Muhammad Safwan Harun is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Fiqh Usul & Applied Sciences, Academy of Islamic Studies, Universiti Malaya. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Fiqh and Usul with distinction in 2016 and earned his PhD from Universiti Malaya in 2019, specialising in Islamic jurisprudence and contemporary applications of Shariah. At the international level, he has served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya (2024) and a Research Fellow at Marmara University, Türkiye (2025). He sits on the editorial boards of FIKRI: Jurnal Kajian Agama, Sosial dan Budaya, Jurnal Khazanah Pendidikan and Jurnal Fiqh (Scopus). His global engagements include coordinating student mobility programmes to Türkiye and Indonesia, research collaboration with IAIN Madura, delivering a plenary lecture at the International Seminar on Maqasid Shariah in Bandung (2022), serving on the organising committee of ICONWAT Türkiye (2025) and completing a specialised fatwa training programme at Dar al-Ifta’, Egypt (2022). At the national level, he serves as a Reference Expert Panel for the Maqasid al Shari‘ah Division at JAKIM, an Executive Committee Member of the Maqasid Institute Malaysia, an Exco Member of Persatuan Ulama Malaysia (Wilayah), a member of the national Lajnah Tarjih and a Panel Expert in Shariah for the Malaysian Examinations Council. He is regularly consulted by ILIM, JAKIM, INTAN, the Ministry of Digital and IKIM, and has been featured on the national television programme “Selamat Pagi Malaysia”. His expertise is further applied through his roles as Expert Panel for OUM’s curriculum review, the Malaysian Maqasid Shariah Governance Index (JAKIM), the Gagasan Kalimah Tayyibah Document (JAKIM) and as a Panel Expert for the review of fatwa papers at the Kelantan State Mufti Department. Within Universiti Malaya, he has contributed through multiple academic and administrative roles, including Coordinator of the Student Lajnah, Outbound Advisor, Managing Editor of al Basirah Journal and Secretary for major academic programmes such as the 3rd Prof Emeritus MZAM Premier Lecture and SHIS 2024. He also serves on key university committees, including Curriculum Review, Timetabling, ICON IMAD, Corporate Video, MITA 2024, APIUM Canteen, the Surau Committee, the 2024 Research Load Taskforce and JK Ikhtisas. As of November 2025, he has been involved in 27 research grants, produced nearly 130 scholarly and professional publications and completed over 90 expert evaluations as a book reviewer and postgraduate examiner. These achievements highlight his sustained contribution to Shariah scholarship at the international, national and institutional levels.

Professor Dr Sivakumar Krishnasamy is currently a senior lecturer and Senior Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon in University Malaya Medical Centre. He graduated from University Malaya in 2002.  He was awarded the gold medal for MRCS Edinbrugh examination (2006) as the best overall candidate for the exam.In 2010 he was awarded the Al-Hadi gold medal as the overall best candidate for the Masters in General Surgery. He is the first Asian to be awarded the Gold medal and overall best performer in the esteemed European Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery in 2016 and was given the book prize for the exam as the highest overall achiever in the history of the European Cardiothoracic Surgery exam. Prof Siva did his initial training in General Surgery in Ipoh General Hospital. He joined the Masters In General Surgery in 2006 and completed it in 2010. He subsequently worked as a General Surgeon in Kota Bahru before joining University Malaya as a senior lecturer in 2011. He did his initial years of Cardiothoracic training in University Malaya and went on to IJN in 2013. He left to the UK in 2014 and completed his FRCS (Edin )CTh in 2016. During his stay in the UK, he did a 1 year formal Aortic Fellowship under the guidance of Mr Jorge Masacro and 1 year of Thoracic fellowship in Heartlands Hospital which is a regional Thoracic Referral Centre for West Midlands.  He has a keen passion for MDT and since coming back he has setup the Aortic and Endovascular MDT in UM and also is actively involved in the Thoracic and lung cancer MDT in UM. Recently in 2019 he was awarded the prestigious Francis Fontan Uniportal VATS Fellowship by the European Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery (First in the world to receive the award). His fellowship was in the World’s largest Lung Cancer Hospital, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, where the centre does around 20000 lung resection cases per year. Since coming back he has developed the Uniportal VATS services in University Malaya.    