Dr. Shatrah Othman graduated with Bachelor of Medical Science from the University of Nottingham, UK and obtained her PhD (Molecular Biology and Immunology) and Masters of Science (Molecular Biology) from the Universiti Malaya. She has been with the Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya since 2005 and is currently an Associate Professor  of the Biochemistry courses for Medical, Dental and Biomedical programmes. Her research interest mainly covers molecular and immunologocal studies on dengue, human papillomavirus, BPA, DHODH and cancers. She is an active member of the Drug Design and Development Research Group (DDDRG) since 2006 and has been heavily engaged with projects that involve the discovery of therapeutics, including natural products, synthetic chemical compounds and novel peptides against flaviviruses. In addition, her expertise in molecular biology has also placed her in several collaborative projects with Institute for Medical Research (IMR), University Putra Malaysia, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia Genome Institute, IPharm Malaysia and Aurigene Discovery Technologies Ltd, India. She has published in many peer-reviewed journals and has presented her research at several national and international conferences. At present, she is the Head of Internal Audit, Faculty of Medicine Quality Management, Universiti Malaya.

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 at three Malaysian public universities, namely, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), and Universiti Malaya (UM) for more than 25 years. His academic expertise is in the field of applied economics, which involves applying economic and econometric theories to address real-world critical financial issues and problems. As an applied economist, he aims to provide insights from his research to inform the development of effective policies that foster sustainable development, reduce regional disparities, and move society toward 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 enhancing the well-being of developing countries, particularly those in Southeast Asia. As to economic equity within countries, the primary 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 firmly 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. He also wrote another book, co-authored with Dr Yosuke Uchiyama, on employment for people with disabilities, entitled "Youth and Employment: Creating a Productive and Dynamic Society," which was published by the same publisher in 2025. 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 or young people. In short, his research aims to identify barriers and initiate policies that promote and enable economic inclusion, employment, and justice for all.

Dr. Muhammad Faisal Khyasudeen is an expert in ultrafast femtosecond laser spectroscopy, with over a decade of experience in the field. He earned his Ph.D. from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, under the mentorship of Prof. Tan Howe Siang at the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS). During his doctoral research, he developed and optimized ultrafast transient absorption and multidimensional optical spectroscopy experiments, focusing on the study of chlorophylls and light-harvesting complexes (LHC) systems. His findings have been published in several respected peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Faisal has strong expertise in ultrafast laser systems, including Ti:Sapphire amplifiers and Non-collinear Optical Parametric Amplifiers (NOPAs) for generating ultrashort laser pulses. Currently, he is a senior lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Malaya (UM), where he also coordinates ultrafast laser research activities in the High Impact Research (HIR) building. He is now venturing into a new research field on multi-resonant thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) compounds using ultrafast spectroscopy techniques.