Professor Dr. Mohd Rafie Bin Johan is an Award Winning Scientist and International Keynote Speaker. He is true example of how theoretical and fundamental research leads to remarkable progresses in the applied, engineering and industrial use of nano-designed advanced materials. Born in Melaka, in 1968, Professor Rafie graduated with a BSc(Hons) in Physics from University of Malaya, Malaysia, in 1993 and BEng in Chemical Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2023. He continued his studies at Institute for Advanced Studies, Universiti of Malaya, where he obtained his MPhil in Quantum Optics in 1997, moving then to Department of Physics, University of Malaya where he obtained his PhD in Theoretical Physics in 2005. From 1999 to 1991 he was also Head of Biomedical Engineering Program in Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya. He later moved to Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya where from the year 2005 until 2009, as a senior lecturer and played the role of Coordinator for Materials Engineering Undergraduate Program. In 2010, he is promoted to Associate Professor to steer research in Nanomaterials Engineering. Then, in 2015, he is promoted to Professor of Materials Engineering. In 2016, he is transferred to Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Centre (NANOCAT), University of Malaya Centre of Excellence (UMCOE), an internationally well-recognized center with the mission to be the world leader in “nanotechnology and catalysis” coining sustainability resources and green technology. In 2017, he is appointed as a Director of NANOCAT. Prof. Rafie is well recognized internationally in the field of Nanotechnology. Testimony to this, he has been elected in Evaluation Panels for AET and ITR clusters and UPGP and for grants applications at UMRG, PRGS, FRGS, and Qatar Foundation. He also has been appointed as panel for Yang di Pertuan Agong Scholarship and COMSTECS for Islamic Organization Country for evaluation of best scientific papers for Muslim Scientist and Qatar Reseach Foundation. Prof Rafie also has been invited as a speaker to numerous talks and conferences and also Guest Editor for Symmetry (ISI journal) and editor for Asean Engineering Journal. In 2010, he was a visiting scientist at Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Cambridge and at 2012, he was a visiting scholar at Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. The educational contribution of Prof. Rafie may be summarized in few numbers: 40 PhD completed (20 on-going), 30 Master completed (10 on going). These supervised students span over a quite broad scientific area going from science (chemistry, physics, material science, biology) to engineering (chemical, material). He had published more 350 ISI papers with H index 40 (WoS) and 44 Google scholar with 7791 citations. He had various research project (National, International (Jica) and Industry (Petronas, Hartalega and NanoMalaysia) with total amount more than RM 19 million. He is awarded Top Research Scientist Malaysia (TRSM) 2021 by Academy Sciences Malaysia and winner of Top in Tech Innovation Award (Most Impactful Academia-Industry Collaboration. He was awarded UM Excellence award for Best HICOE-UMCOE (2022) and elected as Fellow Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) 2023. He was promoted to Senior Professor (VK6) in 2023. Recently, he was elected as  Fellow Academy Science Malaysia in 2024.

Dr Ahmad Shuhaimi graduated Bachelor Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering (B. Eng.) in 2005, Master Degree (M. Eng.) in Engineering Physics, Electronics and Mechanics (Electronics Major) in 2007, and Doctorate Degree (D. Eng.) in Engineering Physics, Electronics and Mechanics (Electronics Major) in 2010, all from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan. His postgraduate research was focused on gallium nitride (GaN) – based semiconductor epitaxy by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and device fabrications, especially GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LED) grown on silicon (Si) substrate and GaN-based laser diodes (LD) grown on free-standing GaN substrate. Dr Ahmad Shuhaimi has obtained valuable experience in the realm of epitaxy and device fabrications under supervision of Professor Dr Takashi Egawa (one of the pioneers in gallium nitride epitaxy research). After joining Universiti Malaya in July 2010, Dr Ahmad Shuhaimi has been committed in setting up Malaysia's first MOCVD growth facility at Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre (LDMRC) University of Malaya. He currently leads Nitride Semiconductor Laboratory which houses full spectrum of capabilities for epitaxy, fabrication and analysis of nitride-based optoelectronics and power devices, including Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation's SR2000 and SR5000 MOCVDs, PE-ALD, ICP, Metallization, Photolithography, HR-XRD, AFM, etc. He obtained many research grants provided by Ministry of Higher Education, CREST, etc as well as donation from local industries. His group is in active collaboration with several semiconductor manufacturers and other research institutes/laboratories in Malaysia and overseas. His group interest is epitaxy of polar and non-polar GaN on sapphire, silicon and free-standing gallium nitride substrates for light-emission and power electronic devices.

