Dr. Woo is a consultant gynaecological oncologist with clinical and research experience that ranges from prevention to treatment of cervical cancer and hereditary/ familial gynaecological cancers. She undertook her research in HPV immune-biology in the University of Cambridge under the Cancer Research UK Gordon Hamilton Fairley Fellowship and was awarded a PhD degree in 2008. As a clinician, she was awarded the gold medal by the Royal College of Obstetrician and Gynaecologist as the top ranked individual for the international examination. Having trained and worked in the UK, she returned to Malaysia in 2010 to take up a professorial post in the premier teaching hospital, University Malaya (UM). As a translational scientist, she has worked tirelessly to making this knowledge more accessible and applicable to the broader population through her advisory role on policy development nationally and internationally. She is also a recognized expert in HPV vaccination and is currently the country representative (Malaysia) for the Asia-Oceania Research Organisation in Genital Infection and Neoplasia (AOGIN), taskforce member for the Malaysian policy change to Primary HPV screening for cervical cancer, member of the Asia Pacific Economic Consortium (APEC) Cervical Cancer working group and is the founding principal investigator for Program ROSE (Removing Obstacles to cervical ScrEening, a revolutionary approach to cervical cancer screening. Program ROSE (www.programrose.org, @programROSE) that utilizes digital technology, self-sampling and HPV testing. The program was recently highlighted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (https://eiuperspectives.economist.com/healthcare/global-action-financing-cervical-cancer-elimination-funding-secondary-prevention-services-low). The program was a strong contender at the 2018 UICC Collaborative award, shortlisted among 2 other nominations globally, and has received many international accolades and praises. Program ROSE (www.programrose.org, @programROSE) utilizes digital technology, self-sampling and HPV testing to change the paradigm of conventional cervical screening, facilitating increased screening uptake for ALL woman. Dr Woo is also the founder of ROSE Foundation, a non-profit organisation, dedicated to making cervical cancer prevention accessible and affordable to the underprivileged. The success of Program ROSE is a testament to her incessant drive to make cervical cancer a rare disease in our lifetime. She also dedicates her time to working closely with other academic institutions, NGOS and also industry to educate, inform and advise on matters pertaining to control of HPV associated diseases. In recognition for her contribution to women's health, Dr. Woo was conferred the FIGO Awards in recognition of Female Obstetrician and Gynaecologist in 2021.

Dr. Nor Nadia Zakaria is a highly accomplished dental professional with a wealth of experience in both clinical practice and academia. She graduated from Universiti Malaya (UM) in 2010 with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery and immediately began her career as a dental officer at Lumut Navy Hospital, where she developed a special interest in Oral Surgery. After three years of service, she transitioned into academia, joining UM in 2013 to pursue her Orthodontic specialty training. In 2017, Dr. Nadia achieved a Master in Orthodontics degree from UM and a Diploma of Membership in Orthodontics from the Royal College of Surgeons of England. This solidified her expertise in the field and led to her current position as a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Dentistry at UM. Throughout her tenure, she has held a number of management roles, including postgraduate coordinator, head of information and publicity (faculty), and assistant dean of alumni. Dr. Nadia is deeply committed to teaching and mentoring, and enjoys working with both undergraduates and budding orthodontists. Her clinical work focuses on multidisciplinary management of patients with Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD), orthognathic surgery and cleft, and she is particularly passionate about clear aligner therapy. In addition to her professional commitments, Dr. Nadia is actively involved in the dental community. She currently serves as a secretary of the Malaya Universiti Dental Association (MUDA) and is a member of the Malaysian Association of Orthodontists (MAO) and Malaysian Dental Association (MDA). Dr. Nadia is not only dedicated to her profession, but also to making a positive impact in her community. She is passionate about supporting charity runs and sports events and makes an effort to maintain a healthy lifestyle despite her busy schedule. She believes in balancing her time between work, personal development and community service.    

