Rosmadi Fauzi is a Professor at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. He obtained a Degree in Social Sciences (Political Science) in 1998, Master of Science (M. Sc.) in 1999 and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in 2008 from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Pulau Pinang. He serves as a lecturer since 2004 and was promoted to an Associate Professor in 2014 and became a Professor in 2022. He was the Deputy Dean of Research and Development at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, from 2017 to 2020. Prior to that, he served as the Head of Geography Department from 2015 to 2017. Rosmadi Fauzi is an associate member of National Antarctic Research Centre. In 2008, under the Malaysian Antarctic Research Program (MARP) collaboration with Institute of Antarctica of Ecuador (INAE), Rosmadi Fauzi has joined the scientific expedition journey to the continent of Antarctica with other 22 South American Antarctic researchers to explore the mysteries of the continent. He has successfully carried out his scientific expedition and held a talk at the Scientific Antarctica Expedition Symposium at The State University Santa Elena Peninsula in Ecuador, South America. He has also been invited as a special guest and GIS experts for technical meeting, workshop and visit to INAE by the Institute of Antarctica of Ecuador (INAE) and has attended the 4th Latin American Symposium and 7th Chilean Meeting on Antarctic Research in ValparaÍso, Chile. He is also a member of UM Centre of Election and Democracy (UMCEDEL) where he is actively contributing his expertise in GIS to the center’s strategic researches on the nation’s social, electoral and political subjects.  Rosmadi Fauzi broad academic interests involve Geographical Information System, Spatial Politics and Electoral, Social Geography and Spatial Social Sciences. He has collaborated with local and international researchers and produced more than 170 publications including in Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus Journals, books, chapters, conferences papers, technical reports and newspapers.  He has been appointed as manuscript assessor, external examiner for thesis to several universities both locally and internationally. He was also Chief Editor for Malaysian Journal Tropical Geography (MJTG) and was appointed as reviewer for several international journals. Rosmadi Fauzi was also an evaluator for the Malaysia Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) Research Grant Scheme (2012-2015) and a committee member for the Malaysian Ministry of Education Research Grant Scheme (2019-2020). As an active researcher and the principal investigator in a number of research projects, Rosmadi Fauzi has worked on GIS application, spatial model of voting, people’s perception and social impacts studies in Malaysia. The research work has been funded by local and international research grant such as Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Impact Oriented Interdisciplinary Research Grant (IIRG), University of Malaya Research Grant (UMRG), Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) Top-down Research Grant, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) grant and others, with cumulative research funding in excess of RM 2.2 million to date. He is also actively involved as a project consultant in numerous GIS Mapping research projects. His highest achievement was producing the first Malaysian National Atlas, a consultant project under Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia (JUPEM), Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources.  His other notable consultation works include GIS and BIG Data Project for FGV Prodata Systems, the IT arm of FELDA Group of Companies; Environment Sensitivity Index Mapping for one of the world largest oil and gas companies, Shell Berhad as well as reviewer for Malaysian General Election Atlas and Electoral Research Project of the 13th,14th and 15th General Election for Malaysia’s pay television news channel Astro AWANI, and more. Rosmadi Fauzi is also actively involved in contribution to society. He is the President of The Parent Teacher Association (PIBG) of Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Langat, Banting and the Vice Chairman of Masjid as Syariff Telok Datok, Banting. Apart from that, he is actively appeared in the mass media and wrote in local newspapers and often invited as guest speaker to discuss on contemporary topic and current issues of the country at local and international media.

Fumitaka Furuoka is a Japanese economist who has lived in Malaysia since 1987. From 1991 to 1999, he worked as a senior assistant at the Consulate General of Japan in Penang. Fumitaka then moved to academia and has taught economics for 25 years at three Malaysian public universities, namely, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, and Universiti Malaya. His academic expertise is in the field of applied economics which involves applying economic and econometric theories to address real-world critical economic issues and problems. As an applied economist, he aims to provide insights from his research for hammering out effective policies that foster sustainable development, enable a reduction of regional disparities, and move society towards achieving economic and social justice.  In his research in the field of applied economics, he focuses on economic equity between countries (i.e., the problem of inequality of economic development level in different countries), as well as economic equity within countries (i.e., the problem of inequality of income distribution in a specific country). Regarding economic equity between countries, he has conducted extensive research on diverse and pertinent global economic issues, such as poverty reduction, unemployment, economic growth/development, and renewable energy. In 2006, he published a book on Japanese foreign aid titled New Challenges for Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) Policy. The book examines how Japan’s aid policy can contribute to reducing poverty and improving the well-being of developing countries, particularly Southeast Asian economies. As to economic equity within countries, the main focus of Fumitaka's research is promoting “employment for all” which is closely aligned with Target 8 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He strongly believes that employment for all, including people with disabilities, is the basic foundation for a sustainable and more humane economy (Ekonomi Madani). This belief has led him to write a book on employment for people with disabilities entitled Disability and Employment: Towards a Humanistic Economy. The book was published by Springer in 2024. This research direction has a strong practical orientation, and Fumitaka considers work in this area to be of ultimate importance for achieving economic equity and providing employment opportunities to people with disabilities. In short, his research aims to identify barriers and initiate policies that promote and enable economic inclusion, employment, and justice for all.

Dr Norhidayah Mohd Taufek is a senior lecturer at the Institute of Biological Sciences (ISB), Faculty ofScience, Universiti Malaya (UM). She obtained her PhD from ISB, UM in 2017 with specialisation inaquaculture nutrition research. She is a researcher with a demonstrated history of working in theaquaculture field on fish nutrition, reproduction endocrinology and aquaculture feed technology.Her current research interests include the development of sustainable solutions for animal feedincluding aquatic animals and poultry. Special focus is given towards utilization of local renewableresources such as insects meal including black soldier fly larvae and crickets as well as mushroom by-products and underutilized crops. She is also actively working with the industries to promote the use of black soldier fly asprotein source to produce cost-effective and Halal feed as well as for the implementation of circularbioeconomic purposes.