Professor Dr Thong Kwai Lin is full Professor at the University of Malaya (UM). She joined UM as a lecturer in 1990, promoted to Associate Professor in 1997 and Full Professor in 2003. She obtained her PhD in 1997 from UM.  She was the Director of the Centre for Research Services, Institute of Research Management and Monitoring (IPPP), UM from 2011-2015. She teaches Public Health Microbiology, Diagnostic Microbiology, Food Microbiology, Molecular Diagnostics, Microbial Pathogenesis at the Institute of Biological Science, Faculty of Science.  Her field of specialisation is molecular microbiology of foodborne and nosocomial bacterial pathogens. Her current research is in the application of whole genome sequencing to dissect the genomes of bacterial pathogens to better understand the mechanism of drug resistance, virulence and pathogenicity of bacteria and development of biosensors  for rapid detection of bacterial pathogens. She has published over 300  papers in refereed national and international journals and proceedings and presented more than 200 papers in conferences/symposia. Her WOS H-Index is 34  and has supervised over 95 postgraduates. Prof Thong has won numerous Awards related to research and teaching activities. These include 20 Gold Medals, 12 Silver Medals, 7 Bronze Medals in various National and International Invention & Innovation Exposition since 2005. She also received the Excellent Scientist Award from the Ministry of Higher Education (2005), the Medical Association of Malaysia-Infectious Disease Fund Visiting Fellowship (2006) and the 2013 Woman Scientist Award from University of Malaya, the University’s Excellent Service Awards for the years 2000, 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2012 and the Top Research Scientist Malaysia from the Academy of Science, Malaysia in 2014 and the prestigious Malaysian Society for Microbiology Award 2015. She was the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Ambassador to Malaysia for 7 years (2007-2014). For her excellent work and service, Prof Thong was awarded the American Society for Microbiology Ambassador of the Year (2009) Award and Certificate of Outstanding Service to the International Board of the American Society for Microbiology in 2011.