Danial is the Deputy Executive Director of Academic & Student Affairs at the International Institute of Public Policy and Management (INPUMA) at Universiti Malaya (UM). He teaches the Master of Public Policy (MPP) programme and previously worked as an Adjunct Professor at the Asia Pacific University (2022-2024). Additionally, he also delivered several policy lectures and seminars at the Royal Malaysian Police College (MPDRM), the Public Service Department (JPA) Policy Lab series, a Purposeful and Principled Leadership Immersion (PPL-I) course hosted by the UM Centre for Leadership and Professional Development (UM LEAD). Previously, Danial served as the Secretary of the Malaysian International Studies Association (2023-2024) and was a Fellow at the Research Institute for Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore at Universiti Utara Malaysia (ITS-UUM) during the same period. He is also a member of several professional organisations, including the International Political Science Association (IPSA) in Montreal, Canada, the International Studies Association (ISA) in the US, the British International Studies Association (BISA), the Royal African Studies Association (RAS), the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA), and the African Studies Association (ASA) in the US. Additionally, he is also a lifetime member of the Malaysian-Japan Studies Association (MAJAS), a Research Fellow at the Malaysia-Japan Research Centre (MJRC), and a former member of the Malaysian Association for American Studies (MAAS) and Malaysian Scholars on Korea (MASK) with Malaysia's International Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) In addition to his peer-reviewed tasks in Third World Quarterly, Comparative Politics, African Identities, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, SAGE Open, Kajian Malaysia (USM Press), and Journal of International Studies (UUM Press), Danial currently serves on the Editorial Boards of the Pertanika Journal of Social Science and Humanities (UPM Press) and the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) Journal of Social and Political Science (JSP-FISIP), all indexed in Scopus and WOS. He has also served on the editorial boards of the Malaysian Journal of International Relations (MJIR), SINERGI: Journal of Strategic Studies & International Affairs (UKM Press), and WILAYAH: International Journal of East Asian Studies (UM Press). Alongside his internal supervision and examination duties, he has acted as a supervisor for the Malaysian Armed Forces Defence College-National University of Malaysia (MPAT-UKM) programme. Danial has also worked as an external examiner for PhD theses in politics, policy, and security at universities in Malaysia, Australia, Japan, India, Pakistan, and Singapore. Furthermore, he has been involved in various government and industry projects in roles including consultant, moderator, resource person, invited speaker, and public lecturer. Apart from his academic publications, Danial has contributed commentaries and participated in interviews addressing various issues for national and global media. Danial was also previously given invited lectures at the UUM, UNIZA, APU and UiTM. He also served as a founding advisor for the UM student association, Malaya Model United Nations (2016-2023). Danial holds a PhD in International Relations (Political Science) from the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom. During his doctoral studies, he was mentored by the late Professor Ian Taylor, a prominent expert in Africa-Asia Politics and Relations and Critical Political Economy. He was awarded the UM Bright Spark Fellowship, which facilitated his PhD studies. Moreover, Danial has conducted extensive fieldwork and study visits across several African and Asian countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Libya, Egypt, Sierra Leone, and in Europe: The Former Republic of Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, and Cyprus. He has also travelled to Russia, Canada, Brazil, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. Danial also obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Distinction Honours), majoring in International and Strategic Studies and minoring in East Asian Studies. During the 2007 UM Graduation Ceremony, he received the Ghazali Shafie Book Prize and the Dato Panglima Kinta Yusuf Gold Medal. Danial is highly interested in conducting research, teaching, and supervising in the areas related to Global South or Africa-Asia Relations in Comparative Public Policy, Malaysia's Public and Foreign Policy Analysis, and Peace and Conflict Studies. He has been awarded various prestigious grants such as the European Union-Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (EU-SUHAKAM), the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), the National Agency for Anti-Drug Research Grant, the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of the Malaysian government, and grants of the Sumito Foundation (Japan), Japan Foundation and Korea Foundation (South Korea).

