Dr. Hamizah Sa'at is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Surgery at Universiti Malaya, with expertise in medical decision-making, cancer genetics, and qualitative research. Her research focuses on improving early cancer diagnosis, cancer risk management, and shared decision-making (patient decision aids) in healthcare. Dr. Hamizah's work also addresses the behavioral/psychosocial aspects of diseases and implementation science, particularly in disease prevention and management. She developed a Patient Decision Aid (PDA) for Malaysian BRCA carriers, supporting informed decisions about ovarian cancer prevention, considering the local cultural context. Dr. Hamizah is a member of the International Shared Decision Making Society (ISDM) and the Qualitative Research Association of Malaysia (QRAM).

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. 

Dr. Ong Tze Chin received her PhD and LLM from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) under the scholarship of the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia. Prior to her academic career, she was a practicing lawyer in litigation after obtaining her LLB(Hons) Degree from University of Northumbria, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. She was called to the UK Bar as Barrister-at-Law by the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn in 2005 and Malaysian Bar as an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya in 2007. She started her academic career in 2010 and has been actively involved in teaching and research. She is a passionate researcher and has been actively involved in many research writings and projects. She has published over 20 publications both national and internationally including journal articles, chapters in books and proceedings. She specialises in consumer protection law, comparative legal research, contract law, law of remedies, sale of goods and alternative dispute resolution. Her research area is in consumer protection law, particularly in the current consumer issues related to e-commerce and competition law. She is currently the project leader for FRGS research project of "A Framework for Competition Law on Digital Market of E-commerce Platforms in Malaysia." She completed 2019 FRGS research project on building guidelines for avoidance of fraudulent online sale for consumer protection. She had been involved in competition law research project funded by Malaysian Competition Commission (MyCC) and successfully completed the research project on Behavioural Insights of Voluntary Tax Compliance of Malaysian E-commerce funded by Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN). She also consulted on the OPSS UK Product Safety Review: Call for Evidence Response of the Product Liability Forum in 2021 on issues related to product safety on IoT. Her recent consultation projects include ASEAN Guidelines on Consumer Protection in E-Commerce and ASEAN Guidelines on Unfair Contract Terms of Consumer Protection in ASEAN (PROTECT I) and (PROTECT II) project implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany. She is also the consultant for KK IT Research Art, Japan on the research project awarded by Mitsubishi Research Institute (MRI) on laws and regulations in Malaysia common to IoT products.