Danny Wong Tze Ken is Professor of History at the Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya where he teaches history of Southeast Asia and History of China. His research interests include the Chinese in Malaysia, China’s relations with Southeast Asia and History of Sabah. He is currently Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya. He was Director of Global Planning & Strategy Centre, Universiti Malaya and former Director of the Institute of China Studies and former Head of the Malaysian Chinese Research Centre at the same university. He was Visiting Professor at Peking University (2018). He was also Visiting Yip (China) Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge University (2017-2018); Visiting Scholar at the Hakka College, National Central University, Taiwan (2017); and Visiting Professor at the Center for Integrated Area Studies, Kyoto University (2010). Professor Wong is a Member of the Board of Governors, Chinese Heritage Centre, Singapore and Council Member of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Member of the Board of Trustees, SEASREP Foundation, and a former Chairman of the UNESCO Southeast Asian Shared-History Textbook Technical Committee.  Among his publications are: The Kinabalu Guerrillas and the 1943 Jesselton Uprising (2020), Chinese Studies in Malaysia and Singapore in a Global Context (2019), One Crowded Moment of Glory: The Kinabalu Guerrillas and the 1943 Jesselton Uprising (2019), The Diaries of G.C. Woolley, Vol. 1: 1901-1907 (2015); Vol. 2: 1907-1913 (2016) & Vol. 3: 1913-1919 (2018); The Chinese Overseas in Malaysia in an Era of Change (2018), Historical Sabah: The War (2010), The Nguyen and Champa during 17th and 18th Century (2007), Historical Sabah: the Chinese (2005), Historical Sabah: Community and Society (2004), The Transformation of an Immigrant Society: a Study of the Chinese of Sabah (1998).

Dr Sanjay Rampal was appointed Executive Director of the Department of Research Development under the Office of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation), Universiti Malaya in March 2025. He is a Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and a Public Health Physician at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya. Dr Rampal was medically trained in India and served in the Ministry of Health, Malaysia from 1998 to 2005. The clinical experiences from his early medical career helped him realize that treating one patient at a time was insufficient and that more could be done by intervening at a population level. He improved his basic epidemiology and biostatistics knowledge by completing an MPH degree in 2004 from Harvard University. He joined Universiti Malaya in 2005, intending to strengthen the research skills of the Malaysian medical and public health community. He completed his PhD in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University in 2014. He was Certified in Public Health (CPH) by the US National Board of Public Health Examiners in 2013. Dr Rampal’s research has focused primarily on the epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular disease. He has investigated the etiological and prognostic roles of various factors with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. These factors include gender, ethnicity, nutrition, obesity, metabolic-associated fatty liver disease, dyslipidemia, and other structural determinants of health. He has further investigated the role of these traditional cardiovascular risk factors in cancer development. He hopes to leverage this information further to design and implement better prevention programs that reduce the number of new patients our healthcare system sees. In recent years, he has applied his epidemiological expertise to communicable diseases. He investigated the roles of Obesity and Diabetes on the prognosis of Dengue Severity. His methodological interests include improving research methodology, biostatistics, epidemiological designs, regression models, causal inference, multiple imputations, measurement error, and propensity scoring. Dr Rampal lectures in epidemiology, biostatistics, and research methods at Universiti Malaya. He has supervised 21 Doctoral, 10 4-year Master of Public Health, and 35 Master’s candidates to completion. He actively supervises 10+ postgraduate students. Since 2005, he has provided many methodological and biostatistical consultations to graduate students and clinical researchers. Dr. Rampal has published 89 WOS and 94 SCOPUS papers (h-index: 32 WOS, 39 SCOPUS; WOS Citations without Self-citations: 17,330) and supervised over 65 postgraduate students.   Dr Rampal is a Fellow of the Academy of Medicine Malaysia and was the past honorary secretary for the College of Public Health Medicine from 2006-2009 and an executive member from 2016 to 2024. He has chaired the Public Health Medicine Specialty Education Subcommittee at the Malaysian Medical Council since 2020. He was also a member of the Technical Advisory Committee for Health Technologies Economic Evaluation, Ministry of Health Malaysia, from 2017 to 2024. He had previously chaired the Malaysian National Conjoint Committee for Public Health Postgraduate Medical Program and the Public Health Society of the Malaysian Medical Association.   