Professor Ir. Dr. U. Johnson Alengaram is the Director of the Centre for Innovative Construction Technology (CICT), a Research Centre under the Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is listed among the top 2% of the world’s scientists by Stanford University through Elsevier Data Repository and is also the recipient of outstanding achievement awards in most of the institutions he served. He has been serving as a research fund evaluator of different countries, including South American, Asian, and European countries. He is also recognized as an external examiner for doctoral theses and an evaluator for promotional exercises. He was the programme coordinator for developing a new MEng by coursework at the Universiti Malaya. He is also an advisor and examiner for the MEng programme in other universities. His industrial collaboration resulted in bringing research projects from industries to solve some of the imperative issues in material, mechanical, durability, and structural properties.  He is a Chartered Civil Engineer of the world-renowned Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE, UK) and the Engineering Council (UK); he is also a Companion Member of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (CIEM), a member of the American Concrete Society (ACI-Kuala Lumpur Chapter), and a life member of the Concrete Society of Malaysia (CSM). Professor Ir. Dr. U. Johnson Alengaram has supervised 32 research candidates, including Doctoral (PhD) and Master of Engineering Science by Research Mode (MEng Sci.), to graduation. In addition, he has a number of patents and copyrights for his inventions. His current Web of Science (WoS) h-index stands at 56 based on the publication of over 190 journal articles from the Web of Science Core Collection. He started the University of Malaya's Institution of Civil Engineers Student Chapter (UMICESC), and currently he is the staff advisor. UMICESC serves as the professional student body for undergraduate students to enhance their professional attributes, so they can strive towards becoming CEng MICE after graduation and appropriate training. In his Master of Engineering in Structural Engineering, as part of his MEng thesis, he utilized jute as a sustainable replacement material for conventional wood. His MEng research project was acclaimed as one of the best innovative works, and the specimens of his research project, Sandwiched Plywood, were displayed at the International Exhibition held in Delhi, India. Dr Manmohan Singh, former Prime Minister of India (then Union Finance Minister) who inaugurated the exhibition, had a special word for his work on jute; he continued his research for his doctoral research using sustainable industrial by-products and investigated mechanical and structural behaviour that provided in-sight into vital characteristics on the ductility behaviour of oil palm shells—that he went on to develop as a blast-resistant concrete—using oil palm shell as a whole replacement for normal aggregate. Professor Ir. Dr. U. Johnson Alengaram has been in academic, consultancy, research, and administration for over twenty-five years and has contributed to society in different capacities in India, Bahrain, and Malaysia. His current research involves the utilization of industrial by-products, low-carbon footprint materials, and waste materials in the development of one-part geopolymer, low-carbon cement, and limestone calcinated clay cement (LC3) in mortar and concrete; other research aspects include lightweight aggregate, material characteristics, crack-healing mortar using microalgae, lightweight aggregate concrete, foamed concrete, geopolymer concrete, and impact & blast-resistant concrete. His experimental works revolve around investigations on microstructural behaviour, mechanical properties and durability characteristics, structural behaviour, functional behaviour etc. He is the recipient of outstanding achievement awards in most of the institutions he served. He and his research team won gold and silver medals at international and national exhibitions on concrete engineering & technology. He was the project director of two housing projects at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that utilized industrial by-products. His decade-long research work on geopolymer concrete enabled him and his team to construct the first cement-free house (superstructure) in Malaysia with the collaboration of Vinci Construction, a French-based construction conglomerate; this house is currently being used by bus drivers and serves as a research hub. He is the Principal Investigator of many research projects and has received numerous research grants from the University of Malaya research fund, the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, and national and international grants, including the prestigious Newton-Ungku Omar Coordination Fund: UK-Malaysia Research & Innovation Bridges Competition. He has a research collaboration with various universities in Malaysia, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, Japan, Jordan, Oman, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam. He has been invited by various universities in different countries to give keynote lectures at international conferences, seminars, and research workshops.  Prof. Ir. Dr. U. Johnson Alengaram serves as an Associate Editor in the Journal of Sustainable Cement-Based Material, Australian Journal of Civil Engineering, and Editorial Board Member of the Jordanian Journal of Civil Engineering (JJCE); he also served as Chairperson of the SIRIM Committee for "Eco Labelling of Criteria for Reused By-Products Aggregates" and reviewer of multiple international journals. He has organized workshops, conferences, and seminars and trained school students to win local and international awards; further, as the Director of CICT, he has pioneered the activities of the centre to contribute to society, and thus many national and international researchers and students are being trained regularly in the centre.  He has been the organizing secretary, co-chair, and advisor of international conferences and workshops.  

