry) Steven Lynn Bernasek retiring at the end of this academic year, Associate Professor of Science (Life Sciences) Neil Clarke has been appointed the new Rector of Cendana College.

Assoc Prof Clarke previously held the position of Rector from 2016 to 2019, before taking a research sabbatical in Academic Year 2019/2020. On taking over the reins as the next Rector, Assoc Prof Clarke is most excited to be living on campus and “feeding off all that student energy [he had] experienced in the four years”. Beyond enjoying the dynamic and close-knit nature of residential life, he is also keen to work with Cendana students and staff again.

Cendana College’s newly-appointed rector, Associate Professor Neil Clarke, and his dog Pedro.

“I am really looking forward to hearing from students what they would like to see Cendana be next year. [Also], helping Cendols make the most of the new reality. Next year is going to be good, even if we have to make it good,” said Assoc Prof Clarke.

While welcomed, Assoc Prof Clarke’s homecoming means that Cendana College will have to bid farewell to Prof Bernasek, who joined Yale-NUS in 2015 and was appointed Rector in 2019.

“I think I speak on behalf of most Cendols when I say that Prof Bernasek will be dearly missed. His presence at the End of and Start of Semester dinners was always greeted by warm applause, and his tuxedo was always in style,” shared Daniel Lee (Class of 2024). “Seeing him back in the office, after he was stuck in the United States last semester [due to the pandemic], gave me a sense of calm, so I will be sad to see him go. As my pre-major advisor, I could always count on Prof Bernasek to be available to me, and I looked forward to hearing his sound advice. A memory that I will always cherish, is the TikTok he made for our Orientation back in 2020.”

Prof Bernasek at Cendana College’s End of Semester dinner. Image provided by Prof Bernasek.

These heartfelt sentiments were echoed by fellow Cendol, Zahra Lalani (Class of 2025): “Prof Bernasek has been both my Rector and General Chemistry professor. As my Chemistry professor, he was incredibly supportive and offered extra-long office hours when I was struggling with concepts learnt in my seminars. His extended patience and kindness towards his students made the course so much more enjoyable! As Rector, he has hosted some really exciting community events, such as Taco Night. He also gave the students within the RC plenty of freedom to pursue their initiatives.”

Indeed, for Prof Bernasek, the highlight of the last four years as Rector was being around the students and working with them in the college, classroom, and laboratory. Of the many programmes carried out to strengthen the bonds of the Cendana community and to add to its vibrancy, a number of them hold a special place for Prof Bernasek: organising the Rector’s Tea series; Bubbles and Waffles to celebrate the submission of capstone projects; free food that was made available for sustenance; and supporting students at plays and concerts in the wider Singapore community as well as attending them with some of our students.

Reflecting on the several years he has spent at Yale-NUS, Prof Bernasek considers his ‘firsts’ the most memorable, such as the first graduation and First Year Assembly that he was part of; the first time he signed the ‘book’ for new faculty when he joined the College; the first time he received the publication notification of the first research paper he co-authored with a Yale-NUS student; and the opening of the research laboratories housed at the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise of which he was involved in the planning and negotiations.

“Retiring and leaving Yale-NUS, Cendana College, and Singapore is bittersweet. I am looking forward to the future coming up, but I know that I will miss my students and colleagues here. I will look back fondly on the time I spent at Yale-NUS. It has been a great experience,” remarked Prof Bernasek.

As for his retirement plans, Prof Bernasek will be leaving this sunny island to return to Texas. He is eager to make up for not having been able to travel actively the last two years by visiting his children and grandchildren in the United Kingdom and Canada as well as travelling to other interesting places around the world that he has not yet been to. He also hopes to reconnect with his hobby of flying a light airplane as part of his domestic travel plans.