Dr. Sharifah Aishah Osman is an Associate Professor at the Department of English,   Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya. She holds a PhD in English Literature from Boston University, U.S.A. Her areas of expertise are Children’s and Young Adult Literature in Malaysia, and Nineteenth-century British Literature. She also has research interests in women’s writings, feminist youth literature, and folklore studies. She has published in all these fields, both in edited books, as well as in international journals such as Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature, Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and Southeast Asian Review of English (SARE). She has presented numerous papers in international conferences, where she often promotes the works of authors of youth literature from Malaysia. She also serves as peer reviewer for a number of international journals, two of which are Scopus-indexed. Her current research projects examine the role of feminist folktales and folk tale adaptations in Malaysian youth literature. She welcomes research students working on any aspect of youth literature (especially in Asia), as well as British women's writings from the nineteenth-century.     

Lucas Low VL received his bachelor’ degree in Biodiversity Management with first-class honours from the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu in 2010. He then earned his PhD with ‘distinction thesis’ from the University of Malaya (UM) in 2013, for his studies on the molecular and biochemical basis of insecticide resistance in medically important group of mosquitoes. Currently, he is the Excecutive Director and an associate professor at Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Centre (TIDREC), a Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE) in Malaysia. His current research interests include insect vectors of medical-veterinary importance such as mosquitoes, flies, ticks, fleas, lice and mites; and their associated infectious disease agents. In his scientific career, he has been fortunate to work under the mentorship of the world-renowned black fly taxonomist, Prof. Emeritus Dr. Hiroyuki Takaoka for the discovery of new species and taxonomic classification of black flies in the Oriental region. At present, he owned taxonomic authorities for 11 new species of black flies discovered in Southeast Asia. In recognition of his research excellence in vector-borne diseases, and significant advancement in molecular phylogenetics and systematics of black flies, two new species of black flies Simulium vanluni from Malaysia, and Simulium lowi from Vietnam were named after him in 2017. In March 2020, he organized and chaired the 3rd Asian Simuliidae Symposium which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His expertise in the field of insecticide resistance is recognized by the Malaysian Ministry of Health. He has been appointed as a member of the Technical Working Committee for Insecticide Resistance, which aims to provide mitigation plans against insecticide resistance issue throughout the country. He was also appointed as a consultant for testing commercial mosquito repellent products in a private company. His reputation has convinced local and international funders, with the awarding of 19 research grants to him with a value of at least RM3 million. Notably, he is the principal investigator for the Tick Cell Biobank Asia Outpost project funded by the prestigious research foundation, Wellcome Trust (2022-2026). The Asia Outpost (the only one in Asia) provides insect cell line resources and training to fellow researchers in Asia. His role is important in increasing regional capacity in the implementation of research in tick-borne diseases. He is also the principal investigator of the black fly DNA barcode project in Southeast Asia funded by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Denmark (2021-2023). His role is to establish and strengthen black fly biodiversity information facilities and increase the capacity of researchers in Asia in accessing data needed for biodiversity management. He has strong research networks in both local and international institutions and has authored more than 160 articles in ISI-indexed journals. He has been a reviewer of several world-leading scientific journals. He is an Associate Editor of Tropical Biomedicine and a Section Editor of Parasitology Research, both of which are the WoS indexed journals. He is an active member of the Malaysian Society of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine (MSPTM). Currently, he serves as the President for the society.  He shows high commitment in educational activities, as well social responsibility in increasing the level of public awareness of vector-borne diseases. He is involved in various talks to raise awareness among students, Orang Asli, pet owners and the general public at disease outbreak areas. He is also a facilitator in the development of national biosafety and biosecurity policies and guidelines. Since 2018, 3 Masters and 7 PhD students have successfully completed their studies under his supervision. A total of 3 Masters and 5 PhD students are still under his supervision. He was a recipient for Certificate of Excellent Service in 2018, and Excellence Service Award in 2019, UM. He was also a Nadchatram Medal 2020 recipient for his outstanding research in the field of parasitology and tropical medicine.  

Dr Sujatha Ramasamy is a Senior Lecturer at the Program Science Biology with Education, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya. Dr Sujatha was previously the Head of Academic Quality Assurance Unit at the Quality Management & Enhancement Center (QMEC) responsible for accreditation and quality assurance of all levels of academic programmes in Universiti Malaya. She has had a wide of experience in quality management systems and academic quality assurance. Currently she is the Quality Manager for Faculty of Science. Dr Sujatha Ramasamy completed her BSc. (Biomedical Technology). MSc. and PhD. (Natural Product Research) from Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. She had more than 20 years of experience in research in the field of plants-derived natural products, which is focusing on medicinal food and underutilized plants. Her main interest is mainly on assessing the bioactive compounds from plants as source for potential candidates for anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and wound healing agents. Dr Sujatha also exploring on the natural pigments from plants as potential food colorants. Her current focus is on medicinal food plants which consumed by Asian culture with the intention of health maintenance. Through the research findings, she aimed to understand the medicinal food plant’s efficacy in its cultural context and promoting its consumption in enhancing well-being. Dr Sujatha is also had more than 20 years’ experience in animal (cancer and normal cells) cell culture techniques in which most of the biological screening had been conducted in in vitro model. She had experienced in handling ELISA assay and immunochemistry test. Her study also includes on the biological mechanism that trigger the plant’s therapeutic activity.