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. 

Khong obtained his Bachelor’s Degree and PhD in Sports Sciences from the University of Malaya. He has been working in exercise physiology labs since 2013,and from 2018 - 2019 he was a senior lecturer in the Department of Sports Sciences, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) University College, mainly lecturing on exercise physiology subjects as well as some sports psychology and motor control and learning courses. He began his new career, also as a senior lecturer, at his alma mater, University of Malaya, since 2020. He specialises in exercise physiology and exercise testing, particularly laboratory-based cardiovascular fitness (VO2max) test and isokinetic & isometric strength tests. His research field mainly involves usage of nutrition intervention to prevent exercise fatigue in both endurance exercise and muscular force demanding situations. He has also started to delve into works investigating effects of exercise on health conditions such as diabetes and sarcopenia. On the administration end, he is currently the program coordinator for the Master's Degree in Strength and Conditioning.

Jiankun Gong publishes on application of media effects theories in the digital context, emerging communication technologies, and computational social science.  He is  also focusing on health communication and how (social) media helps to communicate health and science.  Also, he has interests in migration and student mobility studies. His works have been published at Digital Journalism, Social Media + Society, Journalism among others. He serves as associate editor, peer reviewer at various journals, conferences (ICA, NCA etc.).