On 1 August 2024, SMU announced the appointment of two new Deans for the School of Economics and School of Social Sciences.
Lee Kong Chian Professor of Economics Li Jia is the new Dean of the School of Economics (SOE), effective 1 July 2024; and Professor Kenneth Benoit is the new Dean for the School of Social Sciences (SOSS), effective 1 August 2024. Both appointments will last four years.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Hoon Hian Teck and Professor Chandran Kukathas for their unstinting commitment and valuable contributions to SOE and SOSS,” SMU Provost Professor Timothy Clark said, expressing his gratitude to the former Deans of the two schools.
“Upon stepping down as Deans on 30 June 2024, both of them have stayed on with their schools as Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science, respectively. My thanks too to Professor Forrest Zhang who served as SOSS Interim Dean before Professor Benoit joined SMU.”
The appointments of the new Deans come after an extensive global search led by Prof Clark since February 2023, and are strongly supported by SMU Board of Trustees, SMU President, their respective school faculties, and other key stakeholders.
Taking SMU Schools forward to their next phase of growth
Prof Clark introduced Prof Li as an accomplished academic whose research interests lies in econometrics with a specialisation in financial applications. He has published extensively in leading economics, statistics, probability, and finance journals, and is internationally recognised as a leading scholar in Econometrics – something that is reflected in his editorial roles in several leading journals.
“Professor Li is an experienced educator and has contributed significantly to the School in various leadership roles,” Prof Clark said, elaborating that he has been “instrumental in formulating an ambitious plan for SOE’s next phase of growth including faculty and resource management, developing new programmes as well as fostering stronger international collaborations”.
Prof Kenneth Benoit is also a world-leading academic whose research interests lie in natural-language processing and the use of large language models (LLMs) in classifying and scaling text for political statements.
“He is a widely recognised research leader, well-respected educator and as an institution-builder has co-founded/served on several prestigious associations and councils and served as the director of the London School of Economics and Political Science’s Department of Methodology,” Prof Clark said.
“As SOSS Dean, Professor Benoit will lead in the development and driving of the school’s strategy as well as position the school’s education and research so that it contributes to addressing some of the important challenges of contemporary society in Singapore, Asia, and beyond.”
Both Deans expressed their excitement and gratitude on being appointed. Prof Li said: “I am deeply honoured and grateful for the trust and confidence placed in me by the senior management and faculty.”
“As the new Dean of SOE, I am committed to leading our school in maintaining our tradition of excellence in teaching, advancing our innovative academic research, and enhancing our translational societal contributions. Together, we will continue to uphold the highest standards and make meaningful impact on our community and beyond.”
In accepting the appointment as the new SOSS Dean, Professor Kenneth Benoit said, “I could not be more excited about taking on this new role and joining the vibrant and growing community at Singapore Management University.”
“As Dean of the SOSS, I will work hard with colleagues across several science disciplines to establish a strong presence for the social sciences within SMU that both strengthens our social science disciplinary bases and builds important interdisciplinary ties with other units within SMU. Only through understanding the social sciences can we tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems and I want SOSS to make a direct contribution to this effort.”
