Karina Gin Yew-Hoong
Tuesday, 22 September
Karina Gin Yew-Hoong is Provost's Chair Professor & Acting Head at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She is a distinguished environmental engineer and water quality scientist whose research focuses on the fate, transport and impacts of contaminants in complex urban and tropical aquatic systems. She holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Melbourne (1988), a master’s degree in engineering from NUS (1991), and a doctorate in science jointly from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (1996).
She specializes in water quality and ecosystem processes, with particular interest in the fate and transport of emerging microbial and chemical contaminants of concern. Her work integrates field observations, laboratory experimentation and predictive modelling to address microbial pollutants, emerging contaminants and ecosystem resilience within rapidly urbanizing environments.
Gin has served on several WHO Expert Panels on antimicrobial resistance, pathogens and microbial safety of water in food, drinking water and water reuse. She is a recipient of the Provost's Chair at NUS (2025–2027), the National Public Administration Medal (Bronze) for COVID-19 (2023), the COVID Resilience Medal (2023) and the Dean's Chair at NUS (2017–2019). Through her extensive international engagement and advisory roles, she contributes to advancing water quality management, environmental health frameworks and sustainable resource governance across Asia and globally.
Plenary Talk
The Silent Pandemic – Deciphering the Environmental Blueprint of Antimicrobial Resistance
While often viewed through a clinical lens, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a profound environmental crisis. The environment acts as both a reservoir for resistance genes and a critical pathway for their dissemination across humans, animals and ecosystems. As we approach the 2026 updates for Global Action Plans, the lack of integrated environmental data remains a major bottleneck in our “One Health” response.
In this plenary, we explore the intersection of environmental monitoring, predictive modeling and risk assessment to decode the environmental blueprint of AMR. We examine how anthropogenic activities in the urban water cycle — ranging from urban catchments, water and wastewater treatment plants to aquaculture — create selective pressures that accelerate the evolution of “superbugs.” We adopt an integrated approach combining microbiological and chemical determinants of AMR, capitalizing on the relative advantages of each to better capture the risk and health implications on ecosystem and public health. Advancements in Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) and machine learning frameworks are highlighted, moving beyond simple threshold-based monitoring. Modern models now integrate spatiotemporal variables, climate change impacts (such as extreme flooding), and genomic data to identify high-risk environmental hotspots.
Transitioning from “silent” observation to active mitigation requires standardizing environmental surveillance and embedding these insights into policy. By quantifying the risks within our water, soil and air, we can transition from reactive clinical management to a proactive, evidence-based “One Health” strategy that safeguards both planetary and public health.
