Afiq received his First-Class Honors Degree in Biotechnology from the Malaysia University of Science and Technology (MUST) in 2013. He received the MUST President's Award for academic excellence and being the most accomplished student in his class. In 2014, he decided to follow his passion for research and enrolled in an MSc program in Genetic Manipulation and Molecular Cell Biology at the University of Sussex, UK. After completing his MSc program, Afiq gained valuable research experience by working as a research assistant at the Cancer Research Center (CaRC), Institute for Medical Research (IMR) in Kuala Lumpur. In 2015, he was awarded an Academic Training Fellowship (SLAB/SLAI) by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education to pursue his PhD at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. His doctoral research focuses on the discovery of new antiviral HIV-1 and VSV restriction factors. His findings have been published in reputable scientific journals and have gained the interest of the global scientific community. After completing his PhD in 2019, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the MRC-Centre for Virus Research (CVR) at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. In 2020, he returned to Malaysia to work as a senior lecturer in the microbiology program at the Institute of Biological Sciences, Universiti Malaya (UM), Kuala Lumpur. He currently teaches public health microbiology, diagnostic microbiology, microbial pathogenesis, and virology to undergraduate students. In addition to teaching, he also conducts research on various aspects of microbiology, with a particular focus on viral diseases. His research aims to understand the mechanisms of viral replication and pathogenesis as well as develop novel strategies for the prevention and treatment of viral infections. He actively collaborates with other researchers, both locally and internationally, to contribute to the global understanding of infectious diseases. In 2023, he was awarded a prestigious ASEAN-India Research & Training (A-IRTF) Fellowship from the Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India for 3-month research attachment at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi).

 An Academician at the Faculty of Business & Economics, Universiti Malaya.  My main research area is in Organizational Behavior. Specifically, my research areas are focusing on 'Factors in organization(s) that will increase and maintains individual well-being at the workplace'. My research areas cover workplace well-being, employee development, training and development, workplace positive psychology, and any other behavioral related studies in organizations including those at the strategic and corporate levels. The research requires consistent understanding of the current workforce issues, economics and financial conditions (macro & micro level), geo-economic levels, and to forecast future workforce strategy and demands, for both in Malaysia and at the international levels.  Currently I am focusing on (Neuro)Diversity Workforce and Inclusivity which is one of the important elements under United Nation's (UN) SDGs Goals.  Anyone who are interested and passionate with these research areas may join me as co-researcher or join as Ph.D candidate under my supervision. I welcome you to write to me at safiah@um.edu.my so we can embark on this research journey together.    Best regards,  Safiah

Siti Zaidah Zainuddin is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English Language. Her primary research interests lie in discourse studies, particularly genre analysis in both written and spoken academic discourse and corpus linguistics. In the field of language learning, she works on second language writing using several perspectives and frameworks as well teacher-learner interaction. Her publications address various topics on academic discourse practices including language and rhetorical strategies in oral defense and thesis writing by postgraduate students, and teacher agency. Zaidah holds several research grants focusing on genre studies in academic and legal discourses and teacher’s agency in language classrooms. She teaches both the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. In addition to teaching and research, Zaidah has served as a UG program coordinator, Industrial Training coordinator for the English Language Department and the coordinator and consultant for various language programs with private organisations.