The National University of Singapore (NUS) has set up a memorial bursary to honour the late Dr Lim Meng Kin, who was an associate professor of the university.

Dr Lim, who was also a Brigadier-Generald, died in January this year from colon cancer, two days before his 63rd birthday. University alumni, family, and friends of Dr Lim had raised funds of more than $150,000, to date, to establish the Lim Meng Kin Memorial Bursary. It will go to providing financial support to NUS students from low-income backgrounds.

It is also the first bursary award that is led by the university's alumni, under the NUS Alumni Bursary Fund. The bursary, which is valued at $2,500, will be disbursed for the first time this month to two students. It will support up to six students every year.

NUS alumnus Yeo Keng Joon, who championed the fundraising efforts for the bursary, said: "The Lim Meng Kin Memorial Bursary is a fitting tribute for us to remember a departed and valued friend. The response to this fundraising effort was made much easier by the many people in our NUS community who were touched by Meng Kin."

Dr Lim was an associate professor at the varsity's Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health before his death.

He was best remembered for his being part of the rescue team of the Hotel New World disaster in 1986. Then the chief medical officer of the Singapore Armed Forces, he coordinated the ground and air medical evacuation rescue efforts after the building's collapse, and even crawled through a tunnel to pull survivors out from under the rubble.