He was born in 1965 in Sabak Bernam, Selangor, Malaysia. His early education was from his village in Sabak Bernam before he went to Sekolah Alam Shah, Kuala Lumpur, and joined Universiti Malaya in 1985 to pursue his studies in creative and descriptive writing. He graduated in 1988 and later focused his study on publishing and book marketing for his Master degree in 1991. He finishes his three year PhD program in 2001 in magazine publishing from the University Malaya. Along the way he went to Melbourne and Stanford University, California for training courses in book publishing. In 1995 he went to London School of Printing under the CHICEA fellowship from the British Council. Since 1992, he is a lecturer in the Department of Media Studies, University Malaya and became an Associate Professor in 2002. He is a now a Professor at the Department Media and Communication Studies. He served as a Director of University Malaya Press for six years (2001-2006), Head of Department of Media Studies (2009-2010 and 2011-2017), and the Deputy Dean, Faculty of Art and Social Sciences, University Malaya (2010-2011). Since 2020, he is a Professor at the Department of Media and Communication Studies, University Malaya. Hamedi is an active speaker and trainer in the field of book publishing, magazine publishing, editing, scholarly writing, and profesional writing. His workshops in academic writing, transferring a thesis into a book, profesional writing, and editing has been conducted in almost all public university in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. He is the chief editor for Asian Journal of Media Studies as well as sits in the editorial board of various academic journals in communications and media in Malaysia, Pakistan and Indonesia. Hamedi sits in the committee of ASEAN Scholarly Publishers Association (ASPA) in Manila, former member of Majlis Penerbitan Ilmiah Malaysia (MAPIM), a member of Association of Scholarly Publishing (ASP) in New York, the former Secretary of Yayasan Penataran Ilmu (YPI), committee member of Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair, and alumni of Stanford Scholarly Publishing (SSP). He is also the President of Malaysian Editors Association since 2011.

Amy Then is a senior lecturer at the Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Malaya. She obtained her Ph.D. in Fisheries Science from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, USA in 2014. Amy’s research interests are highly diverse and focused on animal- environment-human interactions to inform meaningful, data-driven conservation and management efforts in the coastal and marine realms. Currently, she is working on broad topics of mangrove ecology, restoration and ecosystem services assessment, shark and ray fishery assessment, marine megafauna bycatch and linkages between marine protected area and the well-being of both ecosystems and humans. She co-developed a number of successfully funded local and international proposals that were highly interdisciplinary in the last six years with funding from the Global Challenges Research Fund, Newton Fund, and British Council. To successfully deliver these projects, she had been actively using multiple science and social science approaches and with relevant stakeholder engagements at varying levels. In addition to scientific contributions in high-impact journals that included Scientific Reports, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, and Ecosystems, she also has diverse experiences in organizing international meetings, including the Third International Symposium on Mangroves as Fish Habitat (MAFH3).  

Dr Adina Abdullah has a decade of experience in primary healthcare delivery, health systems research and the development and implementation of digital health interventions in Malaysia. She has built strong networks with relevant policy, health system and community stakeholders. Dr Adina is a family medicine specialist and a professor at the Department of Primary Care Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya (UM). Dr Adina graduated with a Bachelor of Medical Science (hons) in 1997 and Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1999 from the University of Nottingham, UK. She obtained a Masters of Medicine (Family Medicine) and PhD at the Universiti Malaya. Her interest in digital health evolved after she became a member of the core team responsible for the implementation of the Hospital Information System at the Ministry of Health Hospitals in 2004. Stemming from her Masters’ thesis, she was involved in the development and implementation of home blood pressure telemonitoring which was developed by a Universiti Malaya spin off company, UMCH Sdn Bhd.  Dr Adina is also a committee member for the non-profit organization, Digital Health Malaysia. She co-leads the mHealth and telehealth division at the Universiti Malaya eHealth Unit. Since 2012, she has been leading research and publishing papers on the use of telemonitoring, patients’ perspectives on digital health, prevalence of health literacy and patients’ use of online health information to make decisions on medications. Through her research, Adina has also worked closely with stakeholders from the Malaysian Ministry of Health, academic institutions and the industry.