Currently is a Professor at Shariah and Law Department, Academy of Islamic Studies, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Studied at University of Malaya. Received Bachelor of Shariah (Islamic Law) (first class honours) in 1987 from University of Malaya. Later, went to London to receive further training at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and obtained LL.M in 1989 and PhD in 1996. Area of specialization is Islamic law of transactions and property, contemporary issues of fatwa and Shariah courts in Malaysia. Has been teaching at the University of Malaya since 1987 both at postgraduate and undergraduate levels. Awarded a number of governmental and international research fund with the accumulative amount of RM600,000. Has successfully supervised more than 30 postgraduate thesis and dissertations. Written and presented more than 100 articles and papers in journals and conference both locally and internationally. Authored and edited six books. Served as consultant and adviser on Shariah matters to several Banks and financial institutions in Malaysia and Singapore. Currently served as Chairman of the Shariah Supervisory Council for Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (BIMB) and Amanah Raya Berhad. Qualified Shariah Legal Counsel in the Federal Territory Shariah Courts. Appointed as visiting lecturer at Religious Department, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand in 2001, awarded as visiting research associate at Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, UK in 2005, visiting fellow at Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London in 2006, visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA in 2011, Ankara Social Sciences University, Universitas Islam Negeri Jakarta and Soka University Japan in 2019 respectively. Hold various administrative posts at University of Malaya as Head of Shariah and Law Department 1997-1999, Deputy Director for Research and Development, Academy of Islamic Studies 2005-2006 and Director of Academy of Islamic Studies 2006-2011. Involved in curricula development, design and monitoring of Islamic Shariah Higher Degrees at University and national level as Senate Member of the University, member of the national accreditation committee of Malaysia Qualification Agency (MQA) 2010-2019, auditor and panel assessor for the same agency since 1997. Conferred DSDK by His Majesty the Sultan of Kedah which carries the title Dato' in the conjunction of His Highness 88th birthday on 17th January 2016 for excellent and loyal service. Born in 1962 in Kedah and married to Raihanah Abdullah, with four children (three boys and a daughter) and two grandchildren.

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.

Norma-Rashid is an avid researcher on faunistic living treasures with an extensive field experience. Her job involves four domains teaching, research, administration and providing scientific services to a wider community. The central theme of her research interest is behavioural ecology in the laboratory or various ecosytems (mangrove, marine, riverine, agricultural and forest) in wide ranging animals (insects, spiders & scorpions, selected vertebrates including humans). Currently, she has developed a passion for various aspects (biomonitoring, biocoenosis, ecomorphometrics, taxonomy, behaviour and ecology of dragonflies & spiders. She has described a myriad of species found to be new local records or new to science promoting Malaysian megabiodiversity. Being the only trained local odonatist led her to many connections and recognitions of international repute. Some of her collaborations include Natural History Museum, Leiden, Sussex University, Harvard University, Universiti Brunei Darussalam and National Univesity of Singapore. Her teaching techniques exploited her behaviour expertise relating animal behavioural repertoire as tool usage in capturing student interests which led onto enthusiastic learning. Relating her field activities; I always feel fortunate being part of an expedition as it is a voyage of discovery...