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. 

Roy Anthony Rogers is a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Strategic and International Studies, University of Malaya, having joined the department in 2001. Served as the Head of Department from 2012 till September 2020. He has a Master in Strategic and Defence Studies (M.SDS) from the University of Malaya. He has also taught at the Malaysian Armed Forces Staff College (MAFSC) and the Malaysian Defence Armed Forces College (MDAF). In 2012 he obtained Ph.D. from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and his research interest are government and politics of the Central Asian republics and human rights conditions in Xinjiang. His area of specialization includes Political Science, International Relations (Theories of International Relations) and History (China and Central Asia). He has been invited by the Institute of Diplomatic and Foreign Relations (IDFR) Malaysia to lecture at the Diplomatic Training Course for ASEAN Attachment Officers. He is one of the Media Resource Persons for Radio and Television Malaysia (RTM), Sinar Harian and Astro Awani. Received the Excellence Service Award in 2016, 2008 from the University of Malaya, International Visitor (IV) from the US State Department in 2006.

Graduate of Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dr Rezal, completed Basic Surgical Training in Midwestern Regional Hospital, Limerick, Ireland. He is the first Malaysian awarded, the Irish Scholarship for Research Fellow in University of Milwaukee and presented his research on Neuroblastoma in the Annual Congress Surgical meeting in New Orleans in 2003. He completed the MRCS(Ire) in 2007 and further obtained a Diploma in Laparoscopic Surgery in Strasbourg, France in 2006. He pursued in Master of Surgery in University Malaya, National Colorectal Surgery Fellowship and in 2022, completed Subspecialty Training in Advanced Colorectal and Peritoneal Malignancy with special interest in Cytoreductive Surgery (CRS) with Hyperthemic Intraoperative Chemotherapy (HIPEC) and Pressurized IntraPeritioneal Aerosol Chemotherapy (PIPAC) in HUKM and National Cancer Centre in Singapore and Singapore General Hospital respectively. He sits as a member of the European Society of Surgical Oncology, Academy of Medicine Malaysia,Malaysian Society of Colorectal Surgeons and International Society for the study of Pleura and Peritoneum (ISSPP).