Rate My Professor Tommy Koh

Tommy Koh Thong Bee is an Emeritus Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He holds an LLB with first class honours from the University of Malaya in Singapore, an LLM from Harvard University, and honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Yale University, Monash University, and NUS. He was conferred a full professorship at NUS in 1977 and served as Dean of the Faculty of Law. Koh has held numerous appointments at NUS, including founding Rector of Tembusu College from 2011 to 2022, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Centre for International Law, Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Asia Research Institute, and Special Adviser to the Institute of Policy Studies. He is on secondment from the NUS Faculty of Law and serves as Ambassador-at-Large at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a position he has held since 1990. His diplomatic career includes serving as Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador to the United States, High Commissioner to Canada, and Ambassador to Mexico. Koh presided over the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea from 1980 to 1982. He is the author or editor of 28 books and has received numerous awards, including the Public Service Star in 1971, the Meritorious Service Medal in 1979, the Distinguished Service Order in 1990, and the Order of Nila Utama in 2022, as well as international honours from several countries and the UNEP Champion of the Earth Award.