Dr Cheah graduated from Universiti Sains Malaysia with a BSc (Hons) in 2003 and a MSc in 2007. He obtained his PhD in Oceanography from University of Tasmania in Australia in 2012 under a scholarship from the Australian Government’s Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre. After submitting his PhD thesis in 2011, he was offered a postdoctoral position at Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany where he lived in Bremerhaven until 2013. He then moved to Taiwan in 2014 after securing a two-year Academia Sinica Postdoctoral Scholar award. In 2016, he was again awarded another Academia Sinica Postdoctoral Scholar award and spent another two years at Academia Sinica. In the same year, he won the best oral presentation award for the Asian Region category at the 34th Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Open Science Conference. Since 2018, he has been a Senior Lecturer at University of Malaya’s Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences. His current research focuses on the changes in the atmosphere, land and ocean, and how these changes are affecting the oceans and marine organisms. He has participated in various international research voyages on board Australian, German, and Taiwanese research vessels including four in the Southern Ocean, two in the South China Sea, and one each in the North Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Nur Azwin Zulkarnain is a senior lecturer in the Department of English at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya. Her doctoral research explored the semantics of epistemic modality in scientific discourse, with a focus on how scientists convey (un)certainty regarding the Coronavirus. She has also conducted research on the communication of advice in the context of eating disorders, analysing the nuances of soliciting and giving advice on socially sensitive topics. Azwin's research interests lie in lexical semantics and pragmatics, particularly within scientific and healthcare discourses. Her work seeks to deepen the understanding of how language shapes meaning and influences communication in these specialised fields. She continues to pursue research that bridges linguistic theory with real-world applications in the domains of scientific writing and health communication. Azwin is committed to advancing the study of language in these contexts, aiming to contribute to more effective and empathetic communication practices. Her ongoing projects include examining the role of hedges in expressing uncertainty and exploring the impact of virtual empathy in teleconsultations.

Marniza Saad is a Consultant Clinical Oncologist at the Department of Clinical Oncology, University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, since 2006. She also holds the Associate Professor post at the Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya (UM) Kuala Lumpur. She obtained her Medical Degree from University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, United Kingdom in 1997. She completed her general medical training within the South Wales Medical Rotation in 2000. In 2001 she joined UM as a trainee lecturer in Oncology. She pursued her formal training as clinical oncologist at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, UK from 2002 to 2006 and was awarded the Fellowship of Royal College of Radiologists (Clinical Oncology) in 2006. She is now the supervisor and internal examiner for the Master of Clinical Oncology programme in UM since May 2006. Working within the department Education Committee, she has deep passion for education and training of future oncologists in Malaysia. She was the Head of Department of Clinical Oncology UMMC from 2013 to 2015. During this time she was overseeing the development of Stereotactic Radiosurgery/Radiotherapy (SRS/SRT) and Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) with the designated expert teams, until successful initiation of the services in UMMC in May and September 2015, respectively. She is currently in the UMMC Intra-Operative Radiotherapy Working Group to introduce the service in UMMC in the near future. She is an Exco Committee member for Malaysia Oncological Society since 2013. She is a member of College of Radiology Academy of Medicine Malaysia and European Society for Medical Oncology. Her areas of special interest include genitourinary cancer, sarcoma, breast and gastrointestinal cancers. She is the principle investigator for several international clinical trials mainly in urological cancers and regularly speaks in the areas of her interest at both local and international conferences.