He obtained B.Sc. Hons in 1973 and Ph.D. in 1976 from UM.  He went on a French Scholarship in 1976. He returned to UM as a Lecturer In 1978. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1986 and Professor in 1999.   During sabbatical leaves, he had been to the Tokyo Institute of Technology (1983),  the PennState University, USA (1989). He was a visiting professor to the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in 1990, and to the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology, Thailand in April and the University of Sidney in July 1997. He has written 3 textbooks, and published more than 133 journal papers. He had supervised and produced 21 Ph.Ds. and 38 M.Sc. He has filed 25 patents and has served as consultant to many local and foreign companies.

Lucy Lum Chai See joined the University of Malaya, Department of Paediatrics in 1990. Assigned to the paediatric acute care ward, she recognised the need of acutely ill children and set to look after them even though resources were meagre, the resistance to expansion stiff and the doctors and nurses lacking in knowledge and skills. Pioneers of Paediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) were invited to Malaysia to begin PALS training. Over the next four years, Lucy and colleagues contributed to twenty-five consecutive training courses for >800 doctors and nurses in 12 of 13 states. Her enthusiasm and perseverance saw her refining the management of severe dengue in children and other critical conditions. She underwent clinical-fellowship training in paediatric intensive care in The Hospital for Sick Children, in 1996. The Toronto and the North American experience shaped Lucy’s physiological approach to mechanical ventilation of healthy and sick lungs.  She later became the first Malaysian to complete the Paediatric examination for the European Diploma in Intensive Care.  Back in Malaysia, the P1 Acute Care Ward was hit by a shortage of funding and support. Despite of the limited resources, the unit played a key role in defining the pathophysiology of EV71 outbreak which caused many deaths in 1997. In 2001 the Hospital allowed a charity fund to be established.  Soon after The Star highlighted the PICU work, generous support poured in through individual, public and corporate donations. Then UMMC eventually acknowledged the work and formed the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.  For the first time the PICU received a stronger allocation of nurses and budget needed to ensure the smooth delivery of intensive care for children. Humanitarian medicine should not be a casualty of technology.  Lucy is very much a hands-on bedside doctor. Her clinical rounds are characterised by both an incisive analysis of history, physical examinations and investigations as well as standing back to view the “Google map”.  Doctors and nurses are trained not just to treat the disease, but to treat the patient as a human being connected to families and societies. Her clinical expertise was sought after by WHO, and regional offices in the Western-Pacific Region where she has been to China, Laos, the Solomon Islands and Africa.  She was invited by WHO/TDR to be the lead author of the handbook on clinical case management of dengue and by WPRO to design a training curriculum of dengue management.  She was credited for bringing calm to a chaotic situation in the Solomon Islands, a poor nation of islands in the middle of the Pacific. Re-training doctors in basic clinical techniques which identify the high risk patients was her legacy. She has managed to unify the various clinical departments in UMMC to work together so that dengue patients do not fall between the cracks. She collaborated with the various hospitals in Ministry of Health and WHO, Geneva, Oxford University, Brandeis University, and other universities in Singapore, SEAsia, Latin America and European Union. In the field of paediatric intensive care, she collaborates with colleagues in North America and around the world in pediatric sepsis, congenital diaphragmatic hernia and neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.   Compassion has to be the driving force behind the otherwise just another slogan, “First, do no harm”. Through her inspirational leadership, the PICU which used to record high rates of nosocomial infections has been transformed into one with high rates of hand hygiene and low rates of infection.  Yet, the work is not finished; her KPI (key performance index) for her staff is zero blood stream infection.  Indeed this is possible.

Prof. Dr. Subha Bhassu is currently an academician at the Institute of Biological Sciences, with 24 years of experience teaching across various programs. She has developed numerous course structures aligned with the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF) for the University of Malaya (2008–2015) and INTI University College (2000–2004). Additionally, she served as a moderator for Biotechnology courses at INTI University College from 2008 to 2015, MAHSA University, International Medical University ( Biomed Programs) and other universities. Furthermore, she is a member of the International Biosafety Committee (IBC) at the University of Malaya and serves as an auditor for the Enforcement Committee for Biosafety under the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (2014–present). Her passion for research ignited during her second year of undergraduate studies when she realized the challenges and excitement research could offer, which continues to inspire her to this day. Since starting her PhD program in 1996, she has built a global network of research collaborations, mentors, and friends. Her experiences as a student instilled in her the belief that thinking outside the box is crucial in research. While knowledge and research grants are essential, she emphasizes that the two most important elements are love and selfless service, which guide her research to benefit students, universities, communities, industries, the country, and global society. To date, Prof. Subha has supervised 25 PhD students and 25 master’s students to completion and is currently mentoring eight PhD students and five master’s students. She has also guided 50 undergraduate students to completion. Her research output includes over 100 ISI publications, three book chapters,two books, three national patents, and two international patents. She serves as a reviewer for several journals, including PLOS ONE, GENE, META GENE, Aquaculture, Aquaculture Research, and Genomics. Her future research endeavours will continue to prioritize ethics and integrity as she advances her work in the aquatic sciences, employing multidisciplinary approaches. She aims to inspire the scientific community with thought-provoking ideas that align with global needs and foster harmony in the minds, hearts, and souls of humanity. As for research excellence, Professor Dr. Subha Bhassu holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Science (Honors) from UKM and a PhD in Molecular Biology from UPM, specializing in Molecular, Population, and Quantitative Genetics. Her primary research interest is in the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health, a field termed Halo Genomics. This area of study emphasizes the One Health concept within biomedical, agricultural, and environmental contexts. Dr. Bhassu’s expertise spans various aspects of biology, from cellular mechanisms to phenotypic expressions, with a particular focus on aquatic animals as model organisms for exploring host-pathogen-environment interactions. In her research, genomics and molecular biology serve as tools to address challenges related to disease, nutrition, and environmental factors. She aims to deepen our understanding of genetics and its role in phenotypic expression, as well as gene-gene interactions, to provide insights into the relationships among aquatic hosts, pathogens, and their environments. Her research applies genomics, transcriptomics, and molecular biology to develop the innate potential of aquatic species. In her future research, Dr. Bhassu is focusing on the innate immune system, exploring its role in maintaining cellular ecosystem equilibrium. Her team has discovered innate immune biomolecules in shrimp that function before the adaptive immune response is activated. Through this research, she aims to demonstrate how host-pathogen interactions reveal signature immune biomolecules in certain species that have evolved to resist pathogens and coexist with them. These biomolecules' efficiency and specificity can be studied using aptamer technology, while their interactions with pathogens are visualized through spectral flow cytometry, and their abundance is analyzed via single-cell transcriptomics and mRNA expression. This research raises the question: could innate immune biomolecules be harnessed as solutions to disease, similar to gene therapy, for therapeutic applications? As an academic professional, Dr Bhassu has developed numerous course structures in alignment with the Malaysian MQF standards for UM and INTI University College, where she has also served as a course moderator in Biotechnology. She is an associate member of the CEBAR, Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, CRYSTAL, NANOCAT and UM’s Marketing & Recruitment Centre. Additionally, she serves on the International Biosafety Committee at UM and as an auditor for the Biosafety Enforcement Committee under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. She is an associate member of the National Framework on Biosafety and Biosecurity Committee (IBBC) for Health under the Ministry of Public Health. Recently, she was appointed as a Research Fellow at the Malaysian Genome Vaccine Institute, part of the National Institute of Biotechnology Malaysia. Contact details: subhabhassu@um.edu.my