Dr Lily Azura Shoaib is a head specialist and Associate Professor in Paediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. She earned her Master of Clinical Dentistry in Paediatric Dentistry from the University of Edinburgh in 2008 and completed her Bachelor in Dental Surgery at Tokyo Medical and Dental University in 2000. Her research focuses on cariology, paediatric special care dentistry, oral health quality of life, and dental education, emphasising e-learning and instructional strategies. She is renowned for her paediatric dentistry expertise and commitment to improving dental education and patient care. As an educator, she mentors and guides aspiring dental professionals for the future of dentistry in Malaysia. Her contributions and dedication have earned her widespread respect and recognition in the dental community.

in f inancial e conomics from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). After completing his master degree, Lim joined UMS as a lecturer in January 2002 . Three years later, he was given a staff scholarship to pursue a PhD degree at the Department of Econometrics and Busi ness Statistics, Monash University. He holds a B . B . A . in finance with honors from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM ) , and a M.Sc. in f inancial e conomics from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). After completing his master degree, Lim joined UMS as a lecturer in January 2002 . Three years later, he was given a staff scholarship to pursue a PhD degree at the Department of Econometrics and Busi ness Statistics, Monash University. Kian-Ping Lim is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya. He received his B.B.A. (Hons.) in Finance from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Determined to become a scholar, he pursued an M.Sc. in Financial Economics at Universiti Putra Malaysia. It was during his master’s program that he first acquired formal training in econometrics through two foundational courses, which became instrumental in shaping his approach to empirical research. Drawing on this new skill set, he completed his dissertation, “Non-Linear Dependence in ASEAN-5 Foreign Exchange Rates: An Insight from a Battery of Non-Linearity Tests”, marking his entry into scholarly inquiry on financial markets. In 2002, after completing his master’s degree, Kian-Ping joined Universiti Malaysia Sabah as a lecturer. During this period, he had the privilege of collaborating with the late Professor Melvin Hinich, a pioneering scholar who developed the bispectrum and trispectrum tests for nonlinearity. Their intellectual exchanges proved formative, as they questioned the dominance of linearity-based approaches in weak-form efficiency studies. Together, they showed that returns can be linearly uncorrelated yet still exhibit nonlinear dependence that is forecastable. By uncovering such nonlinearities across different stock markets, their work challenged the adequacy of conventional efficiency tests and laid the groundwork for his doctoral research at Monash University. From 2005 to 2009, Kian-Ping pursued his PhD at the Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics, Monash University. Building on his earlier work, he moved beyond the question of whether markets were efficient in an absolute sense to challenge the static treatment of efficiency. Using rolling-sample methods, he showed that efficiency evolves over time. More importantly, he advanced the idea of treating efficiency in relative terms, opening new avenues to explore its drivers across countries. His survey article in the Journal of Economic Surveys called for a paradigm shift from the Efficient Markets Hypothesis to the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis. Together with his collaborators, he contributed to operationalizing this framework, and the resulting paper was published in the Journal of Empirical Finance. He regards the four-year PhD journey as the most productive phase of his career, publishing 18 of 21 papers written during candidature in mainstream economics and finance journals. After completing his PhD, Kian-Ping continued his research journey largely in collaboration with his doctoral students, while staying true to his philosophy of offering novel perspectives against conventional practices. His work on stock liquidity moved beyond firm-level analysis to examine liquidity at the aggregate market level. In corporate finance, he shifted the lens from broad corporate governance to the role of blockholder governance. In his more recent research on market integration, he advocated Bayesian approaches that more effectively capture the dynamics of market comovements, offering a conceptually richer alternative to conventional correlation-based measures. Across these domains, his post-PhD work reflects a commitment to advancing scholarship through fresh and critical perspectives. The impact of his research is reflected in both readership and recognition. His publications have attracted high citations across Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, placing him among the leading financial economists in Malaysia. Since 2010, he has consistently been ranked within the top five percent of economists in the country according to IDEAS/RePEc. His international standing is further affirmed by ScholarGPS, where he is listed as a Highly Ranked Scholar within the top 0.05% globally in the specialty of "Stock": ranked #48 in 2022, #59 in 2023, and #66 in 2024 worldwide. Beyond research, Kian-Ping contributes actively to academic leadership and service. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies, the flagship publication of the Malaysian Economic Association. He was the Deputy Dean (Research & Innovation) at the Labuan School of International Business & Finance, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (Jan 2010–Jan 2012), and later the Deputy Dean (Research & Development) at the Faculty of Economics & Administration, Universiti Malaya (Aug 2016–Sept 2021). In these capacities, he helped to promote research in business and economics, supporting an environment where scholarship can grow. Kian-Ping's journey, shaped by these milestones in research and leadership, is captured in the attached timeline (click here), which also points to the path he looks forward to pursuing in the years ahead.

