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.

Peter Aning Tedong joined the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Malaya in December 2014. He is currently the Head of Department of Urban and Regional Planning. He also serves as the Head of Centre for Malaysian Indigenous Studies. As urban studies and housing scholar, Peter Aning’s broad areas of interest cover housing policy and governance, political economy in urban planning, and neighborhood sustainability and planning. He has received numerous research grants both from the public and private sectors. Recently completed projects explored the socio-spatial planning plans in the context of the urban future in Malaysia and the poverty among the indigenous communities in rural areas. He has also carried out work on the role of governance in governing vulnerable communities (refugees, stateless and foreign workers) and examining various issues related to housing and migration in Malaysian Cities. His latest area of interest is multi-layered governance of affordable housing, the Sustainable Development Goals in relation to neighborhood and community planning, and the impacts of migration towards regional and urban development.  Peter’s empirical focus is on the South East Asia region, but he has conducted fieldwork in Europe, Borneo Islands, North America, and also Oceania countries.        

Mary J Marret is a paediatrician with a special interest in community paediatrics. She has been practising as a paediatrician for about thirty years after undergraduate and postgraduate training at the National University of Singapore. She is a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur with a parallel clinical appointment as senior consultant paediatrician at the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC). She has extensive experience in undergraduate and postgraduate training with active involvement in the development and implementation of the undergraduate and postgraduate paediatric curriculum at the Faculty of Medicine. Currently, she is the Paediatric Assessment Coordinator for undergraduate students in the University of Malaya Medical Programme (UMMP). As Faculty Advisor for clinical assessment, she helped to design the examination format for the UMMP Final Barrier Clinical Assessment, introduced innovations to run examinations through the Covid-19 pandemic, and continues to advise on further refinements post-pandemic. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, UK, and has been examiner for membership examinations conducted by the RCPCH for over a decade. In her roles as Chairman of the Child Protection Committee at the UM Medical Centre as well as Chair of the Child Protection Sub-committee of the Malaysian Paediatric Association, she has an interest in enhancing professional capacity and competence of professionals in the field of child protection within the institution as well as in the country. She provides consultation to a multidisciplinary team that performs assessments of children referred for suspected child maltreatment and conducts in-house training for doctors, nurses and social workers involved in this multi-disciplinary care. She has been invited by various organisations to provide education on child protection and to advise on laws, polices and service provision, including other local hospitals, educational institutions, government agencies, NGOs and various professional bodies. She is a member of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect and was part of the scientific committee for the 10th ISPCAN Asia Pacific Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect held in Kuala Lumpur. She was a member of an international committee of experts under the auspices of the World Health Organisation which developed guidelines for the health sector response to child maltreatment. Together with a fellow paediatrician, she pioneered the establishment of a paediatric developmental clinic at UMMC in the late 1990s, collaborating with the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine to address unmet needs of children with disabilities and developmental problems. This paved the way for junior colleagues to pursue training in developmental paediatrics, with the subsequent establishment of a Child Development Centre at UMMC. Her research interests are in child victimization across a variety of settings with publications in scientific journals and book chapters and presentations at local and international conferences. She has also been a reviewer for medical journals. She has collaborated in population-based research regarding the epidemiology of child maltreatment in Malaysia as well as the exposure of Malaysian adolescents to risks and victimization through their engagement with online digital technology. Her recent publications on abusive head trauma have examined adverse outcomes of mortality, disability and developmental problems as well as financial implications such as the cost of inpatient care. On behalf of the Malaysian Paediatric Association, she has written articles providing advice on child health which have been published in a local parenting magazine as well the local media. She utilises creative writing and music as channels to reflect on insights derived from her interaction with children.