Hi, I am an Associate Professor at the Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS), Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya (UM), and the Founding Director of the Universiti Malaya Sustainable Development Centre (UMSDC) since 2022. I began my academic career at UM after completing my PhD in Science and Technology Policy at SPRU, University of Sussex, in 2009. My educational background includes a BSc in Ecology from the Insitute Biological Sciences, Universiti Malaya and an MSc in Environmental Management and Policy from the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE), Lund University, Sweden. My research primarily explores the intersection of science, technology, and innovation (STI) with environmental sustainability, particularly within the context of sustainable development and the challenges faced by late-industrializing countries. Over the years, I have expanded my interdisciplinary approach to contribute to Sustainability Science, engaging in areas such as sustainability transitions, education for sustainable development, participatory watershed management, place-based citizen science, and social innovation. I am actively involved in teaching and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students, integrating environmental sciences with STI policy, management, and governance. My commitment to campus sustainability dates back to my student years and continues today. From 2009 to 2013, I served as Deputy Coordinator and later Principal Coordinator of UM’s ecocampus initiative. In 2014, I became the founding Director of UMCARES, the university’s Sustainability and Community Centre at the time (now rebranded as UM's Community Engagement), and played a key role in shaping the UM Campus Sustainability Living Lab Programme during my tenure.  Within the civil society, space I was the founding principal coordinator of UM’s Water Warriors, one of the university’s pioneering greening movements and Living Lab, focusing on participatory watershed conservation. Today, I continue to contribute as an academic volunteer, working alongside dedicated colleagues and students across generations to promote environmental stewardship, within the UM campus and beyond. Additionally, I serve as an advisor to Inspirasi Kawa, a community-based environmental organization in Kuala Selangor, and Sekitar Kita, a university-based social enterprise. I am also a research associate with the social enterprise Urban Biodiversity Initiative (UBI) Beyond Malaysia, I represent UM in regional and international sustainability networks, including the ASEAN University Network on Ecological Education and Culture (AUN-EEC) and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Malaysia Chapter. Previously, I was a networking fellow under the Universities and Research Council Network on Innovation for Inclusive Development in Southeast Asia (UNIID-SEA) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Asia Core Programme on Asian-Oriented Integrated Watershed Management. For more details, please visit my my full UMEXPERT profile. 

Dr. Amin Amirdabbaghian is a Senior Lecturer in Translation and Interpreting Studies at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Univeriti Malaya. His main areas of research interest include socio-ideological aspects of translation, literary translation and audiovisual translation.

Dr. Vandana Saxena is a scholar of South and Southeast Asian literature, postcolonial theory, memory studies, gender, and childhood studies, with two decades of teaching and research experience across Malaysia, Vietnam and India. She is the author of Memory and Nation-Building: World War II in Malaysian Literature and The Subversive Harry Potter, and has published widely in leading indexed journals. Recipient of multiple research grants and awards, she has supervised postgraduate work on literature, history, and cultural studies. Her work bridges literary scholarship and pedagogy, exploring the intersections of narrative, identity, and social change in transnational contexts.