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. Taking Malaysia as the first case study of Taiwan's soft power in the region, Dr. Lee is developing the third intervening variable correlating both Taiwanese soft power resources and outcomes, in his course of providing a dynamical explanation for such phenomenon. For the coming years, his research focus and publications will be on the different areas featuring Taiwan-Malaysia and Taiwan-Southeast Asia cooperation such as digital social innovation (DSI) for climate change, industry-based education/training programmes, smart cities, tourism, digital democracy, agriculture, public health and medicine, ornamental aquaculture and aquascape. 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) (2018-10992019), 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, Taiwan's soft power in Southeast Asia and Taiwan-Malaysia DSI cooperation for climate change. He is also willing to discuss with potential doctoral candidates on proposals related to the Chinese sub-state (provincial) diplomacy toward ASEAN, China's soft power in ASEAN, Southeast Asian sub-state diplomacy, comparative cases of sub-state diplomacy around the world and conceptual innovation of sub-state diplomacy as well as soft power. 

Dr. Nurshamimi was awarded a Malaysia-Imperial Doctoral Programme to study HPV regulation at the Department of Virology, St. Mary’s Campus, Imperial College London, upon graduating with an M.Med.Sc from the University of Malaya in 2008. She joined the Department of Molecular Medicine as a Senior Lecturer in 2014 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021. She was a three-time travel award winner for attending HKU-Pasteur workshops at the University of Hong Kong. She also received travel awards from the International Papillomavirus Society in 2017 for the HPV conference in South Africa and a travel award from the EMBL Advanced Training Centre Corporate Partnership Program Fellowship in 2015 for the EMBO Conference in Heidelberg, Germany. She is also a member of the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) and the European Society for Virology. In 2020, she won the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Young Investigator Award for her work on the Chikungunya virus, and in 2022, she received a travel award from Keystone Symposia, Global Health Travel Award, USA. In 2024, she was selected by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA, to present her work entitled "Morindone from Morinda citrifolia—A promising agent targeting DNA replication and key mutations in colorectal cancer" at their conference 'Mechanisms and Models of Cancer'. Dr. Nurshamimi also holds several patents in the field of anti-aging and colorectal cancer. Her current research is geared toward phase 1 clinical trials for diabetic foot ulcer treatment and investigating potential leads for colorectal cancer targets. She is an Ambassador for Bentham Science Publisher, one of the most renowned ISI publishers in the world. Currently, she is a principal investigator for research projects on colorectal cancer, Zika and dengue viruses, anti-aging, and diabetic foot ulcers.

Wenn-Chyau Lee received his BSc (Hons) degree in Biomedical Sciences from University of Malaya, Malaysia in year 2011, and graduated with his PhD in Medical Sciences from University of Malaya in year 2014. Subsequently, he joined Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN, A*STAR) as a research fellow in Laurent Renia’s Laboratory. He was appointed as SIgN fellow after receiving OF-YIRG grant awarded by the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) of Singapore in year 2018. He joined the newly formed A*STAR ID Labs as an investigator in year 2021. Subsequently, he joined the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya as a senior lecturer. Currently, he is also an adjunct investigator in A*STAR ID Labs, Singapore. As a parasitologist, he has involved in studies encompassing a number of medically important parasites such as the malaria causative agent Plasmodium spp., Toxoplasma gondii that can cause birth defects, Brugia pahangi that can cause symptomatic zoonotic filariasis, as well as several medically important vectors. His main research interest revolves around the immuno-pathobiology of malaria. He has been investigating and deciphering the roles of rosetting (a phenomenon where a Plasmodium-infected red blood cell is stably adhered to uninfected red blood cells, forming a flower-like structure called ‘rosette’) in the pathogenesis of malaria. Besides, he is looking into the potential of applying biocontrol strategy to eliminate different vector borne diseases. He has worked as a research fieldworker in different places including the Thai-Burmese Border, China, peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. As different laboratory settings are equipped differently, he enjoys adapting and improvising facilities available in the field sites to conduct experiments. Currently, he is also the facility coordinator of the insectary and arthropod containment level 2 (ACL2) research unit in the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya. To date, he has published (as first/ corresponding author) in a number of reputable journals such as Blood, EBioMedicine, eLife, Frontiers in Immunology, Frontiers in Microbiology, and Trends in Parasitology. Besides working as a reviewer for many scientific journals and grant evaluation committees, he is also an editorial board member of Frontiers in Microbiology.