Vilashini Somiah is an anthropologist who is a senior lecturer at the Gender Studies Programme at Universiti Malaya. She received her PhD from the National University of Singapore, an MA from Ohio University, an MRes from Universiti Malaya and a BA from the Universiti Malaya. She maintains a keen interest for underrepresented narratives of women, migrants and Borneans living in the interiors. She is the co-editor of “Sabah From the Ground: The 2020 Elections and the Politics of Survival (SIRD/ISEAS, 2021), and her first book, “Irregular Migrants and the Sea at the Borders of Sabah, Malaysia: Pelagic Alliance'' with Palgrave Macmillan (TBC 2022). Outside of academia, she writes ethnographic articles on the local socio-political landscape.

Dr. Lani is a viral immunologist and a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya. She received her Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Sciences (2012), Master’s in Medical Science (by research; 2016), and Ph.D. in Virology from Universiti Malaya, Malaysia (2022). Dr. Lani's research interests focus on understanding the immune response to viral infections, with a particular emphasis on developing novel therapeutic and vaccine strategies for infectious diseases. She has published extensively in high-impact scientific journals, including Nature, Elsevier, and MDPI, and is also an active scientific reviewer and guest editor. She is committed to promoting high-quality scientific research and has been recognized for her contributions to the field with numerous awards and honors. She earned critical certifications from the One Health Workforce Academies, Rice University (USA), UC San Diego (USA), The John Hopkins University (USA), and the University of Rochester (USA).

Prof. Dr. Esther Daniel Medical Education, Research and Development Unit (MERDU), Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya    Areas of Expertise  & Background Science Education (Biology); Environmental Education / Education for Sustainable Development; Science Teacher Education, Medical Education; Integrating Technology in Teaching; Learning and Cognition; Metacognition, Pedagogies     Esther was formerly attached to the Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya. She has been a teacher educator for more than two decades. Previous to that she was a science teacher in premier schools such as Sekolah Datuk Abdul Razak, Seremban, the Malay College Kuala Kangsar and Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Ipoh. Her area of expertise and background is in science education, environmental education, technology integration in the science classroom and learning and cognition and has conducted numerous training workshops and seminars related to research, pedagogies and has been a Master trainer for new lecturers in institutions of Higher Learning. Her research has focused on science education, in particular biology and environmental education. Numerous students under her supervision have successfully completed their postgraduate studies. She has worked with WWF-Malaysia in conducting in-depth research and in training teachers in infusing sustainable development education. She has published papers in journals as well as presented at various conferences both local and International. She has written numerous training modules for the teaching and learning of Science, for Environmental Education and for Qualitative Research Methods. More recently she has also been involved in Medical Education with a focus on the cognition of learning. Among the books she has written are ‘Biology Education in a Changing Planet’ and ‘Cognition in Science Education’. In 2016, Esther received the UNESCO-HAMDAN international award for the effective training of teachers. In 2017 she received the Venus International Women’s Award (VIWA) for a ‘Lifetime Achievement in Science Education (Specialisation-Biology). She has also served as the chair of the National Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) Eco-Campus Committee. Recently (2018) she was awarded the Excellence Award for the academic with the highest international grant by the Universiti Malaya. Esther is now an Honorary Professor in the Medical Education, Research and Development Unit, Faculty of Medicine UM. She was involved with the development and implementation of the MOHRE (Master of Health Research Ethics) programme in the Faculty of Medicine. She is also attached to the UM-WWF-M Living Planet Centre, a research centre, as an affiliated member and has just completed the Sustainable Development nation-wide research. Esther together with PPPLS (Pertubuhan Pendidikan Pembangunan Lestari Selangor conducted a nation-wide resesearch - Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) research (2022-2023). Furthermore, she is also involved with the UNESCO-Chair Project for Education for Sustainable Development (2022 – 2024) in collaboration with Asia Pacific University (APU). Esther is also one of the consultants for the project ‘Transformational Learning through ESD: Mission 4.7’ with the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) located at the Jeffrey Sachs Centre, Sunway University (2023-2024)