in f inancial e conomics from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). After completing his master degree, Lim joined UMS as a lecturer in January 2002 . Three years later, he was given a staff scholarship to pursue a PhD degree at the Department of Econometrics and Busi ness Statistics, Monash University. He holds a B . B . A . in finance with honors from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM ) , and a M.Sc. in f inancial e conomics from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). After completing his master degree, Lim joined UMS as a lecturer in January 2002 . Three years later, he was given a staff scholarship to pursue a PhD degree at the Department of Econometrics and Busi ness Statistics, Monash University. Kian-Ping Lim is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya. He received his B.B.A. (Hons.) in Finance from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Determined to become a scholar, he pursued an M.Sc. in Financial Economics at Universiti Putra Malaysia. It was during his master’s program that he first acquired formal training in econometrics through two foundational courses, which became instrumental in shaping his approach to empirical research. Drawing on this new skill set, he completed his dissertation, “Non-Linear Dependence in ASEAN-5 Foreign Exchange Rates: An Insight from a Battery of Non-Linearity Tests”, marking his entry into scholarly inquiry on financial markets. In 2002, after completing his master’s degree, Kian-Ping joined Universiti Malaysia Sabah as a lecturer. During this period, he had the privilege of collaborating with the late Professor Melvin Hinich, a pioneering scholar who developed the bispectrum and trispectrum tests for nonlinearity. Their intellectual exchanges proved formative, as they questioned the dominance of linearity-based approaches in weak-form efficiency studies. Together, they showed that returns can be linearly uncorrelated yet still exhibit nonlinear dependence that is forecastable. By uncovering such nonlinearities across different stock markets, their work challenged the adequacy of conventional efficiency tests and laid the groundwork for his doctoral research at Monash University. From 2005 to 2009, Kian-Ping pursued his PhD at the Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics, Monash University. Building on his earlier work, he moved beyond the question of whether markets were efficient in an absolute sense to challenge the static treatment of efficiency. Using rolling-sample methods, he showed that efficiency evolves over time. More importantly, he advanced the idea of treating efficiency in relative terms, opening new avenues to explore its drivers across countries. His survey article in the Journal of Economic Surveys called for a paradigm shift from the Efficient Markets Hypothesis to the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis. Together with his collaborators, he contributed to operationalizing this framework, and the resulting paper was published in the Journal of Empirical Finance. He regards the four-year PhD journey as the most productive phase of his career, publishing 18 of 21 papers written during candidature in mainstream economics and finance journals. After completing his PhD, Kian-Ping continued his research journey largely in collaboration with his doctoral students, while staying true to his philosophy of offering novel perspectives against conventional practices. His work on stock liquidity moved beyond firm-level analysis to examine liquidity at the aggregate market level. In corporate finance, he shifted the lens from broad corporate governance to the role of blockholder governance. In his more recent research on market integration, he advocated Bayesian approaches that more effectively capture the dynamics of market comovements, offering a conceptually richer alternative to conventional correlation-based measures. Across these domains, his post-PhD work reflects a commitment to advancing scholarship through fresh and critical perspectives. The impact of his research is reflected in both readership and recognition. His publications have attracted high citations across Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, placing him among the leading financial economists in Malaysia. Since 2010, he has consistently been ranked within the top five percent of economists in the country according to IDEAS/RePEc. His international standing is further affirmed by ScholarGPS, where he is listed as a Highly Ranked Scholar within the top 0.05% globally in the specialty of "Stock": ranked #48 in 2022, #59 in 2023, and #66 in 2024 worldwide. Beyond research, Kian-Ping contributes actively to academic leadership and service. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies, the flagship publication of the Malaysian Economic Association. He was the Deputy Dean (Research & Innovation) at the Labuan School of International Business & Finance, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (Jan 2010–Jan 2012), and later the Deputy Dean (Research & Development) at the Faculty of Economics & Administration, Universiti Malaya (Aug 2016–Sept 2021). In these capacities, he helped to promote research in business and economics, supporting an environment where scholarship can grow. Kian-Ping's journey, shaped by these milestones in research and leadership, is captured in the attached timeline (click here), which also points to the path he looks forward to pursuing in the years ahead.