Professor Dr. Liam Chong Kin, is a Professor of Medicine and Senior Consultant Respiratory Medicine Physician working in the University Malaya Medical Centre/Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya (UM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and in the UM Specialist Centre. He was the President of the Malaysian Thoracic Society for 4 terms from 2001 to 2009 after which he remained as a council member of the Malaysian Thoracic Society till 2015. He is a council member of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology since 2002. He is a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians (since 1997), Royal College of Physicians (London) (since 1999) and the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (since 2012). He is also an active member of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and the European Respiratory Society. He was the organising chairman for the 8th Congress of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology that was held in Petaling Jaya from 1-4 December 2003. He chaired the scientific programme committee for the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease - Asia Pacific Region Conference that was held in Kuala Lumpur from 2-5 August 2007. He was the organising chairman for the 2014 IASLC Asia Pacific Lung Cancer Conference held in Kuala Lumpur from 6-8 November 2014. He was a member of the scientific committee for the biennial Asia Pacific Lung Cancer Conferences held in various countries including Hyderabad (India), Seoul (South Korea), Fukuoka (Japan) and Chiangmai (Thailand).  He was the advisor to the local organising committee for the 20th Congress of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology held in Kuala Lumpur from 3-6 December 2015. He headed the Lung Cancer Assembly of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology from 2015 to 2019. His areas of clinical interest include the up-to-date treatment of lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and bronchial asthma. His research interests include molecular genotyping, novel molecular targeted therapies and immunotherapy for lung cancer, novel therapies for COPD and b2-adrenoceptor genetic polymorphisms in bronchial asthma. He has been an invited speaker for a wide range of topics in Respiratory Medicine, especially in lung cancer, COPD, asthma and pneumonia at international and regional conferences such as the World Conference on Lung Cancer and the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology annual congresses; as well as national scientific conferences and symposia.  He has published 193 scientific papers in peer-reviewed medical journals and is the author or co-author of 305 papers presented at national, regional and international scientific meetings.

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.

Chua Yan Piaw is a professor at the Department of Mathematics and Science Education at the University of Malaya. In 2019, he was a visiting professor at the School of Social Work and Education, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, and in 2014, he was a visiting professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. His series of books, "Research Methods and Statistics", books 1 to 5 with 62 chapters, are among McGraw Hill's Top 10 Bestselling Titles in Malaysia. In addition, his book "Mastering Research Methods, 2nd Edition" was awarded the 2018 Book Publication Award by the University of Malaya. As a result of his contributions to reviewing articles for the Elsevier's Web-of-Science journal Computers in Human Behavior, he received the 2016 “Excellent Reviewer Award”, and the 2017 to 2019 "Outstanding in Reviewing" award from Elsevier. His inventions and innovations have won six gold medals at international invention and innovation expos, as well as five gold medals at the world peace painting and calligraphy exhibitions. He has been an invited speaker for more than a hundred AMOS, SPSS, and SmartPLS workshops. In 2015 to 2017, he was invited by the Institute of Graduate Studies, University of Malaya to conduct 38 workshops (14 hours each) for postgraduate students at the university to enhance their data analysis skills under the upskill program. Between 2015 and 2016, he was invited by the National Sports Institute of Malaysia to conduct 12 statistics workshops for bio-mechanists, nutritionists, and psychologists at the institute to enhance their data analysis skills.The number of PhD students graduated under his supervision between 2008-2018 is 22.