He was born in 1965 in Sabak Bernam, Selangor, Malaysia. His early education was from his village in Sabak Bernam before he went to Sekolah Alam Shah, Kuala Lumpur, and joined Universiti Malaya in 1985 to pursue his studies in creative and descriptive writing. He graduated in 1988 and later focused his study on publishing and book marketing for his Master degree in 1991. He finishes his three year PhD program in 2001 in magazine publishing from the University Malaya. Along the way he went to Melbourne and Stanford University, California for training courses in book publishing. In 1995 he went to London School of Printing under the CHICEA fellowship from the British Council. Since 1992, he is a lecturer in the Department of Media Studies, University Malaya and became an Associate Professor in 2002. He is a now a Professor at the Department Media and Communication Studies. He served as a Director of University Malaya Press for six years (2001-2006), Head of Department of Media Studies (2009-2010 and 2011-2017), and the Deputy Dean, Faculty of Art and Social Sciences, University Malaya (2010-2011). Since 2020, he is a Professor at the Department of Media and Communication Studies, University Malaya. Hamedi is an active speaker and trainer in the field of book publishing, magazine publishing, editing, scholarly writing, and profesional writing. His workshops in academic writing, transferring a thesis into a book, profesional writing, and editing has been conducted in almost all public university in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. He is the chief editor for Asian Journal of Media Studies as well as sits in the editorial board of various academic journals in communications and media in Malaysia, Pakistan and Indonesia. Hamedi sits in the committee of ASEAN Scholarly Publishers Association (ASPA) in Manila, former member of Majlis Penerbitan Ilmiah Malaysia (MAPIM), a member of Association of Scholarly Publishing (ASP) in New York, the former Secretary of Yayasan Penataran Ilmu (YPI), committee member of Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair, and alumni of Stanford Scholarly Publishing (SSP). He is also the President of Malaysian Editors Association since 2011.

Rizal was part of the very first batch of Sport Science students that graduated from University of Malaya in 1999. In year 2000, he went on to pursue an MSc (Human Movement) at the University of Western Australia, graduated the following year and started to teach in UM in 2001. He formally completed his Phd from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Malaya in 2012; investigating the critical parameters of the ten-pin bowling delivery. Rizal’s primary focus is in on technical performance enhancement of various sport skills. More recent research include studying the reliability of the taekwondo scoring system, designing an apparatus to help the visually impaired exercise and; looking at the effects of leg length discrepancies on gait. He has also done work related in anthropometry and talent identification. Moreover, Rizal has a particularly keen interest in investigating and finding solutions for applied problems in an array of different fields. He was the Deputy Director of Undergraduate Studies & Development at the Centre for Sport & Exercise Sciences, UM from 2016 to 2019. He has also lead the transformation of UM sports facilities, which has seen a near ten fold increase in fixed monthly income in the last two years. At the same time he was instrumental in establishing the UM Sports Science Support Services (UM4S) which is the current commercial arm of the sports science labs.  On the sporting side, Rizal is an accomplished floorball and hockey player that played at all age group levels for KL hockey up to national junior’s team. Now an active coach, recently winning the 2018 National U14 gold with the KL ladies hockey team. The highlight of his coaching career thus far is being the assistant coach for the national mens hockey team in 2008/09. He was also the coach cum player for the Malaysian Floorball Team and won a bronze medal at the 2015, 2019 & 2023 SEA Games, and currently serves as the president of the Malaysian Floorball Association.

Dr Kathreena Kadir  BDS(Mal), MClinDent(OMFS)(Mal), Fellowship in Oral & Maxillofacial Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery (Shanghai), AM   Dr Kathreena Kadir obtained her Bachelor of Dental Surgery from University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur in 2005. She then served the Ministry of Health for four years before returning to the same university to pursue her Master’s in Clinical Dentistry specializing in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. Upon graduation in 2013, she joined the academia and currently an Associate Professor and consultant in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Clinical Sciences. She is a member of Malaysia Academy of Medicine and has held the post of Honorary Secretary for the Malaysian Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (MAOMS) in the year 2015 till 2018 and a member of the Oral Cancer Research & Coordinating Centre (OCRCC) since 2015. Her main surgical interest has always been managing patients with head and neck tumours and had recently completed her one-year Fellowship in Oral & Maxillofacial Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery at Shanghai 9th People’s Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. Upon returning, she is among the lead surgeon in managing oral cancer clinic and service in University Malaya Medical Centre. Dr Kadir had also supervised numerous postgraduate research thesis in the field of both oral cancer and Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD). While pursuing her interest in head and neck oncology, Dr Kadir has also developed another passion in management of patients with TMD. Over the last 5 years, her team had successfully developed and validated the Malay - Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (M-DC/TMD) according to the stringent standard set by the International Network for Orofacial pain & Related disorders Methodology (INfORM). With the establishment of these two instruments (DC/TMD and M-DC/TMD), she hopes to propose the usage of these tools nationwide as a standard protocol in diagnosing and managing patients with TMD. She also contributes in coordinating and pioneering the development of the TMD Multidisciplinary Team combined clinic in Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Malaya.