Chuah Joon Huang received the B.Eng. (First Class Honours) degree from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), M.Eng. degree from the National University of Singapore (NUS), the M.Phil. degree in Technology Policy, a professional practice programme initiated by the Cambridge MIT Institute (CMI) delivered at Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS), and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Cambridge, where graduated from Wolfson College, Cambridge and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He was honoured for being a Kuok Foundation Scholar and a Commonwealth Scholar. By virtue of his outstanding academic achievements, he was admitted as a Life Member of Golden Key International Honour Society, apart from being a Life Member of Oxford and Cambridge Society Malaysia. On his professional career path, he joined Intel as an IC Design Engineer, contributing to the creation of next generation of network processors. He was then with Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola, SPS & presently NXP Semiconductors) as a Senior Product Development Engineer and Senior Test Engineer, overseeing the product development and project execution of high-performance automotive microcontrollers. Carrying out extensive engineering works globally, he lived in and travelled frequently to various locations such as San Jose @ Silicon Valley, California, Austin, Texas, Suzhou, China, Hong Kong, etc. While working in the multi-national companies, he was a recipient of multiple Silicon Engineering Excellence Recognitions and Technical Excellence Award. At present, he lectures at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya. He assumed the positions of Head of Programme for M.Eng. (Mechatronics) and Head of VLSI and Image Processing (VIP) Research Group. He is a Chartered Engineer registered under the Engineering Council, U.K., and also a Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate (PEPC) registered under the Board of Engineers, Malaysia. He serves in a number of editorial boards, i.e. Journal of Nanoelectronics and Optoelectronics, ASEAN Engineering Journal, IEM Journal, etc. He was invited as a Plenary Speaker for the inaugural IEEE International Microwave, Electron Devices, Solid-state Circuit Symposium (IMESS) in 2016 and a Keynote Speaker for Engineering, Science & Technology International Conference 2018 (ESTIC2018). He was the Special Session Co-Chair for Asia Pacific Signal and Information Processing Association Annual Summit and Conference (APSIPA ASC) in 2017. In recognition of his vast engineering knowledge and skills, he has been appointed as Scientific Advisor and Technical Consultant to several companies, e.g. Genome Solutions, Iconix Consulting, TrafficSens, etc. He has been elected as the Honorary Treasurer for IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) Malaysia Chapter. In addition, he is currently the Chairman Emeritus of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Malaysia Local Network, the Vice Chairman of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) and also a Board Member of the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM). He serves in the Governing Board of ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organisations as Secretary General. Apart from that, he serves in the Disciplinary Committee Panel of Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board (ASDB), Bar Council. He is a Fullbright Malaysia Ambassador. He is an award-winning academician nationally and internationally, i.e. Research Excellence Award, National Outstanding Educationist Award and Industry Icon for Educational Leadership & Management. He has been elected as the Fellow of Royal Microscopical Society (FRMS), Fellow of Institution of Engineers Malaysia (FIEM), Fellow of ASEAN Academy of Engineering and Technology (FAAET), Fellow of Academy of Engineering and Technology of the Developing World (FAETDEW) and Honorary Fellow of ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organisations (Hon. FAFEO).