Driven and focused; born with the spirit of an academic, and the soul of an explorer; Saiful received a PhD in Molecular Parasitology from Imperial College, London in 2006 after which he immediately joined Universiti Malaya as an academic. Currently he is a professor of Biochemistry in the Faculty of Science. More than 12 PhD and 15 MSc students have graduated under Saiful’s supervision. With over 70 publications (WOS) and an h-index of 22, Saiful is a recognized authority in the field of proteomics and has multiple collaborations with researchers across the globe. He has received more than RM 5 million in research grants. Saiful also holds various management responsibilities. Of particular note are his roles as Deputy Dean (2015-2017) and Dean (2017-2022) of the Frontiers of the Natural World Research Cluster (formerly known as Frontier Science Research Cluster), Director of IPPP (JPP) (2022-2024), and Currently as Dean of The Faculty of Science (Since 2025). 

Associate Professor Dr Jacob John completed his basic dental training in 1994 and subsequently qualified as a Prosthodontist in 1997 and has always been active in the field of oral health care. In 2023, he also qualified as a Master in Medical Education from Universiti Malaya. He had served as a Lecturer at the Tamil Nādu Dr MGR Medical University, India and as a Dental Officer in the Ministry of Health, Malaysia before joining as an academic at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, Malaysia in 2009. He also holds an appointment as an Honorary lecturer at a few dental institutions in India.  Over the past 14 years, Dr Jacob has actively supervised and guided students pursuing their Masters in Prosthodontics (MClinDEnt), Masters in Dental Sciences, Masters in Oral Sciences and at the doctoral level besides the many undergraduate dental students. He is a Life Member of the Indian Prosthodontic Society, founding Secretary of the Malaysian Association for Prosthodontics and currently the Honorary Secretary of the Asian Academy of Prosthodontics. He has been an active member of the International Association for Disability and Oral Health since 2011 and was recently conferred its Fellowship for his “sustained high level of iADH activity and clinical care for the people with disability, alongside research, pedagogy, advocacy and service in the area of Special Care Dentistry”.  Dr Jacob also works very closely with the Special Olympics Malaysia, as its Clinical Director for Special Smiles, by providing oral health education and care for its intellectually disabled members. As part of his academic career, Dr Jacob has been actively involved in the field of research, collaborating within Malaysia and globally. Besides Prosthodontics, his special interest lies in the areas of Geriatric Dentistry and Dental Education. He is appointed as an Academic Board member of the Federation of Special Care Dentistry, India and as a Board Member of the American Society for Geriatric Dentistry. He has to his credit over 50 peer reviewed, international publications as scientific articles and book chapters with an H-Index of 15 and over 1800 citations in Google Scholar.  Dr Jacob is very passionate about Community Outreach activities and he was the first recipient of the prestigious Jan Andersson-Norinder Award by the IADH in 2016 in recognition of his work among people with special needs and the under privileged. Over the years, he has also presented his work at numerous national and international conferences.  

Ts Dr. Vimala Balakrishnan is a Professor affiliated with the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Malaya since 2010. She earned her PhD in Ergonomics from Multimedia University, complementing her academic journey that commenced with Master's and Bachelor's degrees obtained from the University of Science Malaysia. Dr. Balakrishnan's primary research focus lies in the domains of machine learning and deep learning, particularly in data analytics, with a specialized emphasis on social media applications. Her research interests span across diverse sectors, including healthcare and critical social issues like cyberbullying, suicide and misinformation propagation. She has published more than 100 articles in top indexed journals, 60 conference proceedings and eight book chapters, has three patents and sixteen copyrights. She is a Fulbright Research Scholar (2018) and a recipient of the Leadership in Innovation Fellowship (by the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK) award. Others include Malaysia Scopus Excellence Research Award 2024 -Societal Impact, Excellent Service Award 2017 & 2024, Cardiff Incoming Visiting Fellowship Scheme 2017, Best Elsevier Reviewer Award 2018 (Computer in Human Behavior), and awards won both at local and international competitions (three diamonds, 22 golds, 8 silvers and 4 bronze). Dr Balakrishnan is an advocate for women in science, and acts as the founder of HeRDS: Heels and Rouge in Data Science and co-founder of the Community of Practice in Research (Hello@UM). She was also listed as one of the top 2% world scientists by the Stanford University in five consecutive years (2020 - 2024), both in the single year and career categories. Dr Balakrishnan was recently recognized as one of the Successful People in Malaysia in the June 2022 issue as part of the British Media Publishing House publication. She teaches both the undergraduate and post-graduate students at the faculty. She has supervised ten PhD students, three Master by Research and 22 Master by Mixed-mode students to completion. Dr. Balakrishnan is currently supervising five PhD students, and two Master by Research students. She also supervises Master of Data Science students, and has served as the Program Coordinator for four consecutive years (2017 - 2021).  Dr. Balakrishnan serves as the Editor-in-Chief to the Malaysian Journal of Computer Science. She serves as an active reviewer for several International journals, and as an external examiner for PhD thesis (e.g. International University of Malaya-Wales, Kolej Damansara Penang, Maynooth University Ireland, Modi Institute India, etc.). Dr. Balakrishnan also acts as the Program Assessor for HELP University (Master in Data Science and Bachelor in IT Data Analytics), Monash University (Bachelor in Applied Data Science), Multimedia University (Bachelor in Digital Analytics Management) and International Medical University Malaysia (Bachelor in Digital Health). She has given guest lectures at Yale University (2022), University of Georgia (2018), and Georgia Technology of Institute (2018), USA, Cardiff University (2017), UK, Soongsil University (2016), Korea, and as a Keynote Speaker at the Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering 2019 Conference (India). She has appeared in the local media (BFM Radio Malaysia, TV3), local newspapers and magazine (The Star, Berita Harian, Her World), podcasts, YouTube and served as an expert advisor in a round table session (Communications and Multimedia Content Forum Malaysia) on cyberbullying detection mechanisms.  Currently, she is actively working on innovative solution-based projects related to digital health platforms including developing an integrated VOT enabled app for Tuberculosis management, MyTBCompanion through her Projek Celik TB (funded by the Research and Innovation for Development in ASEAN UK & Fulbright Alumni Engagement Fund 2024) and a chatbot for HIV minority communities with her international collaborators from Yale University (funded by Gilead Inc. amounting to 499,000 USD). Other on-going studies include developing and detecting digital fraud/scam (funded by the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme 2023 (Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia) and SATU Joint-Research Scheme 2023).