Merupakan Alumni Maahad Muhammadi (1996) dan Akademi Pengajian Islam Nilam Puri, Universiti Malaya (2002). Bidang Kepakaran: Pemikiran Pendidikan Islam. Akhlaq dan Tasawwuf. 

Dr. Meor Hakif is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Geology, University of Malaya (UM). He has written at least 100 publications including one article in Nature. He teaches undergraduate courses in Stratigraphy and Sedimentology, as well as postgraduate topics in Reservoir Sedimentology and Sequence Stratigraphy. Previously, he was the Coordinator for the MSc in Petroleum Geology Programme for 5 years. Currently, he is President of the Geological Society of Malaysia. Dr. Meor graduated with a BSc. (Hons) in Geology from UM in 2002, which included an early exposure to the petroleum industry through an internship with Esso Production Malaysia Inc. (EPMI) on abnormal pressure in offshore Sabah. While being a Tutor at UM, he graduated with a MSc. (with distinction) in 2005, with a dissertation revising the stratigraphy of NW Peninsular Malaysia.  The MSc. included research and training on graptolite biostratigraphy at the Technische Universitat Berlin in Germany, which was supported by a German Academic Exchange (DAAD) Scholarship. In 2005, Dr. Meor worked as an Executive Geoscientist in the Petroleum Resource Assessment and Marketing division, Petroleum Management Unit (PMU) of PETRONAS, mainly working on sequence stratigraphy and sequence biostratigraphy of the Sarawak Basin, and also gaining experience in resource assessment, well log interpretation, seismic interpretation and well operations monitoring. Dr. Meor graduated with a Ph.D and DIC from Imperial College, University of London in 2011. His Ph.D project was on the sedimentology of the Nyalau Formation and Balingian Province of the Sarawak Basin. Since then, he has been actively involved as a consultant on many sedimentological related studies with several oil and gas companies. Part of the PhD included fieldwork in Bintulu, Sarawak, core description at PETRONAS and a secondment to Petrofac Malaysia (PM-304) Ltd in Kuala Lumpur. Dr. Meor also took the advantage during his PhD to visit the textbook outcrops of the Book Cliffs (Sego Fm, Ferron Sandstone, Chinle Fm., Morrison Fm.) in Utah, USA, as well as the Welsh and Wessex Basins of the UK. Dr. Meor Hakif frequently leads sedimentology, stratigraphy and petroleum geology fieldtrips to the Palaeozoic strata of NW Peninsular Malaysia and the hydrocarbon-bearing, Neogene strata of Sarawak and Labuan. He maintains good relationships with industry, with several consulting projects and fieldtrips organized for companies. He is also the Faculty Advisor for the AAPG Student Chapter of UM.  Dr. Meor's current research interests in sedimentology mainly lies in the facies composition and stratal architecture of siliciclastic rocks, and how they are used to infer depositional and basin history. In particular, many of his publications are on tidal deposits preserved in the Oligo-Miocene rock record of Malaysia. The work involves integration with fields and specialists beyond traditional geology, including geophysics and engineering. His work is mainly field-based, with field experience in northwest Peninsular Malaysia (Perlis, Kedah, Langkawi), Pahang, Kelantan, Sarawak (Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu, Miri, Marudi, Limbang, Lawas), Labuan and Sabah (Klias, Kota Kinabalu area, Kudat). Dr. Meor is also a worker on the stratigraphy of the Palaeozoic succession of northwest Peninsular Malaya, specializing in the palaeontology and biostratigraphy of Devonian tentaculitoids and graptoloids and Carboniferous ammonoids. Results of this work include the discovery and naming of a new species of ammonoid, Praedaraelites tuntungensis, from Bukit Tuntung in Perlis as well as a new species of foraminifera, Crenulosepta perlisensis. Dr. Meor also uncovered a previously unknown Devonian stratigraphic unit, now called the Sanai Limestone. Dr. Meor is a certified Professional Geologist (P.Geol.) with the Board of Geologists Malaysia.