Nuratiqah Aisyah Awang is a dedicated academic professional with a PhD in Facilities Management (Building) and a Bachelor’s degree in Building Surveying from the Faculty of Built Environment at Universiti Malaya (UM). She specialises in Facilities Management and is passionate about Healthcare and Inclusive Facilities Management. Her work focuses on optimising facilities management practices and enhancing quality of wellbeing, particularly for vulnerable groups such as individual with disabilities, the elderly, and children. Throughout her studies, she has received several awards, including the Hadiah Association of Building Engineers (ABE) in the UK, a Bronze award for her poster presentation at the International Research Innovation, Invention & Solution Exposition (IRIISE) 2018, and the Best Presenter award at the 11th ASEAN Postgraduate Seminar 2017.

ChM Dr Joon Ching Juan is Professor of Catalysis and Nanotechnology at Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Centre (NANOCAT), Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. Currently, he has been appointed as Chair of Frontier Natural World Research Cluster at Universiti Malaya and Head of International Co-operation relation at NANOCAT. He obtained his BSc (Hons) Chemical Technology (2003) and PhD in Chemistry (2007) degrees from the National University of Malaysia, Malaysia.             He has been actively involved in various research activities especially in the area of nanomaterial and catalysis. Most of his research activities are focused on understanding the and manipulating nano-structure to be applied in environmental and energy. Up to date, he has managed to publish more than 200 WoS publications with an h-index of 47 (10,348 citations). With his expertise and experience, he has received about RM 9,500,000 (ca. USD 2,000,000) grants from national, industry and international organizations such as The World Academy of Science Grant (TWAS, UNESCO), E-science fund (MOSTI), and industry grants. As a strong believer in research driven innovation, he has filed eight patents to be used in industries.             He is also the recipient of several prestigious awards and recognition including 2% Top Scientist in the World by Sandford University (2022-2020), Ten Outstanding Young Malaysian (2020) by Junior Chamber International,  Future Academician Award by Ministry of Education (2018), Malaysia Research Star Award by Ministry of Education (2017), National Young Scientist Award by Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (2016), outstanding paper award by Elsevier (2018), Pro Vice Chancellor Award in Teaching, Monash (2012), and just few to mention. Besides being engaged in teaching and research, he also serves as Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC, UK), Chartered Chemist (CSci, UK), Chartered Scientist (CSci, UK), Member of Malaysia Institute of Chemistry (IKM), and others.             In term leadership and administration, he is elected as the President of Balai Ikhtisas Malaysia (BIM) which oversee all professional bodies, Treasurer of Federation of Asian Chemistry Society (FACS), National Representative/Associate member of IUPAC in Chemistry and the Environment Division, Associate Member of IUPAC in Chemical Research Applied to World Needs (CHEMRAWN), council member and honorary secretary of Malaysian Institute of Chemistry (IKM). In addition, he also appointed as radiation protection officer (RPO), chemical safety and security officer training (CSSO), deputy quality manager (DQM), National Focus Group Member Globally Harmonized System (GHS), National technical committee member of Nanotechnologies (ISO Standard), National committee Member, Industry Standards Committee on Environmental Management (ISC Z). He has conducted various courses, talks, keynote, and plenary lecture on chemical safety and security, green synthesis laboratory, water pollution, photocatalysis wastewater treatment, biofuel, bioenergy, etc. With his experience and expertise, he has also been appointed as consultant and advisor to many governments’ bodies and industries.