Professor Dr Sivakumar Krishnasamy is currently a senior lecturer and Senior Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon in University Malaya Medical Centre. He graduated from University Malaya in 2002.  He was awarded the gold medal for MRCS Edinbrugh examination (2006) as the best overall candidate for the exam.In 2010 he was awarded the Al-Hadi gold medal as the overall best candidate for the Masters in General Surgery. He is the first Asian to be awarded the Gold medal and overall best performer in the esteemed European Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery in 2016 and was given the book prize for the exam as the highest overall achiever in the history of the European Cardiothoracic Surgery exam. Prof Siva did his initial training in General Surgery in Ipoh General Hospital. He joined the Masters In General Surgery in 2006 and completed it in 2010. He subsequently worked as a General Surgeon in Kota Bahru before joining University Malaya as a senior lecturer in 2011. He did his initial years of Cardiothoracic training in University Malaya and went on to IJN in 2013. He left to the UK in 2014 and completed his FRCS (Edin )CTh in 2016. During his stay in the UK, he did a 1 year formal Aortic Fellowship under the guidance of Mr Jorge Masacro and 1 year of Thoracic fellowship in Heartlands Hospital which is a regional Thoracic Referral Centre for West Midlands.  He has a keen passion for MDT and since coming back he has setup the Aortic and Endovascular MDT in UM and also is actively involved in the Thoracic and lung cancer MDT in UM. Recently in 2019 he was awarded the prestigious Francis Fontan Uniportal VATS Fellowship by the European Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery (First in the world to receive the award). His fellowship was in the World’s largest Lung Cancer Hospital, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, where the centre does around 20000 lung resection cases per year. Since coming back he has developed the Uniportal VATS services in University Malaya.    Since 2017 , he has organised the Annual International Aortic Symposium , which is an event that is jointly done annualy with IJN. He has also been instrumental in holding the International FRCS Cardiothoracic Examination in University Malaya since 2018 , where he is the local organiser for the exam in Malaysia. Since 2018 he has been organising the International Cardiothoracic Review Course , which is the KL Review course which has endorsement from the Birmingham Review Course UK and is attended by all regional cardiothoracic trainees. The course has been running well annualy till date. Besides that he is also the Department of Surgery Quality Manager and recently has been appointed as a member of the Subspeciality Education Committee for Cardiothoarcic Surgery by the Malaysian Medical Council. He is also a board member of the Malaysian Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery which is the national training body for cardiothoracic surgery. Recently he has also been appointed as the chair for the National Curriculum writting group for Cardiothoracic Surgery. Being the Chair of the National Curriculum for Cardiothoracic Surgery , he has succesfully launched the Curriculum with members of the Cardiothoracic Society in April 2022. This was also done in conjuction with a memorandum of understanding with Royal College of Surgeons Edinbrugh to run the Parallel Pathway Programme for Cardiothoracic Surgery with University Malaya as the local Education Provider and Assoc Prof Sivakumar as the Administrator in Charge of it.  With a busy clinical and academic portfolio, he also has been actively involved in various publications in peer reviewed cardiothoracic journals and has been an emminent national and international speaker in various local and international meetings. He is also a reviewer for the Malysian Medical Journal and is part of the editorial for Journal of Interventional Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinbrugh , Member of the European Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery , member of the Asian Cardiothoracic Society , Malaysian Cardiothoracic Society (MATCVS) and Southeast Asian Thoracic Society (SEATS). Prof Sivakumar is also a visiting consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon to Penang GH and IJN for complex Aortic Surgeries. Over the years he has worked togather with the team in Penang GH to developed the Aortic Arch and Complex Aortic Surgery Programme. He is a trainer for the local trainees under the Parallel Pathway Training Programme with Royal College of Surgeons Edinbrugh and also an appointed trainer for Uniportal VATS Surgery by SouthEast Asian Thoracic Society. His clinical experience cover the whole spectrum of adult cardiac surgery and the whole spectrum of Aortic Surgery ( open and endovascular). In thoracic surgery all aspects of thoracic surgery are done by him which includes minimally invasive thoracic surgery for all thoracic case like lung cancer and mediastinal tumours and complex thoracic cases which includles tracheal surgery , mesothelioma, chest wall resection and reconstruction.New clinical service in Aortic Surgery was started by Prof Sivakumar , mainly Total Arch Replacement with Frozen Elephant Trunk , Descending thoracic aorta replacement and Thoracoabdominal Aortic surgery. In Thoracic Surgery , he started the Uniportal VATS Surgery ( Single Key Hole VATS ) service and has established himself as a regional trainer for this procedure in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.   Since 2022 Prof Sivakumar has been appointed as the Main Coordinator for the Cardiothoracic Parallel Pathway training Program under Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh in Universiti Malaya. He is also an Examiner for the Quadripartite Exam for Cardiothoracic Surgery by Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh since 2022. Togather with the regional surgeons from Hong Kong and Singapore he also has contributed to the Exam bank of the College.   As a Professor in the University , he takes on clinical and pre clinical teaching for undergraduate students throughout the year. He also takes trainees from General Surgery for their cardiothoracic rotation posting. There have been 5 clinical masters student who has completed their research project under him and currently there are 4 ongoing Clinical Masters and 1 international PHd student. There many clinical trails and research colloborations locally and internationally that he is involved as principal investigator or co investigator.    Recent most appointment is the Head Coordinator for Masters in Cardiothoracic Surgery , Universiti Malaya which is being started as a new postgraduate progam under the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya. Professor Dr Sivakumar is also the current Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery Universiti Malaya. Recent most award is from Royal College of Surgeons Edinbrugh where he was awarded the Fellow of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers which carries the title FFST (Edin). This was given in February 2025.  

