Badrul Mohamed Jan, SPE is currently an associate professor attached to the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Malaya, Malaysia.  He holds a BS, MS and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, USA. He spent almost 10 years in the US and he had the opportunity to work in aworld class research center, Petroleum Recovery Research Centre in New Mexico Tech. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering, UM as lecturer in 2004.    The first project successfully executed is related to the use of Dolomite as alternative weighting agent to Barite in drilling fluids. The outcome of the research indicates a promising opportunity to use Dolomite instead of Barite in drilling fluids. Barite is toxic and expensive compared to dolomite, which can be acquired locally.   Dr. Jan first envisions is to develop and link any upstream oil and gas activity to his research. The major project that he accomplished was in the development of Super Light Weight Completion Fluid, (SLWCF) for 3M Asia Pacific. He managed to come out with a discreet formulation for new completion fluid with the use of glass bubbles from 3M. The formulated fluid has been tested in BKC 3 well at Bunga Raya field near Malaysia and Vietnam border. The field belongs to PETRONAS. The outcome of the field test showed nearly 1,000 barrels of additional oil could be produced daily if well is treated with SLWCF. The findings has been presented in SPE conference in Mexico and also published in the Journal of Drilling and Completion.   In addition Dr. Jan has also worked closely with BCI Chemical Sdn  Bhd, a local company mainly formulating and selling oil filed chemicals for various applications such as Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). Dr. Jan has successfully formulated a novel emulsifier, which is based on palm oil. About 15 ISI journal papers have published from the work.   Dr. Jan has also embarked in making use of industrial waste to improve production of hydrocarbon. In this effort, specific waste from industry has been characterized and extracted for its graphene content. Preliminary work and results indicates as much as 11% of graphene is able to be extracted. Current research is still on going to optimize the extraction process. In addition the extracted graphene will also be added into drilling fluid to investigate the rheological improvement resulting from the addition of the extracted graphene.   Dr Jan next research activities will mainly focus on the use of local dolomite in improving local water quality from a novel “Dolomite Water” system. This new niche area will open up new window of  opportunity for university research to be applied to industry and community.        

Blood pressure changes in older adults are still an area of exploration, and Dr Izzati is leading the charge. Her research is focused on understanding the impact of these changes on brain perfusion. Normal blood pressure levels are essential for maintaining good health, especially for older adults. Unfortunately, blood pressure changes in this group are much more complex, especially for those with multiple pre-existing medical conditions. Managing blood pressure in older adults requires delicate care to avoid devastating complications. Poor blood pressure management can lead to cognitive impairment, falls, and frailty, which can be particularly devastating for older adults. Dr Izzati's research is crucial for understanding how to manage blood pressure effectively in older adults and prevent these complications.

Associate Professor Dr. Nur Awanis Hashim is an Associate Professor specialising in membrane technology and fabrication at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Malaya (UM). She joined UM as a lecturer in November 2004 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2011. Since then, she has played a key role in developing membrane fabrication research at UM, particularly through the application of the phase inversion process. Before entering academia, Awanis worked as a Plant Engineer at Hitachi Semiconductor (Penang) after completing her Bachelor’s degree under the Monbusho Scholarship (now the MEXT Scholarship, Japan). Her academic training spans Japan and the United Kingdom, with a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from Osaka University, a Master’s degree in Environmental Biotechnology from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), and a PhD from Imperial College London. She completed her secondary education at Sekolah Tun Fatimah, Johor Bahru. In 2014, she represented Malaysia in the ASEAN–US Science Prize for Women competition in recognition of her work on membrane-based approaches to improving access to safe drinking water in the ASEAN region. Her research career has also been strengthened through international collaborations supported by the Hitachi Research Fellowship (2016), the Yamaguchi University Visiting Scholar Award and MEXT Global Networking Award (2019), and the JSPS Bridge Fellowship Award (2023), hosted by Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan. Awanis received a special grant under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) in 2015 from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for research on disaster mitigation and flood prevention using membrane technology. She has been involved in 16 research projects and has served as Principal Investigator for 12 internal and external grants, with total funding exceeding RM1.5 million. She is a Chartered Engineer with the Institution of Engineering and Technology (UK) and a Professional Engineer registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia. She currently serves as an Executive Committee (Exco) member of JSPS–JAAM and is a member of the Board of Engineers Malaysia. Awanis has held various academic and administrative leadership positions at UM since 2004, including Head of the Centre for Separation Science and Technology (January 2020 – December 2021), undergraduate programme coordinator, curriculum review committee member, laboratory coordinator, and departmental quality manager. From 2023 to 2025, she was seconded to the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia as Deputy Undersecretary in the Policy and Research Division, where she headed the Research and Public–Private Research Network (PPRN) Section, comprising the Research Unit, PPRN Unit, and the Administration Unit. In this capacity, she was responsible for developing strategies and overseeing the implementation and monitoring of policy research, PPRN, and social innovation funding to ensure effective, value-added outcomes. She also coordinated research initiatives across departments within MOHE and represented the Ministry in matters related to research with other ministries. Her research interests include membrane fabrication and modification, membrane-based separation technologies, separation processes, water and wastewater treatment, and carbon dioxide capture using membrane gas absorption. She has published more than fifty articles in ISI-indexed journals and regularly presents her work at national and international conferences.