Paul Tambyah

Paul Anantharajah Tambyah (b. 1965) is a professor of infectious diseases, a clinician and also a politician. He was the first Singaporean to be appointed President of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. He is also the Chairman of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). Tambyah was born in Singapore to Dr John Tambyah, an endocrinologist, and Leaena Tambyah, a social activist, both of whom had much influence on his profession and politics. He graduated with an MBBS from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1988 and furthered his postgraduate training at the University of Wisconsin in 1999.  He then joined the National University Hospital (NUH) as the first consultant in infectious diseases. 

Tambyah established the NUH Division of Infectious Diseases with Professor Dale Fisher and Dr Louis Chia. He later became the assistant dean of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS. He was appointed a professor at NUS in 2013. Tambyah has been at the forefront of various medical societies. He was the head of the Singapore Society of Infectious Diseases from 2011 to 2015. He served as President of the Asia-Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology from 2018 to 2023 and as President of the International Society for Infectious Diseases from 2022 to 2024. He has also authored and edited several books, including Bird Flu: A Rising Pandemic inAsia and Beyond? (2006) and COVID-19 Pandemic in Singapore (2022). 

Outside his academic career, Tambyah is also a civil society activist and politician. He was one of the founding members of MARUAH Singapore, a human rights organisation established in 2007. He joined the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) in 2015 and contested in that year’s General Election (GE) as part of the SDP team in the Holland–Bukit Timah Group Representation Constituency. The team was not successful. Tambyah was elected Chairman of the SDP in 2017. He contested in the Bukit Panjang Single Member Constituency in both the 2020 and 2025 General Elections, but lost on both occasions.

Tambyah has received various accolades, such as the UK Gulf War Medal and the Saudi Arabian Liberation of Kuwait Medal for services in the Gulf War in Operation Desert Storm in 1990-91. He has also received the Red Ribbon Award from Action for AIDS Singapore in recognition of his contributions to HIV-related causes (2020). In addition, he was one of the four senior clinicians to receive the Distinguished Senior Clinician Award (2021), conferred by the Ministry of Health. 

For more Information 
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Paul Tambyah. Accessed 1 August 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Tambyah
Paul Ananth Tambyah as New President of ISID’s Executive Committee.” International Society for Infectious Diseases. Published 20 December 2022. https://isid.org/paul-tambyah-isid-president/ 
Paul Tambyah. Facebook, 1 September 2015. https://www.facebook.com/PaulTambyah/ 

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The information in this article is valid as of August 2025 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. If you have any feedback on this article, please submit here.