Dr. Amer Siddiq Amer Nordin is a Malaysian academic psychiatrist, clinician, researcher and health policy contributor whose career sits at the intersection of psychiatry, addiction medicine, implementation science and public health. He serves as Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Universiti Malaya, while maintaining clinical practice at the University Malaya Medical Centre and University Malaya Specialist Centre. He has also served as Director of UMCares (2019 - 2025) and assisted in the establishment of International Unit Faculty of Medicine (IUFOM) serving as a Head in the process (2015 -2019). His clinical expertise spans mood disorders, addiction psychiatry, nicotine dependence and behavioural medicine.

Over more than two decades, his work has evolved beyond clinical psychiatry into building systems that improve population mental health. He is recognised nationally for his leadership in tobacco control, having developed the SCOPE smoking cessation training programme, contributed to Malaysia’s mQuit initiative, coordinated nicotine addiction research, and advised the Ministry of Health Malaysia on tobacco control strategy and implementation. His research, policy work and advocacy have helped bridge the gap between scientific evidence and healthcare delivery.

His scholarship combines clinical psychiatry with implementation science, behavioural health and public policy. Beyond publications in psychiatry and tobacco control, he has increasingly focused on recovery-oriented psychiatry. Rather than viewing symptom reduction as the sole goal, his emerging academic vision is to reposition psychiatric care towards restoring life engagement, identity and social functioning.

Leadership is another defining feature of his career. He has served on numerous national task forces, including Malaysia’s Healthcare Work Culture Improvement Task Force, contributed to health policy development, participated in parliamentary and ministerial engagements related to tobacco control, and served as an expert for the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development and Ministry of Youth and Sports. He has also been active in professional education, mentoring approximately 10–15 PhD candidates and 20–30 Master’s students whose work extends his influence across psychiatry, addiction and public health.

Internationally, he has collaborated with institutions including the University of Otago, the University of Auckland, the University of Minnesota, the Universitas Airlangga and global tobacco control networks, while contributing to research capacity building through initiatives such as the FutureLearn course Research Impact (RESPACT): Pathway to Impactful Projects.

Alongside academia, Dr. Amer has deliberately built a public-facing identity as a science communicator. Through social media, public lectures, webinars, television, radio and print media, he translates psychiatric evidence into accessible information for clinicians, policymakers and the wider community.