PROF. DR. ROFINA YASMIN BINTI OTHMAN

Yasmin completed her BSc at University of Surrey and MSc at University of Malaya then received a Chevening scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in Plant Virology at the John Innes Institute U.K. She joined UM as a lecturer in the Department of Genetics and Cellular Biology and was appointed a full Professor in 2005, an elected member of UM senate since 2017 and the senate representative to the board of UM from 2019 to 2021. She retired offcially from UM in May 2021 and currently continues to serve UM as an honarary Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies UM. She is also an adjunct professor at IUMW and an honarary fellow of the Tun Ghazali Shafie Institue for Strategic leadership at UCYP. She is  fellow and currently on the council of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia She contiinues to be part of  a dynamic research group and still publishes actively, focusing on utilising modern biotechnology strategies to tackle fundamental problems in agriculture as well on issues related to BioPolicies, Bioethics and Biosafety. Recently  she was involved in ASMs Science Outlook 2020 review and the National Biotechnology Policy II. She has filed more than 10 patents and graduated more than 20 PhD and 25 MSc students. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia and listed as in the Top Research Scientist Malaysia database. She was a founding trustee of the National Institutes of Biotechnology Malaysia, a founding member of the Asian Network for Biosafety Education and was a two term expert member on the National Biosafety Board. Yasmin was the first head of the Centre for Research in Biotechnology for Agriculture and chair of the University’s Biotechnology and Bioproduct Cluster (UMBIO). She was also chief editor of the Asia-Pacific Journal for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. in 2009 she left UM for a 3 year secondment to the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation Malaysia as Undersecretary of the National Biotechnology Division . During her tenure Malaysia launched the Bioeconomy Initiative Malaysia designed to spur growth of the biotechnology industry. Whilst there, she spearheaded the committee which led to the formation of the National Bioethics Council. She has sat on the Board of Directors of MARDI, the Board of Governors of ICGEB, Trieste and was the National Point of Contact (NPC) for UNESCO’s Microbial Biotechnology Network and SEA-EU-NET (Biotech). Prior to retirement she was  Associate vice chancellor (Industry & Community) & prior to this the  Director of the University of Malaya Centre for Innovation & Commercilisation. In these roles she focused on building the university's entreprenureal ecosystem andd fostering engagement and collaboration with industry and the community.  She is also founding  vice president of the Innovation and Technology Managers Association Malaysia. She has sat on the Board of MaGIC (mymagic.my) and more recently on the boards of UMInnovations SB, UMPlantations SB & UMCapital Berhad. She is now chair of the Boards of Mranti corporation and Xeraya Capital. She is also a fellow of ICDM and a registered technology transfer professional (RTTP).    see also her archival profile in Scientific American World Vision: http://www.saworldview.com/wv/profiles/yasmin-othman/

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PROF. DR. VISHALACHE A/P BALAKRISHNAN

Started primary school in St Bernadette's Convent, Batu Gajah, Perak. Went on to secondary school in SMK Convent, Batu Gajah, Perak. Completed Form Six in SMK Sultan Yussuf, Batu Gajah, Perak. Started working career as a college trained secondary school teacher after attending professional training at Lembah Pantai Teachers' Training College and Ilmu Khas Teacher's Training College. Completed one year speacialist course in  Ilmu Khas Teacher's Training College in 1995. Completed Degree in TESL, minor Moral Education followed by Masters in Education, majoring in Moral Education in University of Malaya. Completed PhD in Education in Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Completed post doctoral studies in Inclusive and Critical Educational Psychology in The Waikato University, New Zealand. Strongly passionate about helping teachers to upgrade themselves in the teaching profession through training, research and publication in holistic education and service learning. In 2015 after the AME Conference in Santos, Brazil, have been elected as the Elected EXCO for two years. It is an honour to be the first Malaysian to be in the AME EXCO which comprises mostly renounced academics from Europe and North America. Was the Director for Centre in Research for International and Compartive Education (CRICE) from 2017 until 2022. CRICE focuses on international and comparative education in terms of research, collaboration and publication. Currently, I am holding the post of SULAM @ Service Learning Malaysia-University for Society coordinator in Universiti Malaya. Been working diligently with the internal Service Learning coordinators from the 16 faculties in Universiti Malaya. Initiating Service Learning International for 21 Century Education.  

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ASSOCIATE PROF. DR. HANIRA BINTI HANAFI

Dr. Hanira Hanafi is currently a senior lecturer at the Department of Shariah and Law, Academy of Islamic Studies, Universiti Malaya. She holds a PhD in Islamic Finance from the Durham University UK (2012) and Master of Comparative Law  (2003) and Bachelor of Law (2002) from International Islamic University Malaysia. She was admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya in 2004. Her research interest lies broadly in the area of Islamic Finance, law and public policy particularly related to Digital Economy and Person with Disabilities. She has also published numerous articles in national and international journals on those areas. She has also contributed in term of administration as a Deputy Director of Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies from 2017 until 2019. 

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