Dr. Malarvizhi Sinayah joined academic life as a senior lecturer in Faculty of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Malaya since 2016. She is the Programme Co-ordinator of Tamil Programme at Department of Malaysian Languages and Applied Linguistics since 2017. She completed her Doctoral programme in Discourse Analysis, at University Putra Malaysia; her Masters of Modern Languages Studies and her Bachelor in Languages and Linguistics (Tamil Language) at the University of Malaya, and obtained her teaching certificate (Primary School Education/Tamil Language) from Raja Melewar Teachers Training Collage. Her main research interests are Sociolinguistics and Discourse analysis in general, Tamil linguistics and Teaching Tamil Language and Literature in particular. Areas of particular interest include: Computer mediated Communication, language use in social Media, Codeswitching and Translanguaging, Teaching Language and Literature (Tamil), Language ideological debates relating to Minorities Language (Tamil), Intelligibility issues relating to the spread of Tamil Language, Attitudes towards minority language in higher education contexts around the world.

      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.        

Dr. Bala Murali Sundram is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Occupational and Environmental Health Unit, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. He completed his Masters (MPH) and Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from University Malaya. His areas of research interest are in Public Health, mainly in Occupational Health,  Environmental Health ,  Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Disease Surveillance, Predictive analytics in Public Health, Mental health and psycho-social biomarkers at the workplace. He has headed various critical and important posts in the Public Health Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) as a Public Health Medicine Specialist prior to joining University Malaya as a Senior Lecturer. Some of his notable positions in the Ministry of Health were as District Health Officer in Kunak, Sabah, Head of Occupational Health Unit and Biomedical Epidemiology Unit in the Institute for Medical Research (IMR)- National Institute of Health (NIH) and Head of Disease Surveillance and Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC),  Johor State Health Department. He had played a significant role and contributed immensely during the Covid-19 pandemic in disease surveillance, translational and impactful research for the relevant stakeholders, quarantine and isolation strategies, international health regulation and border health policies and state vaccination strategies during his tenure in MOH. Following this he had received recognition and the Exemplary Service Award  (Anugerah Perkhidmatan Awam) from the Johor State Health Department, Ministry of Health Malaysia. He has headed several internal and external research collaborations in the Ministry of Health Malaysia, University Malaya, United Nations University-International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) and other external research institutes like National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia and Malaysian Meteorological Department.  He had obtained various research grants such as MOH research grants and UNDP research grants as Primary Investigator and was involved as co-investigator in some external research grants like FRGS grants. His research work has been presented in local and international conferences and has been published and cited in some high impact and peer-reviewed ISI journals in the field of public health. His work has also been accepted as a book publication in one of the international publishing groups. He was involved in the Public Health Subgroup in the Technical Working Group for the Vulnerability and Adaptation as well as Research and Systematic Observation for the 3rd National Communication and Biennial Update Report in which Malaysia is a signatory to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He was a member of the Thematic Working Group 6 for Contingency, Preparedness and Response Plan for Environmental Health Disaster, National Environmental Health Action Plan (NEHAP), Ministry of Health. He was a member of the SCHEMA Working Group for United Nations University-International Institute for Global Health and Institutional Biosafety and Biosecurity Committee (IBBC). His technical skills and knowledge allowed him being chosen as a Medical Coordinator, Lead Evaluator and Controller in various Disease Surveillance and CBNRe (chemical, biological,nuclear, radiological and explosives) field simulation exercises and activities involving MOH, STRIDE-MinDEF, ASEAN Regional Capacity on Disaster Health Management (ARCH) and  WHO. He has also mentored and supervised numerous candidates in the Mentor-Mentee Program for the Public Health Medicine Speciality, MOH Malaysia. He is also attached to professional bodies like Malaysian Medical Association, Malaysian Society of Occupational Health Doctor and a scientific committee member in the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH).