Dr Reena Rajasuriar is a Clinical Pharmacist by training and an Associate Professor at the Department of Medicine, University Malaya (UM).  She also holds an adjunct position as a Fellow at the Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Melbourne, Australia.  She leads the research unit at the Department of Medicine, UM and is Head of the Immunotherapeutics Laboratory (ITL), a core immunology research laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine, UM.    Dr Rajasuriar completed her PhD in Immunogenetics at Monash University, Australia and now leads a translational research program in HIV and Aging at the Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS (CERiA).  Her training as a clinical and basic scientist has afforded Dr Rajasuriar the expertise to perform multidisciplinary research spanning basic, clinical and implementation studies.  Her research focuses on understanding drivers of accelerated aging in people living with HIV and its interaction with functional aging outcomes.  She is also invested in understanding how integrated HIV care can best be implemented in resource limited settings to promote healthy aging.   Dr Rajasuriar has published extensively on the intersection of HIV and aging, and is an international leader in advancing the knowledge in this field, having delivered multiple plenaries at international forums, co-authored multiple opinion pieces and viewpoints as well as contributed to the development of consensus statements around this subject matter.  Together with members of her team, she was instrumental in developing the first ECHO training program on HIV and Aging for the Asia Pacific region to advance capacity building for health professionals providing care for people with HIV.  She is also the Principal Investigator of the only HIV and aging cohort in the Asia Pacific region studying aging from a multidimensional perspective, with over a decade of follow up (2014-2024).   Dr Rajasuriar’s work is funded by various national and international funding bodies including the National Institutes of Health, US, the American Foundation for AIDS Research and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia.  She has received multiple accolades including the Australia-APEC Women in Research Fellowship (2015), the Loreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Malaysia Fellowship (2016), the IAS Research-for-Cure Academy Fellowship (2018), the CIRA International Visiting Fellowship to Yale (2019), the Asian Universities Alliance (AUA) Scholars Award (2023) and most recently, the Fulbright Malaysian Scholar Award (2024). 

Dr. Woi Pei Meng is an accomplished academic affiliated with Universiti Malaya, specializing in applied electrochemistry. She obtained her Ph.D. in Electrocatalysis in 2011, with a primary focus on developing solid-state electrocatalysts inspired by the FeFe-hydrogenase enzyme. This enzyme is responsible for facilitating the reversible conversion of dihydrogen and holds significant technological promise for clean energy applications. Her expertise lies in electrode surface modification using materials like carbon-based polymers, first- and second-row transition metals, and 2D materials. She employs electrochemical techniques such as electropolymerization and electrodeposition to achieve these modifications. Dr. Woi's current research is centered on the development of electrochemical sensors. She has contributed to the creation of non-enzymatic biomedical sensors designed for precise detection of metabolites like glucose, sodium, and chloride in bodily fluids. Additionally, her work includes the development of a self-correcting divalent cation sensor for precision agriculture, enabling the measurement of plant macronutrients at the ppm level. This innovation can aid the agricultural industry in optimizing fertilizer usage. Her cutting-edge research also extends to the field of synthetic photosynthesis, with the aim of developing a solid-state electrocatalyst system inspired by nature. This system has the potential to produce hydrogen and convert greenhouse gases into renewable fuel, offering a promising solution to global energy challenges.

Dr. Syed Bahari Ramadzan Bin Syed Adnan is currently the Deputy Director (Research and Development) at Centre for Foundation Studies in Science. He completed his PhD in Material Science via thesis by publication. His research interest are in ceramic/ hybrid electrolytes for lithium batteries and astrophysics (Radio Astronomy). He supervised 5 PhD and master students so far and published about 30 papers in high impact journal and proceedings. He also filled a patent title " A method for synthesizing nanoionic sodium zincsilicate" at 2020.