Dr Benedict Francis is an associate professor and consultant psychiatrist at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya and was selected for the Brightsparks scholarship to pursue his Masters in Psychological Medicine at his alma mater, the University of Malaya. Subsequently, he completed a fellowship program in Aged Healthcare Services at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, in 2019. Dr Benedict is one of the research leads at the Psychological Medicine Research Unit and has been involved as principal investigator and sub-investigator for several international, multi-centre clinical trials including the ESCAPE-TRD, REMISSIO, ASPIRE, SUSTAIN-3, ROUTE 6, and CONNEX-2 trials. He has also published in several international and regional peer-reviewed journals and presented in international congresses. Dr Benedict has and continues to exhibit stellar leadership in his field. He was part of the Ministry of Health’s  National Advisory Board committee that drafted the guidelines for prescribing and dispensing Esketamine, a novel adjunct antidepressant treatment. In addition, he has been part of several steering commitees that paved new directions in mental health. For example, he was appointed to be part of the Southeast Asian steering committee to develop a patient decision aid for people living with schizophrenia. He is also part of the regional Asia Pacific steering commitee to develop a module for cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia (CIAS). In 2023, he received the Excellent Service Award from the University of Malaya in recognition of his contributions. Dr Benedict is regarded as a Key Opinion Leader in the field of treatment resistant depression and schizophrenia and is a regular invited speaker at both local and regional events. He is actively involved in several associations at various levels. He is a life member of the Malaysian Psychiatric Association and a corresponding member of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He is also a member of the Asian College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He was inducted as Fellow of the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists.  Besides clinical medicine, Dr Benedict is keenly interested in the various facets of research ethics, particularly in the subfield of Neuroethics. He was recently awarded a scholarship under the auspices of the Fogarty International Centre of the United States National Institute of Health in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, to pursue his Master's in Health Research and Ethics at the University of Malaya.

Nofouz Mafarja (Ph.D.) is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya. Her research focuses on physics education, scaffolding in education, collaborative learning (Reciprocal teaching strategy), word problem solving in physics, critical thinking skills, STEM Education, academic self-concept, attitude learning physics, reading comprehension in science, and Research Methodology. She is presently involved in several research projects on industrial revolution 4.0, teaching innovation, learning support, virtual reality, Hybrid Learning System PjBL Model, society 5.0, critical thinking skill, Generative AI tools and teaching practices. she had experience on teaching sciences, curriculum development, educational technology, tutoring, educational leadership, science and teacher training.

Dr. Mehdi Soltanzadeh was born in 1980 in Iran. After earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in Iran, he traveled to Malaysia in 2006 to attend an international humanities seminar, where he met several distinguished professors from Malaysian universities. This experience inspired him to pursue a doctorate faculty of arts and social sciences, department of history at the University of Malaya, one of the premier and oldest institutions in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Following the completion of his doctoral studies, Dr. Mehdi chose to remain in Malaysia, driven by his fascination with the country's history, culture and multi-racial society. He collaborated with the Islamic Arts Museum of Malaysia for a year as a senior researcher, mostly on researching and translation of  Manuscripts, then he became of life member of Malaysia Translators’ Association,  he engaged in research with the Department of Malay Studies at the National University of Malaysia, focusing on translating various Persian classical texts into Malay. Additionally, he serves as a translator for the Islamic Encyclopaedia Foundation in Iran, where he has translated numerous entries authored by Malaysian and Indonesian scholars from Malay language into Persian language for publication in the Islamic World Encyclopaedia in Iran. Dr. Mehdi now is a senior lecturer at Academy of Malay Studies, Universiti Malaya.