Professor Adeeba Kamarulzaman graduated from Monash University in 1987 and trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Monash Medical Centre and Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. She is presently the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya and an Adjunct Associate Professor at Yale University, USA. She established the Centre of Excellence for Research on AIDS (CERiA) that conducts multi-disciplinary research on HIV ranging from clinical to public health and policy research. Professor Kamarulzaman has used her clinical and academic leadership to engage in the national and community response to HIV/AIDS. She is currently Chairman of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation and an Executive Council member of the Malaysian AIDS Council, the peak HIV NGO in Malaysia. At the international level, Professor Kamarulzaman is presently an Executive Council Member of the International AIDS Society and a member of the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel on HIV. She has also been an advisor to numerous WHO committees on HIV/AIDS. She has played a key role in the establishment and ongoing activities and collaborations of a regional HIV research network initiative; TREAT Asia. Her achievements have been recognised through several national and international awards including the Tun Mahathir Science and the Merdeka Awards for her role as a member of the University of Malaya’s Nipah Investigative Team. She is the first recipient of the Advance Australia Global Award in the category of Alumni in 2012 and in April 2015 she was honoured with a Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) from her alma mater, Monash University. She also has the distinct honour of having been featured in both The Lancet and Science publications in 2013 and 2014 respectively.  

Dr. Chui Pin Leaw is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES), University of Malaya. Her research pertains to marine protistology and phycology, focusing on the studies of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). Her research spans ecology, taxonomy, molecular systematics, evolution, and the genetics and toxigenesis of harmful toxic microalgae. She commenced her academic career at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) in September 2008 as a senior lecturer DS51 in the Faculty of Resource Science and Technology, and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation (IBEC). She obtained her First Class BSc. (H), in Marine Science from the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) and subsequently earned her MSc. and Ph.D. in Marine Science from the same institution. She is affiliated with professional organizations pertinent to her field of study, including the International Society for the Study of Harmful Algae (ISSHA), the Phycological Society of America (PSA), and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). She is actively engaged in editorial responsibilities, having been appointed as a reviewer for high-impact factor journals (BMC Evolutionary Biology, PlosONE, Harmful Algae, Scientific Reports), and has served as a regional editor on the editorial board of Harmful Algae News. Throughout her academic tenure, she has mentored over 40 undergraduate students, six Ph.D. candidates and 16 MSc students who have completed their studies under her guidance. 

Dr. Ng Ching Ching obtained her Ph.D. from Osaka University, Japan in 2003. After which, she joined Universiti Malaya as a lecturer. She is currently a Professor at the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Programme, Institute of Biological Sciences. Throughout her service at Universiti Malaya, she has had the privilege of becoming a visiting researcher in RIKEN, Japan (2006, 2010) and the University of Sydney, Australia (2015). Her area of expertise includes molecular genetics, human genetics and genomic medicine. Her current research focus is on the genetic susceptibility and pathogenic mechanisms of cancers and some common complex diseases, the genetic basis of rare diseases and HLA pharmacogenetic markers of drug-induced severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs). She works closely with clinicians with the aim of translating her research into practice and policy.