Prof. Dr. Chan Kok Gan is a distinguished microbiologist and interdisciplinary scholar whose work bridges molecular biology, genomics, microbial communication, and biosafety law. He is currently a Professor at University of Malaya, where he leads research in microbial genomics, quorum sensing, quorum quenching, genome biology, next-generation sequencing, biosafety laws and intellectual property law in biotechnology. His contributions span genomics, microbial communication, and conceptual innovation rather than single isolated discoveries.  Prof. Chan holds double Bachelor and Master degrees in Microbiology and laws, and PhD in Molecular Microbiology, with a rare combination of science and law. Prof. Chan is prolific researcher,  with >485 WoS WoS publications in high-impact journals including Nature, Nature Communications. His work has garnered tens of thousands of citations (e.g., his Google Scholar profile shows >27,650 citations, h index 83). He received fundings gloablly, eg. Malaysia Toray Science Foundation research grant, >15 French Fellowships, Hubert Curien Partnership-Hibiscus, SEAOHUN Award, UK Prime Minister’s Initiative II grant, 3 China Governments grants, JSPS Award and many Malaysia fundings.  Prof. Chan has received numerous research awards and recognitions, including a consistent ranking in Research.com’s listings of Top Microbiologist and and Leader in Biology/biochemistry in Malaysia; Malaysia Toray Science Foundation (MTSF) Science and Technology Award, JSPS Award. He was listed as the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University/Scopus in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 in both categories of “Current Year” and “Career”. He is even listed as World’s Top 0.1% Scientist by ScholarGPS.com, and ranked First in the categories of “quorum quenching”, “genomes” , “multidrug resistant pathogens” by Google Scholar. Prof. Chan made several first discoveries in Malaysia and globally, including (i) introducing the concept of, and coining, bacterial “signalling confusion”; (ii) coexistence of quorum sensing and quorum quenching in some bacteria, and (iii) quorum quenching molecules from Malay, Chinese and Indian medicinal herbs and secured several patents,  (iv) characterising novel quorum sensing and quenching genes, (v) novel bacterial genus and species, (vi) he published Malaysia’s first complete bacterial genome 13 years ago when next-generation sequencing was still globally scarce. Prof. Chan is elected Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (FASc) in 2017, and fellowships in other international learned academies. A novel bacterial species of a novel genus was named in honoured of Prof Chan’s contribution in microbiology:  Chania multitudinisentens gen. nov., sp. nov. Prof. Chan is world’s leading expert in bacterial quorum sensing, quorum quenching, genome biology, biosafety laws and whole genome sequencing. After publishing the first bacterial complete genome in 2013, Prof Chan then pioneered into multi-OMICs technology, providing a new dimension of research in microbiology and genome biology. To date, Prof. Chan is the leading expert in NGS, multi-OMICs (genome, plasmidome, resistome, virome, oncogenome, transcriptome, methylome, microbiome, metagenome, lipidome, metabolome).

He received a bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 1995. Then, he joined Indonesian Aircraft Industries Ltd. (PT. IPTN/ Dirgantara Indonesia/ Indonesian-Aerospace Ltd), Bandung, Indonesia as a Fatigue and Fracture Mechanics engineer from 1995 to 1999. ALHAMDULILLAH, while working with PT. IPTN, he was given a sponsorship by the Ministry of National Education, Indonesia,for pursuing master degree in Mechanical Engineering at Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB), Indonesia (completed in 1998). In October 1999, he was awarded a prominent PhD studentship from the Queen Mary and Westfield Research Council, University of London, and ALHAMDULILLAH he successfully accomplished his PhD in Computational Mechanics in 2003.Prior to joining Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia, in July 2004, he was working as a visiting researcher at Inter University Center, Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB), Indonesia. In 2010, he joined University of Malaya, Malaysia, for the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Next, prior to joining University of Pertamina in 2019, he was working with Universiti Teknologi Brunei, Brunei Darussalam (in 2016). In 2025, ALHAMDULILLAH, he was very pleased to make a return to Universiti Malaya (Department of Mechanical Engineering), Malaysia.

Faridah Othman is a registered Professional Engineer (PEng, Malaysia) and a Certified EIA Consultant (DOE, Malaysia).  She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Missouri (USA), Master and PhD from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK).  Her field of specialization is Water and Environmental Engineering. Her research interest includes water resources and management, water security, floods, river conservation and pollution control, water supply and sewerage, as well as hydro-environment. She has vast experience in computer modelling and simulations which includes flood, river and surface water quality. She is also interested in the Artificial Intelligence and Optimization models, along with  GIS and remote sensing application. She has over 25 years of teaching and supervising experience at undergraduate and postgraduate levels., and successfully supervising more than 30 postgraduates inclusive of PhDs, Masters and Post Doctorate.  She has authored and co-authored more than 180 articles including journals, conferences and technical  reports in national and international publications.    She is a passionate and self-motivated researcher with a strong desire to build a career within the research  industry. In her career, she has been actively involved in numerous consultation projects with the relevant authorities and private companies, local and international.  Moreover, she is also doing research collaboration with industries, other universities, research institutions, and communities, to ensure that her research would benefit not only to the academic world but the nation, societies, and communities.