Professor Dr Hong Ching Goh is an interdisciplinary social scientist specialising in human-environment interactions, with a focus on sustainability, inclusion, and the ways diverse communities benefit from nature, including livelihoods, health and wellbeing, and intangible values. Grounded in urban planning, tourism planning, and geography, her research spans urbanised environments, resource-rich regions, and protected areas. It draws inspiration from her fieldwork in Sabah since 2005 and her coastal research across Southeast Asia. Currently with the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, she is appointed Deputy Director of the Malaysia National Antarctic Research Centre starting January 2026. She is a registered town planner with the Malaysian Institute of Planners and the Board of Town Planners Malaysia. Since 2009, Prof. Goh has secured RM6.9 million in research grants. Of this, RM4.95 million was obtained from international sources. As a co-investigator, she also helped secure a GBP6.4 million Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) grant. This grant supported interdisciplinary research on marine environments and coastal communities. She has held prestigious fellowships, including the MIT-UTM Malaysian Sustainable Cities Program Fellowship and the DAAD Doctoral Scholarship attached to the Center of Development Research (ZEF). She serves as country coordinator for ForUm, a DAAD-funded network connecting Southeast Asian and German experts on Urban Futures since 2018. She is also a member of the ASEAN Science Leadership Program and the Global Young Academy (GYA). Prof. Goh's contributions have earned significant national and international recognition. In 2021, the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur highlighted her work in conjunction with International Women's Day and Commonwealth Day. She was also invited to join the UK Minister of Science, Amanda Solloway, and Professor Melanie Austen of the University of Plymouth, to discuss climate change impacts on marine environments in the Blue Communities program. She was featured among the 100 Women Scientists in Global Polar Research (2022) and among Women and Girls in Science by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) (2026). In 2024, she was appointed DAAD Research Ambassador in Malaysia and received the Top Research Scientists Malaysia Award from the Academy of Sciences Malaysia. She has published over 65 peer-reviewed articles, 30 book chapters and books, and 40 other publications. She has supervised 14 postgraduate students to completion and currently oversees 10 ongoing students.

Akbar Sarif bin Muhammad is a lecturer at the Academy of Islamic Studies, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. Born in Bima, Indonesia, on 15 April 1985, he pursued early education in Pelalawan, Riau, before completing his secondary studies at Pondok Modern Darussalam Gontor in 2004. He graduated with distinction and obtained his bachelor's degree in Comparative Mazhab and Law from Universitas Darussalam Gontor in 2008. Driven by a strong interest in Islamic legal theory, he continued his postgraduate studies at the Universiti Malaya, completing his Master’s research on the concepts of maslahah and mafsadah in the thought of al-Imam al-Ghazali and al-Imam al-Shatibi. In 2021, he was awarded a PhD for his work on the application of Maqasid al-Shari‘ah in the development of contemporary Islamic law in Indonesia. His academic expertise spans Fiqh and Usul al-Fiqh, Maqasid al-Shari‘ah in both theoretical and contemporary applications, manuscript studies, Islamic philanthropy, and Islamic property law. He has authored journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers, all of which contribute to the enrichment of scholarly discourse in Islamic law and its contemporary applications. Akbar has also collaborated on research projects with government and heritage institutions in Malaysia and Indonesia. At the Universiti Malaya, he teaches, supervises postgraduate students, and actively engages in research and academic discourse at national and international levels.

'If you could have as many data from the universe, what is the one question that you would ask?'Dr Muhammad Shahreeza is currently the Head of Department, Artificial Intelligence, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Malaya since April 2025. Concurrently he also oversees the planning, administration, deployment, and operation of AI programs offered at Yunnan-Malaya Institute, Yunnnan University, China. Dr Shahreeza received B.Eng. degree in Electrical, Electronics and Information Engineering from Nagaoka University of Technology, Japan, in 2007, and M.Sc. degree in Artificial intelligence and Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K., in 2013 and 2019, respectively. His core research focus is biophysics modeling, he also explores various neural network architectures. His interest includes applying probabilistic methods and ideas from machine learning to biological models to derive insights into the underlying design principles. The AI department is expanding at an incredible speed, as the AI field is getting a lot of attention in this decade. Hence we welcome those interested to join the department by submitting your applications to https://career.um.edu.my/