Academician Datuk Professor Dr Lai-Meng Looi is Malaysia’s inaugural National Distinguished Professor, positioned at  the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya (UM).  She holds a concurrent appointment as senior consultant histopathologist at the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC).    Professor Looi studied medicine as a Malaysian Federal Scholar at the University of Singapore (1970-1975), where she was a medalist in Pathology and Social Medicine, and won King Edward VII Hall awards for literary works, art forms and poetry.  She trained in Surgical Pathology at UM, Royal Postgraduate Medical School (UK) and Brigham and Woman’s Hospital, Boston, (USA) and defended her research doctorate (on amyloidosis) at UM.  She assumed the Chair of Pathology, UM at the age of 36 years and during her long academic career at UM has served as Department Head, Deputy Dean (Postgraduate), Chair of the Medical Centre Research Committee, representative to the Malaysian Medical Council, Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee of UMMC and UM’s Committee for External Academic Evaluators.  She continues to chair the UMMC-Medical Research Ethics Committee/ Institutional Review Board.  She has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, mainly on amyloidosis, nephropathology and oncopathology, is devoted to promoting a research and ethical culture among researchers, has delivered >500 guest lectures and conducts scientific writing workshops nationally and internationally. Professor Looi is a Foundation Fellow and Academician of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) and has served as Chief Censor and Scribe of the Academy of Medicine Malaysia.   She has served as  Editor-in-Chief of the Malaysian Journal of Pathology, on the International Editorial Advisory Boards of Pathology, Journal of Pathology, Human Pathology and Histopathology, is Founding Vice-President of the Association of Malaysian Medical Journal Editors, and chaired the Ethics and Editorial Policies Committee of Asia-Pacific Association of Medical Editors.   A Fellow of both Royal Colleges of Pathologists, UK (RCPath) and Australasia (RCPA), she served as Examiner and Advisor to both.  She is the Founding President of the College of Pathologists, Academy of Medicine Malaysia, and was instrumental in developing pathology laboratory accreditation for Malaysia, the Pathology Act and several National guidelines on medical laboratory practices.  In 2010 she was honoured RCPA Distinguished Fellow and Inaugural National Distinguished Professor (Profesor Ulung Negara).  She was President of the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (WASPaLM) from 2013-2016, and chaired its Education Committee which focusses on capacity-building in countries-in-need.   She co-chaired the InterAcademy Medical Panel (now the InterAcademy Partnership for Health) for two elected terms (2010-2016) and currently represents ASM in its Executive Committee.   During her chairmanship, this global network of National Sciences and Medical Academies extended its initiatives into global health, the social determinants of health, urban health, and young physician leadership capacity-building. She chaired the ASM Newton-Ungku Omar Fund Committee for Bilateral Research Programmes with the Medical Research Council, UK. (2015-2018) and the 2019 MRC-Malaysia Joint Panel on Non-Communicable Diseases. She is a Member of the MRC (UK) Applied Global Health Research Board, and the InterAcademy Partnership Expert Working Group on Harnessing the World's Academies to combat predatory journals and conferences.  She is a Commissioner for the Lancet Commission on Diagnostics. Her contributions to research, education and medical science have been recognised with several accolades including the Panglima Jasa Negara (Datuk), Sri Indera Mahkota Pahang (Dato Indera), National Science Award, ASEAN Outstanding Scientist Award,  Merdeka Award 2016 (Health, Science and Technology category),  WASPaLM’s Gold-Headed Cane and Honorary Professor of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences-Peking Union Medical College. She was named in Stanford University's list of the World Top 2% Scientists 2022. 

Professor Dr Vivek Ajit Singh is a Professor of Orthopaedics and head of the Orthopedic Oncology unit in Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya. He obtained his medical degree from University Malaya in 1984. He worked in Hospital Muar and Mersing before enrolling in University Malaya for Master’s in Orthopaedic Surgery. He completed his master’s degree in 2001 and was awarded with the Subramaniam Gold Medal for the best clinical master’s student. Subsequently, in 2002 he was awarded with Fellowship from The Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh. Then, he worked in Penang General Hospital as an Orthopaedic surgeon and was awarded with a fellowship scholarship by the Ministry of Health in 2003 to pursue Fellowship Orthopaedic Oncology in Birmingham, UK (The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital). He completed his fellowship in 2004, after which he continued his service in Penang General Hospital. He subsequently joined University Malaya in 2006 and is working there till now. He teaches postgraduate and undergraduate students from the Faculty of Medicine. Prof Vivek has published more than 50 research papers in various medical journals and 2 text-books related to his field of expertise and basic science. He is currently an active member of several international and national professional bodies such as International Society of Limb Salvage (ISOLS), Asia Pacific Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (APMSTS), East Asia Musculoskeletal Oncology Group (EAMOG), and many more. Besides the clinical field, he is also active in the research field and has won prestigious awards such as The Dr Robert Bauze Trauma Award, P. Balasubramaniam Award, and Tumour Award. Other than his academic accomplishments, he also provides testimonies as an expert witness for various medicolegal cases of insurance claim disputes. As part of his social responsibility and contribution to the society, he also gives healthcare, or more specifically orthopaedic related talks to public and media.

ChM. Dr. Abdullah Al-Hadi Ahmad Fuaad, or Hadi Fuaad, is a certified chemist under the Malaysia Chemist Act 1975 and a Senior Lecturer at the Universiti Malaya. He holds a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry and a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology (Chemistry) from the University of Queensland, Australia. Trained across six leading research institutes in Australia, Malaysia, and the United States, including Harvard University, where he specialized in nanotoxicology. He has extensive experience in modern peptide chemistry, encompassing cyclotide synthesis, protease inhibitors, and toxin analogues. His research integrates computational design, synthesis, and characterization of bioactive peptides for the development of antiviral and vaccine candidates, as well as peptide-based carriers for drug and biopesticide delivery. By combining synthetic organic chemistry and in silico modeling, his work seeks to translate molecular design into real-world biomedical and agricultural applications. Dr. Hadi currently supervises PhD and MSc students and actively collaborates on interdisciplinary projects at the interface of chemistry, biology, and nanotechnology.   Summary: Certified chemist | PhD (Medicinal Chemistry, University of Queensland) | Expertise in peptide synthesis, click chemistry, and nanotoxicology | Research on peptide antivirals, vaccines, and carrier systems | Experienced in NMR, MALDI-MS, and peptide synthesizers | Committed educator and research mentor.