Dr. Vandana Saxena is a scholar of South and Southeast Asian literature, postcolonial theory, memory studies, gender, and childhood studies, with two decades of teaching and research experience across Malaysia, Vietnam and India. She is the author of Memory and Nation-Building: World War II in Malaysian Literature and The Subversive Harry Potter, and has published widely in leading indexed journals. Recipient of multiple research grants and awards, she has supervised postgraduate work on literature, history, and cultural studies. Her work bridges literary scholarship and pedagogy, exploring the intersections of narrative, identity, and social change in transnational contexts.

Associate Professor Dr. Yong Adilah Binti Shamsul Harumain is an academic leader in transportation planning and a leading researcher on women’s mobility in Southeast Asia at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Malaya. Her expertise stems from extensive research, policy engagement, and long-standing international collaborations with partners in Japan, Indonesia, Korea, the United Kingdom, and South Asia. She is currently the Coordinator of the Dual PhD Programme, having previously served as Coordinator for the Master by Research Programme (2022). At Universiti Malaya, she plays a significant leadership role as Deputy Head of the Centre of Sustainable Planning and Real Estate (Research Centre) and Deputy Head (Pro-tem) of the Smart Mobility Centre of Excellence, while also contributing as a member of the JK Penasihat MRT Universiti Malaya and the Faculty QS World University Rankings Task Force. Her academic supervision spans ten PhD candidates, with research themes including transportation planning, women’s mobility, safe city initiatives, urban design, and inclusive urban planning. Beyond the university, Associate Professor Dr. Adilah was appointed as a Public Hearing Committee Member for the Kuala Lumpur Draft Local Plan (PTKL 2040) under the Ministry of Federal Territories and Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), reflecting her trusted role in national-level planning deliberations and policy review. She is a mentee of the Asia-Pacific Women in Leadership (APWiL) Program under the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), engaging in regional leadership development and mentoring women in academia. She is also a mentee of the Women Leadership Foundation Programme and recently involved with AKEPT (Higher Education Leadership Academy), contributing to leadership development, governance discourse, and capacity-building initiatives aligned with strengthening academic leadership and institutional excellence in Malaysia’s higher education sector. Dr. Adilah is recognised for her pioneering and community-centred research. She led the first Malaysian exploration of the Machinoeki (Hentian Komuniti) concept in Taiping, inspired by Japanese community infrastructure traditions. This work earned her the Sumitomo Foundation Research Grant twice (2016; 2021), including support for her flagship Safe City for Children initiative. Her international research leadership is further demonstrated through the AHRC–UKRI Research Networking Grant (2018), facilitating collaboration with Coventry University (UK), the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and DesignPAK (Pakistan) on barriers to women’s mobility. Recently she was awarded a grant from the British Council and SEAMEO-Rihed working on projects related to women leadership in collaboration with University of Gadjah Mada and University of West England at Bristol. She is also now working with Majlis Bandaraya Kuantan on understanding the persona of the elderly at the Temporary Relief Centre during disaster with Dr Nik Elyna Myeda and Dr Nur Aulia Rosni and on urban farming and community farming with Associate Professor Dr Nikmatul Adha Nordin.  She actively integrates empirical findings into undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, ensuring their relevance to real-world urban challenges. Her applied work includes close collaboration with the Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai, community empowerment programs, and advisory roles with the Ministry of Federal Territories, particularly in flood mitigation and urban resilience. She has also secured and contributed to numerous competitive grants, including UMCARES, the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), and the Integrated Research Grant (IIRG) involving cross-faculty collaboration with Engineering and Medicine on active transportation and public health. She authored 2 books, Mobiliti Pengangkutan Wanita and Children in the Built Environment and many other chapters in books.  Her recent accolades include the SATU Grant, supporting collaboration with National Cheng Kung University, IIT Roorkee, and Universiti Sains Malaysia, and the ASEAN University Alliance (AUA) Scholars Grant (2020/2021) for research on women’s mobility with Universitas Indonesia. She contributes to scholarly governance as an Editor for Universitas Indonesia’s in-house journal, and regularly serves as a reviewer and scientific committee member for international journals, conferences, and research platforms. Associate Professor Dr. Adilah is an active member of regional and international professional networks, including the APRU Children and Youth Working Group, the Asia-Pacific Women in Leadership (APWiL) Mentorship Programme, and the Women Leadership Foundation. Professionally, she is a graduate of the Malaysian Institute of Planners, registered with the Board of Town Planners Malaysia, a member of the Transportation Science Society Malaysia, and an affiliate of heritage-focused organisations such as the UM Cultural Heritage Research Centre and the Perak Heritage Society. Through her interdisciplinary scholarship, policy engagement, and commitment to leadership development, Associate Professor Dr. Yong Adilah Binti Shamsul Harumain exemplifies a forward-thinking academic leader grounded in strong planning traditions. Her work continues to advance inclusive mobility, safe cities, urban heritage, and community-based planning, reflecting Universiti Malaya’s ethos as a Home of the Bright, Land of the Brave.

Professor Gs. Dr. Rosmadi Fauzi is a distinguished scholar in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) whose research explores spatial thinking, human behaviour, and the complex relationship between space and society within the social sciences. He serves as a Professor at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. He obtained all his academic qualifications from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), including a Bachelor of Social Science (Political Science), a Master of Science, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in GIS. Throughout his academic career, he has held several key administrative positions, including Head of the Department of Geography and Deputy Dean (Research and Development). With a strong interdisciplinary foundation bridging geospatial technology and social science perspectives, Professor Rosmadi investigates critical geographical issues through socially oriented mapping and spatial big data analytics. His work has contributed to the development of spatial modelling frameworks that advance the understanding of social, political, and economic dynamics in Malaysia’s multicultural and spatially diverse landscape. A prolific researcher, he has published extensively in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus-indexed journals, as well as in books, book chapters, and conference proceedings. His research collaborations span national and international levels, focusing on public perception, social impacts of development, spatial justice, and political behaviour. Beyond academia, Professor Rosmadi is also a political analyst and media consultant, offering spatially informed insights to bridge academic knowledge with public understanding. His contributions extend globally through research expeditions to Antarctica and mapping studies in Baitulmuqaddis, reflecting his enduring commitment to advancing geographical scholarship and international scientific collaboration.