Dr. Mohd Hafizan Md Isa is a senior lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Malaya, combining academic expertise with industry experience. He has worked with consultancy and international engineering firms, as well as in technical and academic support roles involving project management and technical design. His research focuses on sustainable construction materials and soil stabilization, with a strong emphasis on recycling waste and industrial byproducts for infrastructure applications. He is actively engaged in projects that promote sustainable construction practices, including the development of environmentally friendly materials and innovative solutions for improving infrastructure performance and durability. His areas of interest include Geotechnical Engineering, Ground Improvement, and Geomaterials, and his work seeks to merge environmental sustainability with practical engineering solutions to create greener, more resilient, and resource-efficient infrastructure.

Prof Dr. Ramesh T Subramaniam is a material scientist well known for his outstanding scholastic contribution on solutions for energy storage and harvesting devices for green energy and sustainable smart cities of tomorrow. The novelty of his research is the successful invention of highly adhesive polymer membranes, self-healable hydrogel electrolytes and electrodes using natural resources, environmentally friendly polymer electrolytes and techniques in the fabrication of green energy devices. Prof Dr. S. Ramesh is well recognized in his field, internationally and locally, evidenced by the many international and national awards he has received. The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) elected him as a TWAS Fellow in 2023. He is the First Malaysian to be elected as TWAS Fellow under the scientific field of Physics, Astronomy & Space Sciences. Subsequently, he was elected as Fellow of International Science Council (ISC) which recognizes individuals for their outstanding contributions to the promotion of science as a global public good. He has also received Pacifichem Young Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society, Young Scientist Award from IUPAC, IAP Young Scientist Award, TWAS Young Affiliate Fellow and ASEAN - China Scholar Award. He is an alumnus of the Global Young Academy (GYA) and Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). He was also conferred the Established Scientist Award by the Royal Society. In 2014 he was selected as the Top Research Scientists Malaysia (TRSM) and in the same year he received the “International Association of Advanced Materials Scientist Medal”. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM), recipient of the Fulbright Fellowship with a tenure at Princeton University, USA, recipient of the Durham University “International Senior Research Fellowship” as Visiting Senior Fellow and a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS), Durham University since 2022. He is also a recipient of the Malaysia Toray Science Foundation Science & Technology Award and has been awarded the Universiti Malaya Excellent Lecturer (Sciences) Award 2019, Universiti Malaya Distinguished Researcher Award 2022 and UTAR Annual Research Excellence Award. The Nobel Committee for Physics on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences invited him as a nominator for “The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2021”. Stanford University recognized and placed him in World's Top 2% Scientists for Career-Long Citation Impact. Based on “Google Scholar’, he is ranked among the Top 1% in his field under the research titles “Polymer Electrolyte”, “Electrolyte” and “Electrochemical Devices”. In addition, he is the Principal Investigator for many interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary projects under Erasmus+ International Capacity Building projects. On the global front, he was recognized as the Invited Scientist for World Science Forum and World Economic Forum. He has won awards in many innovation exhibitions. Notably, he bagged the “Best Award for Best Invention in Technology Reversing Climate Change” in ITEX 2023, “Best of the Best Award - Asian Invention Excellence Award” in ITEX 2021 and BEST of the BEST Award during PECIPTA 2013. His major contribution to society is through the service and knowledge as a scholar of the ASM, Royal Society, RSC, GYA, TWAS, TYAN, IAP, Erasmus and IUPAC.    

  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. By comparing different case studies of Taiwan's quasi-state engagement within Southeast Asia, Dr. Lee has developed the soft power diffusion process to explain how such phenomenon operates in the real world. His ongoing and incoming research projects include Unpacking ‘De-risking’ China in the Indo-Pacific Region: Economic Statecraft (ES) & Geoeconomics, Taiwan's New Southbound Policy (NSP) and NSP+: The Domestic-International Dichotomy, The Taiwanese Connections in Nvidia's Global AI Supply Chain and Taiwan and Ireland: The Story of Two Tech Powerhouses.  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) (2018-2019), 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, comparative cases of ES between Asia and Europe, US-China-ASEAN semiconductor geoeconomics and case studies of donut economies in Asia. He is also willing to discuss with potential doctoral candidates on proposals related to the Chinese sub-state (provincial and city) diplomacy toward ASEAN, comparative cases of sub-state diplomacy between Asia and Europe as well as conceptual innovations of sub-state diplomacy vis-a-vis soft power.