On 16 October 1999, Lu Xiao-Sheng (born in 1976) of the ISE Dept, was officially awarded the PhD degree by National University of Singapore, at the age of 23. This came as no surprise as he entered the University of Science and Technology of China at the age of 15 and went through a five-year undergraduate programme. XS Lu joint ISE Dept as an MEng candidate and after a year of excellent performance, he was converted to PhD student.

Lu Xiao-sheng has been an outstanding student in many respects. From his research in slightly more than two-years, he has published six papers in various international journals such as Quality and Reliability Engineering International, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, International Journal of Production Research, and Communications in Statistics. Although a PhD candidate is required to take four subjects, he took five with the following results: 2 A+(with distinction), 1 A+, 1 A and 1 B+.

It is worthwhile to mention that, soon after he came to Singapore, XS Lu also received admission letter by some top universities in US, including Princeton University. After discussing with his supervisors, he decided to stay on and finish his studies here. On the other hand, his achievement did not come easy. He was very determined and hardworking - he did not take a single day of leave while at NUS and he could often be seen on campus at midnight and during weekends.

With a solid background in applied statistics and probabilistic decision making, a strong area of the ISE Dept, he is now working as a financial engineer in a multinational financial institute, a job he found without problem during the financial crisis. We wish Xiao-sheng all the best and a greater success in the years to come.

XS Lu (middle) with his supervisors TN Goh (left) and M Xie (right) when he submits his revised thesis to the ISE Dept.