  Associate Professor Ts. Dr. Zul Ilham bin Zulkiflee Lubes completed his B.Sc.(Hons.) in Universiti Malaya (UM), a Panasonic Scholar for M.Sc. and a JICA AUN/SEED-Net Scholar for his Doctoral study at the Department of Socio-Environmental Energy Science, Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Japan. His research interest is in the field of biomass science and bioenergy, with esteemed awards from Japan Institute of Energy and American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS). Currently, as part of Malaysia's effort to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, he is actively studying structure, function and decomposition of biomass for conversion to gaseous, liquid and solid energy carriers as well as sustainable feed. Dr. Zul Ilham also serves as Associate Editor for academic journals PROGEE, MJS, JISDeP, JSAEM and EJChE. He has been appointed as M.Sc. and Ph.D. external examiner for several Malaysian universities (USIM, USM, UTM, UTeM, UiTM and IIUM) and internationally (Brunei and Poland). As an alumnus of the Young South-East Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Professional Fellows Program, he volunteers regularly in promoting energy literacy, renewable energy and climate action to youth and community (Sustainable Development Goals; SDG 7 and 13) including being the country coordinator of the Asian Students Environment Platform (ASEP), a project supported by AEON Environmental Foundation. Professionally, he is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) by ASEAN Centre of Energy and a Professional Technologist accredited by the Malaysian Board of Technologists (MBOT). He and his team also secured national and industrial research grants such as the FRGS, Gamuda Land, Petronas as well as several coveted international research grants. Dr. Zul Ilham has been invited to participate as plenary or invited speaker in several international conferences and has been Visiting Scholar to several universities (Kyoto University Japan, Zhejiang University China, Universitas Andalas and Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) Indonesia). He was also the recipient of Fulbright Malaysian Scholar Award 2022/2023 as Visiting Associate Professor at the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, USA. Administratively, Dr. Zul Ilham was the Program Coordinator for B.Sc. Environmental Science and Management, Deputy Director at the UM Centre of Civilisational Dialogue, Deputy Dean (Research and Innovation) for the Faculty of Science UM and the Director of UM Grant Management Centre. He is also the core member of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities Forest Biomass Ecosystem Living Lab Initiative and expert panel in the ASEAN-UNESCAP Carbon Neutrality Campus Network, tasked to formulate a regional carbon neutral course for university students. His latest chapter in a book with the title "Challenges of Environmental Justice in the Decarbonization of Development in Malaysia" had recently been published by ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute (2025). He is currently on secondment to a national think tank agency, Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM) as Principal Fellow and Director, Centre for Science and Environment Studies. WoS publications: https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1414836Scopus publications: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57218544179Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jVPTqGsAAAAJ&hl=enCommunity Outreach Activities: https://zulilham.wordpress.com/activities/

I'm a Senior Lecturer at the English Language Department, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics. After more than two decades of working in language, communication and skills development, I joined UM in 2019 to contribute to progressing the field of health(care) discourse in Malaysia and beyond. In my current role, I teach languages and linguistics courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, while supervising and conducting research. Research Focus - Improving Health & Wellbeing by Applying a Discursive ToolkitI study matters related to language, health(care) and wellbeing, applying qualitative and discursive perspectives to address problems and inform practice in provider-patient interaction, health education and other related topics. I am particularly interested in analysis of real-life interaction, to answer questions on how people "do things" with language in health-related contexts. For example, how do doctors and patients collaboratively make decisions about treatment, manage chronic health conditions, and discuss concerns by interacting with each other in person or online? I'm also interested in communication in healthcare education, interprofessional discourse and patient education, alongside how people express and make meaning of health-related issues via their talk and stories. My current funded  projects include studies on professional socialisation of house officers (FRGS), patient experience of gum disease (IIRG, UM). Expertise -Enhancing Language and Communication in Diverse SettingsBeyond my research and academic duties, I help enhance language and communication in academic and professional settings, applying a diverse knowledge and skillset composed over 25 years of experience. Before joining academia, I was engaged in various positions mostly as a consultant/independent contractor, including as a language/content service provider for over 15 years and as a language/communication skills instructor for over 17 years. In these roles, I provided language consulting services and skills training for corporate and individual clients in Malaysia and internationally. I have a CELTA qualification and am a HRDF certified trainer. My work history is available at https://my.linkedin.com/in/ayeshah-syed-0468293 Professional Activities and LeadershipAt UM, I have been actively involved in advancement of research and academic practices. From 2022-2024, I led the research portfolio at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics as the Deputy Dean of Research and Innovation, with other appointments including as the Protem-Deputy Head of the Medical Devices Centre of Excellence, UM and Taskforce member for UM's Programme Educational goals. Outside the university, I  am involved in professional associations related to languages and linguistics and social advancement, including Persatuan Bahasa Moden Malaysia (President, 2022-2024, Vice President-2024 - 2026, Exco member since 2013) and the citizens' movement organisation, the Association of Voices of Peace, Conscience and Reason (Exco member - since 2016, Treasurer-2025-present).Research Collaboration and Supervision Opportunities I welcome potential collaborations aligned with my expertise and also enjoy connecting with other researchers to learn about their work, gain insight into new contexts, fields and perspectives and explore how I might contribute to their research activities.  In terms of postgraduate supervision, I supervise projects that apply discursive approaches to address problems in health-related contexts, focusing on interaction. Note to potential supervisees: I have limited availability for 2025-2026 due to a heavy supervision load.