Dr. Kim-Kee Tan received her Ph.D. and training in molecular virology at the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya. Currently, she serves as Senior Lecturer at the Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Centre (TIDREC), Universiti Malaya and the Department of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya. Her research focuses on emerging viral pathogens, integrating genomic and bioinformatic approaches to investigate virus emergence, evolution, and transmission across human, animal, vector, and environmental interfaces. Her work engages new research technologies, such as Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). Besides that, she is also a trainer for biosafety and biosecurity training; hence she has vast experience designing workflow and handling different types of pathogens. She has a strong interest in genomic surveillance and pandemic preparedness, with projects spanning viral discovery, phylogenetics, and molecular epidemiology.

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. 

Dalilawati Zainal serves as a senior lecturer in the Accounting Department within the Faculty of Business and Economics at Universiti Malaya. Currently, she holds the position of programme coordinator for the Master of Accounting (MAcc) programme and serves as the course coordinator for Student Holistic Empowerment (SHE) under the Cluster of Global Issues and Community Sustainability. She earned her Ph.D. in Accounting from Universiti Malaya (UM), a Master's Degree in Accounting from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), and a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting (Hons.) from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). Her research interests encompass environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, sustainability reporting, corporate governance, information technology, and financial reporting.