CRIS announces appointment of Executive Director for SIMFONI

Appointment of Professor Robert JT Morris as Executive Director, SIMFONI from 15 September 2025.

CRIS announces appointment of Executive Director for a new programme to advance the effective, safe and responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Singapore’s public healthcare ecosystem.

The Consortium for Clinical Research and Innovation, Singapore (CRIS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Robert JT Morris as Executive Director of a new programme focused on translating AI innovation into real-world clinical impact — prioritising the deployment of foundation models into healthcare settings to support healthcare professionals and empower patients.

The SIngapore Medical FOundation AI model (SIMFONI) Programme, is supported by the Singapore Ministry of Health through the National Medical Research Council Office, MOH Holdings Pte Ltd under the NMRC RIE2025 SIMFONI Funding Initiative. SIMFONI will be established as a business unit under CRIS.

Robert Morris is presently Chief Technology Strategist and Chief Data Officer at the Ministry of Health Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT), Singapore, and holds a concurrent appointment as Professor, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.

His current focus is on the application of computer and information sciences, including AI, to transform healthcare. MOHT has developed and deployed several major programmes which are based on sensing patient data and then using both AI and providers to safely deploy interventions. One of these, mindline.sg, has been visited by about 20% of Singapore’s population. 

Until 2017, Robert led all of IBM Research’s Global Laboratories. Prior to that, Robert was head of the IBM Almaden Research Center in Silicon Valley, where relational database technology and the disk drive were invented. During this time, he led the creation of Services Science, research for IBM’s ThinkPad, and Storage Systems. Earlier he led advanced systems research at TJ Watson Center (New York), including the Deep Blue chess machine, which defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. Originally from Australia, he began his career at Bell Labs pioneering neural networks and packet switching.

Robert was Chairman, Bay Area Science and Innovation Consortium (BASIC) 2001-2005, comprising heads of major research institutions in Silicon Valley. He has been awarded 14 patents, published over 100 scientific articles, and recently published the book “Healthcare Transformation using Artificial Intelligence”, Elsevier, Academic Press, 2025. He was Editor IEEE Trans. on Computers, received the Fulbright and Gowrie Fellowships, PICMET Leadership in Technical Management Award, Fellow IEEE, IBM Academy of Technology, Member Government University Industry Research Roundtable (US National Academies).

As Executive Director of SIMFONI, Prof Morris will advance the effective, safe and responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Singapore’s healthcare systems to support healthcare professionals and patients.

We warmly welcome Prof Morris and look forward to his leadership at SIMFONI.