In 2008, Professor Dr. Chris graduated from Masters of Orthopaedic Surgery training in University Malaya at the top of the class and was awarded the ‘N. Subramaniam Award’. At the same time, his research project on ‘safety in thoracic pedicle screw’ during his training, under the supervision of Prof Dato’ Dr. Kwan Mun Keong won the ‘Mahmood Merican award’ for top research project among all Masters of Orthopaedic trainee in 2008. The research project was subsequently published in 2 international journals, European Spine Journal and Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy. His research interest is mainly in idiopathic scoliosis with more than 50 publications to date in tier 1 spine journals such as Spine, The Spine Journal and European Spine Journal. His most recent notable publications were on the subjects of dual attending surgeons to increase the safety in scoliosis surgery, accelerated recovery protocol for scoliosis surgery and safety of pedicle screws in scoliosis surgery. His publications have won the “Subir Sengupta Best Published Clinical Award 2017 and 2018” and the “P. Balasubramaniam Best Published Basic Science Award”. He is an active member of the Scoliosis Research Society and is the Fellowship Chairperson for the Asia Pacific Spine Society. He is also in the editorial board for the Asian Spine Journal and is the spine manuscript editor for the Malaysian Orthopaedic Journal. He is also a Committee Member of the Malaysian Spine Society. 

Dr. Leong research focus on investigating the mechanism of action of potent compounds toward developing new anticancer and antidiabetes drugs. His research adopts an in vitro approach using cell-based and enzymatic assays to identify the various cellular pathways modulated by a potent compound. The research outcome is to understand the mechanism of action of the compound, a prerequisite requirement in developing a new drug entity. In addition, he employs metabolomics to evaluate biomarkers in explaining the treatment outcomes or disease progression. International collaboration has geared his research towards cancer stem cells and utilizing zebrafish as an animal model for cancer. It is believed that cancer stem cells is a subset of cells in tumour that drives chemoresistance and relapse in cancer patients. Therefore, strategies to develop new chemotherapy against the subset of cells is of great interest to tackle the problem.

ADIL Johan is Deputy Executive Director (Academic and Student Affairs) at the Asia-Europe Institute and senior lecturer at the Faculty of Creative Arts, Universiti Malaya (UM). His research on music and popular culture considers interculturalism, cosmopolitanism, intimacy, affect and gender, focussing on the Malay world and Southeast Asia. He is author of Cosmopolitan Intimacies, a book on Independence-era Malay film music (NUS Press, 2018) and is co-editor of Made in Nusantara: Studies in popular music (Routledge, 2021). He has also published articles in the Journal of Intercultural Studies (2019); Kajian Malaysia (2019); JATI-Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (2022), Indonesia and the Malay World (2023) and Popular Music and Society (2025). He is currently the elected Chair for the Southeast Asian branch for the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-SEA). ADIL Johan ialah Timbalan Pengarah Eksekutif (Akademik dan Hal Ehwal Pelajar) di Institut Asia-Eropah dan pensyarah kanan di Fakulti Seni Kreatif, Universiti Malaya (UM). Kajiannya mengenai muzik dan budaya popular mempertimbangkan antara budaya, kosmopolitanisme, keintiman, pengaruh dan jantina, memfokuskan kepada alam Melayu dan Asia Tenggara. Beliau adalah pengarang Cosmopolitan Intimacies, sebuah buku mengenai muzik filem Melayu era Kemerdekaan (NUS Press, 2018) dan merupakan penyunting bersama buku Made in Nusantara: Studies in popular music (Routledge, 2021). Beliau juga telah menerbitkan artikel dalam Journal of Intercultural Studies (2019); Kajian Malaysia (2019); JATI-Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (2022), Indonesia and the Malay World (2023) dan Muzik dan Popular Music and Society (2025). Beliau kini merupakan Pengerusi yang dipilih untuk cawangan Asia Tenggara bagi International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-SEA).