Stephen Chua received his B.A. (Hons) in Geography in 2003 and MSc (Environmental Science) in 2010 from NIE/NTU. His undergraduate dissertation focused on reconstructing palaeoenvironmental changes to the Sungei Buloh-Kranji mangrove coast, while his Master’s work involved monitoring and predicting potential impacts of sea level rise on the Pasir Ris mangroves.

Stephen joined the Interdisciplinary Graduate School NTU as a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Associate Professor Adam Switzer and Professor Ben Horton in 2014. He received an Endeavour Research Fellowship in 2017 to conduct isotopic analysis of sediments at the Advanced Analytical Centre, James Cook University, Cairns. Stephen was a recipient of the Outstanding Student Poster Award at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in 2018. During his Ph.D., he used borehole data to conduct geological modelling of the Kallang River Basin, and used sedimentological and geochemical records from sediment cores in Singapore to reconstruct past sea level, morphological and environmental changes.

Stephen is currently a Research Fellow working under Professor Benjamin Horton looking at past sea level and coastal change in Singapore and the region, using sea level proxies (e.g. mangrove peat) found predominantly in sediment cores.