Dr Rampal heads the Western Pacific Regional Training Centre of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases(TDR). He is also an advisory member of the Global Health Program of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and an international advisory committee member of the ASEAN University Network Health Promotion Network. He is also a member of the International Epidemiology Association and a past member of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and the Society for Epidemiologic Research. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Rampal improved the prevention and control of COVID-19 through active research and translation. He had actively communicated with the public through the media on COVID-19 issues. He was a member of the following committees: 1) Science and Technology Expert Panel for Disaster Risk Reduction under the Health and Emerging Threat Cluster of the Malaysia Disaster Management Agency; 2) National COVID-19 Epidemiological Analysis Task Force under the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation; 3) AFC Covid-19 Advisory Expert Group; 4) UMMC COVID-19 Task Force; and 5) the Journal of Global Health Science Commission on COVID-19 Response.

I'm a Senior Lecturer at the English Language Department, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics. After more than two decades of working in language, communication and skills development, I joined UM in 2019 to contribute to progressing the field of health(care) discourse in Malaysia and beyond. In my current role, I teach languages and linguistics courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, while supervising and conducting research. Research Focus - Improving Health & Wellbeing by Applying a Discursive ToolkitI study matters related to language, health(care) and wellbeing, applying qualitative and discursive perspectives to address problems and inform practice in provider-patient interaction, health education and other related topics. I am particularly interested in analysis of real-life interaction, to answer questions on how people "do things" with language in health-related contexts. For example, how do doctors and patients collaboratively make decisions about treatment, manage chronic health conditions, and discuss concerns by interacting with each other in person or online? I'm also interested in communication in healthcare education, interprofessional discourse and patient education, alongside how people express and make meaning of health-related issues via their talk and stories. My current funded  projects include studies on professional socialisation of house officers (FRGS), patient experience of gum disease (IIRG, UM). Expertise -Enhancing Language and Communication in Diverse SettingsBeyond my research and academic duties, I help enhance language and communication in academic and professional settings, applying a diverse knowledge and skillset composed over 25 years of experience. Before joining academia, I was engaged in various positions mostly as a consultant/independent contractor, including as a language/content service provider for over 15 years and as a language/communication skills instructor for over 17 years. In these roles, I provided language consulting services and skills training for corporate and individual clients in Malaysia and internationally. I have a CELTA qualification and am a HRDF certified trainer. My work history is available at https://my.linkedin.com/in/ayeshah-syed-0468293 Professional Activities and LeadershipAt UM, I have been actively involved in advancement of research and academic practices. From 2022-2024, I led the research portfolio at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics as the Deputy Dean of Research and Innovation, with other appointments including as the Protem-Deputy Head of the Medical Devices Centre of Excellence, UM and Taskforce member for UM's Programme Educational goals. Outside the university, I  am involved in professional associations related to languages and linguistics and social advancement, including Persatuan Bahasa Moden Malaysia (President, 2022-2024, Vice President-2024 - 2026, Exco member since 2013) and the citizens' movement organisation, the Association of Voices of Peace, Conscience and Reason (Exco member - since 2016, Treasurer-2025-present).Research Collaboration and Supervision Opportunities I welcome potential collaborations aligned with my expertise and also enjoy connecting with other researchers to learn about their work, gain insight into new contexts, fields and perspectives and explore how I might contribute to their research activities.  In terms of postgraduate supervision, I supervise projects that apply discursive approaches to address problems in health-related contexts, focusing on interaction. Note to potential supervisees: I have limited availability for 2025-2026 due to a heavy supervision load.