Dr Cheng Sit Foon is currently a Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Universiti Malaya. Prior to joining Universiti Malaya in 2008, she started her career as a research officer at Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) (2003 – 2007) and a lecturer at Sunway University (then Sunway University College) (2007 – 2008). Palm oil and palm oil industry is always close to her heart. Her exposure and experience in palm oil research dates back to 1999 as a MPOB scholar. Currently, she leads her research group ‘Unit of Research on Lipids (URL)’ where the main focus is laid on human nutrition and high valued oil-based through interdisciplinary research on oils and fats, more particularly on palm oil. As an educator, she is also involved in designing chemistry-related undergraduate courses. She has been appointed by other Universities as external examiner and assessors for academic programmes. Her administrative experiences in Universiti Malaya until 2020 include serving as the Programme Coordinator of Bachelor of Science (Applied Chemistry) and Head of Organic Chemistry Section, Department of Chemistry, Universiti Malaya, as well as the Faculty Mobility Coordinator of Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya. While juggling between teaching, administrative duties, research and many more, she hopes to pursue her interest and catch up research gaps by establishing new collaboration network. 

Prof. Lim is a Senior Consultant Endocrinologist and Head of the Department of Research, Development, and Innovation at Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is the former Head of the Diabetes Care Unit, Universiti Malaya (2022-2025). She also holds honorary positions at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia. As a clinician-scientist, Prof. Lim’s major areas of interest are cardiometabolic medicine (epidemiology, molecular, and implementation science).  Prof. Lim sits on the Working Groups of the WHO Global Diabetes Compact, The Lancet Commission on Diabetes, and the American Diabetes Association/European Association for the Study of Diabetes (ADA/EASD) Precision Medicine in Diabetes Initiative. She recognizes that every person with diabetes and non-communicable disease (NCD) is unique and warrants personalized care. To revolutionize health care, Prof. Lim aims to advance the implementation of Precision Medicine in Diabetes and NCD, taking into account differences in clinical presentation, genes, and lifestyles in Malaysian populations. These have led to several collaborations with the USA, UK, and other Asian countries. She has published in more than 130 high-impact journals, including The Lancet, Nature, Diabetes Care, and Science Bulletin.  Prof. Lim has received several awards, including the Universiti Malaya’s Top Cited Researcher 2024, World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University for 4 consecutive years (2022-2025), and the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) Albert Renold Fellowship, tenable at the University of Oxford, UK. She has also received a scholarship funded by the USA NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences for training in statistical genetics at the University of Washington, USA.  She is also the Vice President of Diabetes Malaysia (a country affiliate of the International Diabetes Federation) 2025-2027, and the Council Member of the Malaysian Endocrine and Metabolic Society 2022-2026. She is an Editorial Board Member of 4 Q1 Web of Science-indexed journals (BMC Medicine; Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism; Diabetes/Metabolism Research & Reviews, and Diabetes & Metabolism Journal). Dr. Lim is an article reviewer for 30 leading academic journals, including the European Heart Journal, Diabetes Care, PLoS Medicine, and The Lancet series.

Professor Dr. Mohd Rafie Bin Johan is an Award Winning Scientist and International Keynote Speaker. He is true example of how theoretical and fundamental research leads to remarkable progresses in the applied, engineering and industrial use of nano-designed advanced materials. Born in Melaka, in 1968, Professor Rafie graduated with a BSc(Hons) in Physics from University of Malaya, Malaysia, in 1993 and BEng in Chemical Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2023. He continued his studies at Institute for Advanced Studies, Universiti of Malaya, where he obtained his MPhil in Quantum Optics in 1997, moving then to Department of Physics, University of Malaya where he obtained his PhD in Theoretical Physics in 2005. From 1999 to 1991 he was also Head of Biomedical Engineering Program in Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya. He later moved to Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya where from the year 2005 until 2009, as a senior lecturer and played the role of Coordinator for Materials Engineering Undergraduate Program. In 2010, he is promoted to Associate Professor to steer research in Nanomaterials Engineering. Then, in 2015, he is promoted to Professor of Materials Engineering. In 2016, he is transferred to Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Centre (NANOCAT), University of Malaya Centre of Excellence (UMCOE), an internationally well-recognized center with the mission to be the world leader in “nanotechnology and catalysis” coining sustainability resources and green technology. In 2017, he is appointed as a Director of NANOCAT. Prof. Rafie is well recognized internationally in the field of Nanotechnology. Testimony to this, he has been elected in Evaluation Panels for AET and ITR clusters and UPGP and for grants applications at UMRG, PRGS, FRGS, and Qatar Foundation. He also has been appointed as panel for Yang di Pertuan Agong Scholarship and COMSTECS for Islamic Organization Country for evaluation of best scientific papers for Muslim Scientist and Qatar Reseach Foundation. Prof Rafie also has been invited as a speaker to numerous talks and conferences and also Guest Editor for Symmetry (ISI journal) and editor for Asean Engineering Journal. In 2010, he was a visiting scientist at Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Cambridge and at 2012, he was a visiting scholar at Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. The educational contribution of Prof. Rafie may be summarized in few numbers: 40 PhD completed (20 on-going), 30 Master completed (10 on going). These supervised students span over a quite broad scientific area going from science (chemistry, physics, material science, biology) to engineering (chemical, material). He had published more 350 ISI papers with H index 40 (WoS) and 44 Google scholar with 7791 citations. He had various research project (National, International (Jica) and Industry (Petronas, Hartalega and NanoMalaysia) with total amount more than RM 19 million. He is awarded Top Research Scientist Malaysia (TRSM) 2021 by Academy Sciences Malaysia and winner of Top in Tech Innovation Award (Most Impactful Academia-Industry Collaboration. He was awarded UM Excellence award for Best HICOE-UMCOE (2022) and elected as Fellow Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) 2023. He was promoted to Senior Professor (VK6) in 2023. Recently, he was elected as  Fellow Academy Science Malaysia in 2024.