Cecilia Cheong Yin Mei (PhD) is an Associate Professor in the English Language Department, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya. She is currently the Deputy Dean of Undergraduate Studies, overseeing 9 undergraduate programmes. She was formerly the Faculty's Head of Multimedia Planning Unit, where she headed a few committees.  Her research interests include (Critical) Genre Analysis, Multimodal Discourse Analysis, English for Specific Purposes, and Communication and Professional Discourse.   She has been a Principal Investigator of various research projects, particularly involving the study of various professional genres and multimodal texts and discourses.  She was a Co-Investigator of the University’s Research Grant sub-programme on Health Tourism in Malaysia; the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education’s Strategic Plan for the Development of English Language at Public Higher Education Institutions; and West Chester University, USA’s Research and Creative Activities (RACA) project on the meaning of ‘quality’ in online courses at a Malaysian university.  She is currently the Principal Investigator (UM) and Consultant of Universitas Medan Indonesia's International Grant project on the analysis of communicative competence of air navigation students of Medan Aviation Polytechnic based on the Indonesian Aviation Curriculum.  Cecilia has supervised postgraduate students' research to completion, and currently supervises several PhD and Masters students’ research on Critical Genre Analysis, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and Multimodality.  She has taught ESL and EFL for thirty years at various levels, from secondary school to university and adult learners.  Courses and workshops she conducts include genre and discourse analysis, applied linguistics and Language for Specific Purposes.  She is also the faculty Coordinator of Epigeum UK's English for Academic Studies programme.  Cecilia used to sit on the University's e-Learning Committee where she conducted various workshops on the use of ICT and the use of Moodle’s Spectrum platform for teaching and learning purposes, and e-learning courses at her faculty; and was the faculty Coordinator of Online Distance Learning (ODL).  In recognition of her excellent work service, she was awarded the Excellence Service Award in 2000, 2005, 2015 and 2021; Certificate of Excellence Service in 2014 and 2016; Certificate of Faculty Excellent Services in 2020; and Best Postgraduate Supervisor Award in 2021 respectively. Currently, she is the Deputy Head of the University's Student Holistic Empowerment (Cluster 4) courses, and the Open and Distance Learning Programmes Coordinator of her Faculty, responsible for setting up and overseeing the implementation of ODL academic programmes.  Cecilia is also an Associate Fellow of UM's Quality Management & Enhancement Centre (QMEC) as a UM Quality Excellence Index (UMQEI) Assessor and Program Quality Assurance Expert (ProQAE) since 2018, where she is actively involved in the implementation of Outcome Based Education, conducting workshops on the creation of new academic programmes based on OBE, and headed panels of assessors for the (re-)accreditation of academic programmes at the University. At the national level, Cecilia is the Vice President and Secretary (overseeing) of the Malaysian Association of Applied Linguistics (MAAL) which is affiliated with the International Association of Applied Linguistics (Association Internationale de Linguistique, AILA). She is Co-Chairperson of the Steering Committee that organised the very successful international 21st AILA World Congress 2024 (11-16 August 2024 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), which also celebrated the 60th Anniversary of AILA that was attended by over 1,800 scholars and researchers in Applied Linguistics from around the world. Cecilia is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA)'s The English Teacher journal, and also sits on the editorial board of the ASEAN Journal of Applied Linguistics (ASJAL) journal, and an external reviewer for WOS/ISI-indexed journals, the Language Teaching Research, Sage Open, Journal of Marketing for Higher Education and Journal of Psycholinguistic Research; and Scopus-indexed journals, Pertanika’s Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities (JSSH) and GEMA Journal of Language Studies; and many other MyCite and peer-reviewed journals. She is also a certified trainer of the Human Resource Development Corporation Malaysia (HRD Corp).