Professor Ir. Dr. U. Johnson Alengaram is the Director of the Centre for Innovative Construction Technology (CICT), a Research Centre under the Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is listed among the top 2% of the world’s scientists by Stanford University through Elsevier Data Repository and is also the recipient of outstanding achievement awards in most of the institutions he served. He has been serving as a research fund evaluator of different countries, including South American, Asian, and European countries. He is also recognized as an external examiner for doctoral theses and an evaluator for promotional exercises. He was the programme coordinator for developing a new MEng by coursework at the Universiti Malaya. He is also an advisor and examiner for the MEng programme in other universities. His industrial collaboration resulted in bringing research projects from industries to solve some of the imperative issues in material, mechanical, durability, and structural properties.  He is a Chartered Civil Engineer of the world-renowned Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE, UK) and the Engineering Council (UK); he is also a Companion Member of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (CIEM), a member of the American Concrete Society (ACI-Kuala Lumpur Chapter), and a life member of the Concrete Society of Malaysia (CSM). Professor Ir. Dr. U. Johnson Alengaram has supervised 32 research candidates, including Doctoral (PhD) and Master of Engineering Science by Research Mode (MEng Sci.), to graduation. In addition, he has a number of patents and copyrights for his inventions. His current Web of Science (WoS) h-index stands at 56 based on the publication of over 190 journal articles from the Web of Science Core Collection. He started the University of Malaya's Institution of Civil Engineers Student Chapter (UMICESC), and currently he is the staff advisor. UMICESC serves as the professional student body for undergraduate students to enhance their professional attributes, so they can strive towards becoming CEng MICE after graduation and appropriate training. In his Master of Engineering in Structural Engineering, as part of his MEng thesis, he utilized jute as a sustainable replacement material for conventional wood. His MEng research project was acclaimed as one of the best innovative works, and the specimens of his research project, Sandwiched Plywood, were displayed at the International Exhibition held in Delhi, India. Dr Manmohan Singh, former Prime Minister of India (then Union Finance Minister) who inaugurated the exhibition, had a special word for his work on jute; he continued his research for his doctoral research using sustainable industrial by-products and investigated mechanical and structural behaviour that provided in-sight into vital characteristics on the ductility behaviour of oil palm shells—that he went on to develop as a blast-resistant concrete—using oil palm shell as a whole replacement for normal aggregate. Professor Ir. Dr. U. Johnson Alengaram has been in academic, consultancy, research, and administration for over twenty-five years and has contributed to society in different capacities in India, Bahrain, and Malaysia. His current research involves the utilization of industrial by-products, low-carbon footprint materials, and waste materials in the development of one-part geopolymer, low-carbon cement, and limestone calcinated clay cement (LC3) in mortar and concrete; other research aspects include lightweight aggregate, material characteristics, crack-healing mortar using microalgae, lightweight aggregate concrete, foamed concrete, geopolymer concrete, and impact & blast-resistant concrete. His experimental works revolve around investigations on microstructural behaviour, mechanical properties and durability characteristics, structural behaviour, functional behaviour etc. He is the recipient of outstanding achievement awards in most of the institutions he served. He and his research team won gold and silver medals at international and national exhibitions on concrete engineering & technology. He was the project director of two housing projects at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that utilized industrial by-products. His decade-long research work on geopolymer concrete enabled him and his team to construct the first cement-free house (superstructure) in Malaysia with the collaboration of Vinci Construction, a French-based construction conglomerate; this house is currently being used by bus drivers and serves as a research hub. He is the Principal Investigator of many research projects and has received numerous research grants from the University of Malaya research fund, the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, and national and international grants, including the prestigious Newton-Ungku Omar Coordination Fund: UK-Malaysia Research & Innovation Bridges Competition. He has a research collaboration with various universities in Malaysia, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, Japan, Jordan, Oman, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam. He has been invited by various universities in different countries to give keynote lectures at international conferences, seminars, and research workshops.  Prof. Ir. Dr. U. Johnson Alengaram serves as an Associate Editor in the Journal of Sustainable Cement-Based Material, Australian Journal of Civil Engineering, and Editorial Board Member of the Jordanian Journal of Civil Engineering (JJCE); he also served as Chairperson of the SIRIM Committee for "Eco Labelling of Criteria for Reused By-Products Aggregates" and reviewer of multiple international journals. He has organized workshops, conferences, and seminars and trained school students to win local and international awards; further, as the Director of CICT, he has pioneered the activities of the centre to contribute to society, and thus many national and international researchers and students are being trained regularly in the centre.  He has been the organizing secretary, co-chair, and advisor of international conferences and workshops.  

Prof. Lim is a Senior Consultant Endocrinologist and Head of the Department of Research, Development, and Innovation at Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is the former Head of the Diabetes Care Unit, Universiti Malaya (2022-2025). She also holds honorary positions at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia. As a clinician-scientist, Prof. Lim’s major areas of interest are cardiometabolic medicine (epidemiology, molecular, and implementation science).  Prof. Lim sits on the Working Groups of the WHO Global Diabetes Compact, The Lancet Commission on Diabetes, and the American Diabetes Association/European Association for the Study of Diabetes (ADA/EASD) Precision Medicine in Diabetes Initiative. She recognizes that every person with diabetes and non-communicable disease (NCD) is unique and warrants personalized care. To revolutionize health care, Prof. Lim aims to advance the implementation of Precision Medicine in Diabetes and NCD, taking into account differences in clinical presentation, genes, and lifestyles in Malaysian populations. These have led to several collaborations with the USA, UK, and other Asian countries. She has published in more than 130 high-impact journals, including The Lancet, Nature, Diabetes Care, and Science Bulletin.  Prof. Lim has received several awards, including the Universiti Malaya’s Top Cited Researcher 2024, World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University for 4 consecutive years (2022-2025), and the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) Albert Renold Fellowship, tenable at the University of Oxford, UK. She has also received a scholarship funded by the USA NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences for training in statistical genetics at the University of Washington, USA.  She is also the Vice President of Diabetes Malaysia (a country affiliate of the International Diabetes Federation) 2025-2027, and the Council Member of the Malaysian Endocrine and Metabolic Society 2022-2026. She is an Editorial Board Member of 4 Q1 Web of Science-indexed journals (BMC Medicine; Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism; Diabetes/Metabolism Research & Reviews, and Diabetes & Metabolism Journal). Dr. Lim is an article reviewer for 30 leading academic journals, including the European Heart Journal, Diabetes Care, PLoS Medicine, and The Lancet series.

After graduating from Western Michigan University, I was given the opportunity to serve in various industries. I started my career as Personnel Assistant in the hotel industry in 1998. Then, I pursued a similar career as Human Resources Executive in the manufacturing and insurance industries in 2000 and 2001, respectively. I ended my career in human resources after leaving the insurance industry in 2003 and continued my studies in Diploma in Education (TESL)(Kursus Perguruan Lepasan Ijazah /Ministry of Education) at the International Languages Teacher Training Institute (IPBA) in 2004. In 2005, I began my career in teaching at two government polytechnics in Kota Kinabalu and Port Dickson prior to my transfer of service to Universiti Malaya as Language Teacher DG41 in 2007. Presently, I hold the post as Language Lecturer DG48 in the English Language Department, Faculty of Languages & Linguistics.