Professor Dr. Shireene Ratna Vethakkan obtained her MBBS from the University of Malaya, and Masters of Internal Medicine from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She then underwent endocrine training at the University of Malaya Medical Centre and a fellowship at the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne. This was followed by an MD(Doctorate of Medicine-Research) at the University of Melbourne focusing on the evaluation of islet-function and insulin-sensitivity post-islet transplantation in patients with Type 1 diabetes. Her expertise lies in the fields of diabetology and reproductive endocrinology, in particular human islet-transplantation, lipotoxicity and beta-cell function. She is skilled in the evaluation of beta-cell function/insulin sensitivity utilizing computer modelling and the IVGTT, and can also conduct clamp studies. She was Head of the Division of Endocrinology&Diabetes , Department of Medicine, University of Malaya from 2012-2022. She holds several grants and has a passion for clinical research in the field of diabetes in pregnancy and metabolic associated steatotic liver disease.  She has published papers in the  Bristish Journal of Obstetrics & Endocrinology, Clinical Endocrinology, Diabetes Research & Clinical Practice, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Journal of Clinical Lipidology,Clinical Nutrition,Transplantation, Endocrine Practice, Diabetic Medicine and Journal of Diabetes Investigation. She has also supervised to completion many PhD, Masters of Science, Masters of Medicine students and Endocrine Subspecialty Fellows.  Dr. Vethakkan is also an experienced consultant endocrinologist/physician and runs several busy clinics including the combined antenatal endocrine clinic at the University of Malaya Medical Centre. 

Bibliography: Professor Dr Wan Haliza Abd. Majid (2021)   Dr Wan Haliza Abd. Majid graduated with Bachelor in Physics from University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK in 1988. Initially, she worked in the Physics department, University Malaya as a tutor from 1990-91 while she was completing her Master’s Degree. Upon completing her PhD in 1994 from the University of Sheffield (UK), she was attached to the Matriculation Centre (PASUM) from 1994-2000, University Malaya as a lecturer before transferring to the Physics Department in 2000. Currently, her research interest is related to pyroelectric and ferroelectric properties of organic materials, fabrication and device characterization of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and photo-sensing and signal processing of biomaterials, quantum dots, and their applications. She has participated in many seminars, workshops, conferences and community engagement projects related to the Physics education program. Her involvement in research led her to lead (Principle Investigator) various research grants since the year 2000 which include, Short Term Research Fund (PJP-UM), University Malaya Research Grant (UMRG), High Impact Research Grant (HIR-UM), Exploratory Research Grant Scheme (ERGS-MOHE), ScienceFund (MOSTI), Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS-MOHE) and Long Term Research Grant (LRGS-MOHE).  She has been invited as one of the panel reviewers/evaluators for various grants awarded by MOHE and MOSTI at the university and national level since 2012. Internationally, her involvement as one of the panel reviewers for the Slovak Research And Development Agency starts from the year 2016 until recently. Currently, she is the Head of Low Dimensional Materials Research Center (LDMRC) (since 2016), the Chief Editor of Malaysian Journal of Science (MJS) (since 2020), the Chairperson for MASS Chapter of University Malaya (since 2019) and Committee member for Institute of Physics (IFM) (since 2021). She was appointed as Deputy Dean of Research and Higher Degree at the Faculty of Science (2010-2014), Dean (2017-2019) and Deputy Dean (2016-2017) of Institute of Postgraduate Studies (IPS). She is committed to equipping graduates at the tertiary level with knowledge, technology and values that can be used to interact positively with society at large.

Prof. Kwan serves as the Senior Orthopaedic Consultant of the Spine Surgery, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, and the President of the Asia Pacific Spine Society (APSS) 2023/2025. He was the Past President of the Malaysia Spine Society (MSS) 2019/21. His practice is mainly devoted to spinal deformity, i.e., scoliosis patients.  He has vast experience in taking care of and treating scoliosis patients via non-operative management, as well as operative management. He operates an average of 300 spine cases a year, with approximately 200 cases of scoliosis cases.   Prof. Kwan is an active member of numerous international professional spine societies. He is well-known internationally, as well as in the regional spine community, where he currently serves as the President of the Asia Pacific Spine Society (APSS). He is also an Active Member of the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) and AOSpine. He has published more than 100 articles in the International/National Scientific Peer-Reviewed Journals. He was awarded many prestigious MOA research awards, namely the ‘P. Balasubramaniam Award 2014 and 2015’ for the best basic sciences research published papers for 2 consecutive years. He was later awarded the “Subir Sengupta Award in 2017 and 2018” for the best clinical research published papers for another 2 consecutive years. Due to his vast academic contributions, he was appointed as a member of various editorial board members and reviewers for many notable journals.  He has written many academic books and videos related to orthopaedic and spinal surgery and has also contributed book chapters about spinal disorders. Due to his dedicated teaching, he was conferred the ‘Best Lecturer (Clinical) Award by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya in the year 2013’.