Started his research career in the think tank sector, Dr. Lee Chee Leong (Karl) is attracted to the rise of non-traditional diplomacy in the international order today. Such appeal has taken Dr. Lee into new research horizons that started with his Monash University's doctoral research on the Chinese sub-state diplomacy in China-ASEAN economic cooperation. With constructive supervision by Professor Helen Nesadurai and Associate Professor Kuik Cheng Chwee, Dr. Lee completed his doctoral thesis that unravels how a faraway and least developed sub-state of Guangxi managed to overcome its own hurdles, navigate the complexities within the Chinese state and become the frontline actor in China-ASEAN economic cooperation. Following his doctoral completion, Dr. Lee's research on non-traditional diplomacy has expanded into Taiwan’s quasi-state diplomacy in Southeast Asia. Such quest has led him spending at great length in comprehending the concept of soft power, a concept that finds its relevance to Taiwan, which has no official diplomatic with Southeast Asia but is heavily connected to the region and has to rely on soft power in its engagements with these Southeast Asian nations. Taking Malaysia as the first case study of Taiwan's soft power in the region, Dr. Lee is developing the third intervening variable correlating both Taiwanese soft power resources and outcomes, in his course of providing a dynamical explanation for such phenomenon. For the coming years, his research focus and publications will be on the different areas featuring Taiwan-Malaysia and Taiwan-Southeast Asia cooperation such as digital social innovation (DSI) for climate change, industry-based education/training programmes, smart cities, tourism, digital democracy, agriculture, public health and medicine, ornamental aquaculture and aquascape. To date, Dr. Lee was the recipient of several scholarships and fellowships in Malaysia and overseas: University of Malaya’s Graduate Fellowship (2010-2011); Monash University’s Merit Scholarship (2016-2019); Chinese Government Scholarship (2018-2019); and Taiwan Fellowship (2020). Prior to his appointment as Senior Lecturer at the Institute of China Studies (ICS), he was the Visiting Scholar at Guangxi University for Nationalities (GXUN) (2018-10992019), Taiwan Fellow at National Chengchi University (NCCU) (2020) and Associate Fellow at ICS UM (2016-2019).He welcomes any potential PhD candidate who would like to work on Taiwan-Southeast Asia relations, Taiwan's soft power in Southeast Asia and Taiwan-Malaysia DSI cooperation for climate change. He is also willing to discuss with potential doctoral candidates on proposals related to the Chinese sub-state (provincial) diplomacy toward ASEAN, China's soft power in ASEAN, Southeast Asian sub-state diplomacy, comparative cases of sub-state diplomacy around the world and conceptual innovation of sub-state diplomacy as well as soft power. 

Tan Chin Joo is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UM. He obtained both his Bachelor of Engineering degree and Master of Engineering Science degree from UM in year 1999 and 2003, respectively. He was a tutor in UM 1999 and later be promoted to a lecturer in 2003. In 2005, he was offered a scholarship by JICA for his doctoral study in Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan. After completing his study in 2008, he joined TOPY Industries Limited, Japan. After 3 years of working in TOPY (2 years in R&D Dept. and 1 year in Production Dept.), he returned to Malaysia and joined Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). He joined UM in December, 2011. His research interests include stamping of lightweight parts, finite element analysis of metal forming processes, laser hardening, green forming processes, tube forming.      

  Kasturi Dewi Varathan, is currently an associate professor at the Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, University of Malaya, Malaysia. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the National University of Malaysia. Her main research focus is in the field of Data Analytics, Text Mining and Information Retrieval. Dr.Kasturi has published in several high-ranked journals and conferences. Her research on data analytics won several awards in international and national level competitions. Research institutions too have gained from her expertise. She has served as visiting scientist to the Information Systems Research Group of the Faculty of Informatics, University of Lugano, Switzerland as well as research fellow at the Institute of Visual Informatics, National University of Malaysia. She has been appointed as Adjunct Professor at Veltech University, India. Dr.Kasturi has also secured national and international grants. Some of the prominent grants that she has received are Applied Research Partnership Grant funded by ETH Zurich(Switzerland), People Exchange Grant funded by Swiss Education, Research and Innovation Grant(Switzerland) and Prototype Research Grant from the Ministry of Higher Education (Malaysia).  She is also a recipient of the prestigious Leadership in Innovation Fellowship award by the United Kingdom and Malaysian Government.