Prof. Dr. Esther Daniel Medical Education, Research and Development Unit (MERDU), Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya    Areas of Expertise  & Background Science Education (Biology); Environmental Education / Education for Sustainable Development; Science Teacher Education, Medical Education; Integrating Technology in Teaching; Learning and Cognition; Learning Sciences, Metacognition, Pedagogies. Esther is an  educator, formerly with the Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya. With over three decades of experience as a teacher educator, her professional journey began in some of Malaysia’s premier boarding schools—Sekolah Datuk Abdul Razak, Seremban; the Malay College Kuala Kangsar; and Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Ipoh—where she taught science with distinction. Her academic expertise spans science education, environmental education, technology integration in science classrooms, and learning and cognition. She has conducted numerous workshops and seminars on qualitative research methodologies and pedagogical innovations, serving as a Master Trainer for new lecturers in institutions of higher learning. Her research has primarily focused on science, biology and environmental education, and many of her postgraduate students have successfully completed their studies under her supervision. She has conducted numerous workshops for Qualitative Research Methodologies. Esther has collaborated extensively with WWF-Malaysia, contributing to in-depth research and teacher training initiatives that promote sustainable development education. Her scholarly footprint includes published journal articles, conference presentations (local and international), and the authorship of several teaching and research modules—including those on Science pedagogy, Environmental Education, Sustainable Education and Qualitative Research Methods. Among her notable publications are Biology Education in a Changing Planet and Cognition in Science Education. Her contributions have earned her numerous accolades, including: The UNESCO-Hamdan Award (2016) for effective teacher training, The Venus International Women’s Award (2017) for Lifetime Achievement in Science Education (Biology), The Universiti Malaya Excellence Award (2018) for securing the highest international grant. More recently, she has ventured into Medical Education. She currently serves as an Honorary Professor at the Medical Education, Research and Development Unit, Faculty of Medicine, UM. She played a key role in developing and implementing the MOHRE (Master of Health Research Ethics) programme She is an  affiliated member of the UM-WWF-M Living Planet Centre, having recently completed a nationwide Sustainable Development research initiative. Esther led a nationwide study on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) with PPPLS (Pertubuhan Pendidikan Pembangunan Lestari Selangor) from 2022 to 2023. Esther is a senior fellow at the Asia Office of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) in Sunway University. She is also involved in the UNESCO-Chair Project for ESD (2022–2025) in collaboration with Asia Pacific University (APU), and serves as a consultant on Mission 4.7: Transformational Learning through ESD, a global initiative by the (SDSN) at the Jeffrey Sachs Centre, Sunway University (2023–2025). She is also the co-researcher for the UNESCO Action Research project for ESD (2025). She is also attached to the Asia – University (AeU) and the Asia Pacific University (APU) of technology and innovation as an Adjunct Professor. She is also a member of the Jawatankuasa Rakan Strategik Pendidikan untuk Pembangunan Mampan dan Kewarganegaraan Global KPM (2025-2026) and involved actively in preparing an action plan for ESD and Global Citizenship.    

Dr. Ng is a senior lecturer at Clinical Oncology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya and a medical physicist at Universiti Malaya Medical Centre. He served as a radiation oncology medical physicist in the Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Hospital Kuala Lumpur and Institut Kanser Negara. He was an Assistant Director at Medical Radiation Surveillance Division, a national regulatory body in regulating radiation in medicine. He is the founder and served as the Chairman of the MOH Medical Physics Research Task Force which aimed to promote research culture and collaboration in the region since 2018. He also served as the Physics Advisory Editors for Medical Dosimetry, reviewers and member of editorial board for several local and international peer-reviewed journals. He is now serving as the Secretary-General of  Asia-Oceania Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (AFOMP) and Secretary of Malaysian Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.    

Prof. Dr. Chan Kok Gan is a distinguished microbiologist and interdisciplinary scholar whose work bridges molecular biology, genomics, microbial communication, and biosafety law. He is currently a Professor at University of Malaya, where he leads research in microbial genomics, quorum sensing, quorum quenching, genome biology, next-generation sequencing, biosafety laws and intellectual property law in biotechnology. His contributions span genomics, microbial communication, and conceptual innovation rather than single isolated discoveries.  Prof. Chan holds double Bachelor and Master degrees in Microbiology and laws, and PhD in Molecular Microbiology, with a rare combination of science and law. Prof. Chan is prolific researcher,  with >485 WoS WoS publications in high-impact journals including Nature, Nature Communications. His work has garnered tens of thousands of citations (e.g., his Google Scholar profile shows >27,200 citations, h index 83). He received fundings gloablly, eg. Malaysia Toray Science Foundation research grant, >15 French Fellowships, Hubert Curien Partnership-Hibiscus, SEAOHUN Award, UK Prime Minister’s Initiative II grant, 3 China Governments grants, JSPS Award and many Malaysia fundings.  Prof. Chan has received numerous research awards and recognitions, including a consistent ranking in Research.com’s listings of Top Microbiologist and and Leader in Biology/biochemistry in Malaysia; Malaysia Toray Science Foundation (MTSF) Science and Technology Award, JSPS Award. He was listed as the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University/Scopus in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 in both categories of “Current Year” and “Career”. He is even listed as World’s Top 0.1% Scientist by ScholarGPS.com, and ranked First in the categories of “quorum quenching”, “genomes” , “multidrug resistant pathogens” by Google Scholar. Prof. Chan made several first discoveries in Malaysia and globally, including (i) introducing the concept of, and coining, bacterial “signalling confusion”; (ii) coexistence of quorum sensing and quorum quenching in some bacteria, and (iii) quorum quenching molecules from Malay, Chinese and Indian medicinal herbs and secured several patents,  (iv) characterising novel quorum sensing and quenching genes, (v) novel bacterial genus and species, (vi) he published Malaysia’s first complete bacterial genome 13 years ago when next-generation sequencing was still globally scarce. Prof. Chan is elected Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (FASc) in 2017, and fellowships in other international learned academies. A novel bacterial species of a novel genus was named in honoured of Prof Chan’s contribution in microbiology:  Chania multitudinisentens gen. nov., sp. nov. Prof. Chan is world’s leading expert in bacterial quorum sensing, quorum quenching, genome biology, biosafety laws and whole genome sequencing. After publishing the first bacterial complete genome in 2013, Prof Chan then pioneered into multi-OMICs technology, providing a new dimension of research in microbiology and genome biology. To date, Prof. Chan is the leading expert in NGS, multi-OMICs (genome, plasmidome, resistome, virome, oncogenome, transcriptome, methylome, microbiome, metagenome, lipidome, metabolome).