Since 2017 , he has organised the Annual International Aortic Symposium , which is an event that is jointly done annualy with IJN. He has also been instrumental in holding the International FRCS Cardiothoracic Examination in University Malaya since 2018 , where he is the local organiser for the exam in Malaysia. Since 2018 he has been organising the International Cardiothoracic Review Course , which is the KL Review course which has endorsement from the Birmingham Review Course UK and is attended by all regional cardiothoracic trainees. The course has been running well annualy till date. Besides that he is also the Department of Surgery Quality Manager and recently has been appointed as a member of the Subspeciality Education Committee for Cardiothoarcic Surgery by the Malaysian Medical Council. He is also a board member of the Malaysian Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery which is the national training body for cardiothoracic surgery. Recently he has also been appointed as the chair for the National Curriculum writting group for Cardiothoracic Surgery. Being the Chair of the National Curriculum for Cardiothoracic Surgery , he has succesfully launched the Curriculum with members of the Cardiothoracic Society in April 2022. This was also done in conjuction with a memorandum of understanding with Royal College of Surgeons Edinbrugh to run the Parallel Pathway Programme for Cardiothoracic Surgery with University Malaya as the local Education Provider and Assoc Prof Sivakumar as the Administrator in Charge of it.  With a busy clinical and academic portfolio, he also has been actively involved in various publications in peer reviewed cardiothoracic journals and has been an emminent national and international speaker in various local and international meetings. He is also a reviewer for the Malysian Medical Journal and is part of the editorial for Journal of Interventional Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinbrugh , Member of the European Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery , member of the Asian Cardiothoracic Society , Malaysian Cardiothoracic Society (MATCVS) and Southeast Asian Thoracic Society (SEATS). Prof Sivakumar is also a visiting consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon to Penang GH and IJN for complex Aortic Surgeries. Over the years he has worked togather with the team in Penang GH to developed the Aortic Arch and Complex Aortic Surgery Programme. He is a trainer for the local trainees under the Parallel Pathway Training Programme with Royal College of Surgeons Edinbrugh and also an appointed trainer for Uniportal VATS Surgery by SouthEast Asian Thoracic Society. His clinical experience cover the whole spectrum of adult cardiac surgery and the whole spectrum of Aortic Surgery ( open and endovascular). In thoracic surgery all aspects of thoracic surgery are done by him which includes minimally invasive thoracic surgery for all thoracic case like lung cancer and mediastinal tumours and complex thoracic cases which includles tracheal surgery , mesothelioma, chest wall resection and reconstruction.New clinical service in Aortic Surgery was started by Prof Sivakumar , mainly Total Arch Replacement with Frozen Elephant Trunk , Descending thoracic aorta replacement and Thoracoabdominal Aortic surgery. In Thoracic Surgery , he started the Uniportal VATS Surgery ( Single Key Hole VATS ) service and has established himself as a regional trainer for this procedure in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.   Since 2022 Prof Sivakumar has been appointed as the Main Coordinator for the Cardiothoracic Parallel Pathway training Program under Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh in Universiti Malaya. He is also an Examiner for the Quadripartite Exam for Cardiothoracic Surgery by Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh since 2022. Togather with the regional surgeons from Hong Kong and Singapore he also has contributed to the Exam bank of the College.   As a Professor in the University , he takes on clinical and pre clinical teaching for undergraduate students throughout the year. He also takes trainees from General Surgery for their cardiothoracic rotation posting. There have been 5 clinical masters student who has completed their research project under him and currently there are 4 ongoing Clinical Masters and 1 international PHd student. There many clinical trails and research colloborations locally and internationally that he is involved as principal investigator or co investigator.    Recent most appointment is the Head Coordinator for Masters in Cardiothoracic Surgery , Universiti Malaya which is being started as a new postgraduate progam under the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya. Professor Dr Sivakumar is also the current Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery Universiti Malaya. Recent most award is from Royal College of Surgeons Edinbrugh where he was awarded the Fellow of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers which carries the title FFST (Edin). This was given in February 2025.  

  Chen Chen is a Professor at the Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya. She is also the Founder and CTO of IOMInsight Sdn Bhd, a spin-off company from Universiti Malaya Centre of Innovation and Enterprise focusing on developing Economic System modeling for scenario analyses involving 62 countries and 35 economic sectors. With over 9 years of experience in consultancy work with government and private agencies, such as PwC, ILO, EPU (currently known as the Ministry of Economy), MOHR (currently known as KESUMA),MASTIC, CIDB, SOSCO, WorldBank, JPAL, PE Research Sdn Bhd and etc), she also actively involved in research collaboration work with the University of Pennsylvania, World Bank, Harvard University, J-PAL, Singapore Food Agency and local/international Universities/Institutions. She has contributed to research and book publications, facilitate learning and programme development, and foster professional growth together with the stakeholders of the University.