Hanafi Hussin is an Honorary Professor at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya.  He has received his Master's Degree and PhD in Cultural and Performing Arts Studies.  His current focus is on Southeast Asian anthropology, particularly ritual and performing arts. He actively researches and publishes on rituals and identity of the Kadazandusun community of Sabah, particularly in Penampang and Tuaran Sabah and Bajau and Bajau Laut/Sama Dilaut of the east coast of Borneo and Southern Philippines. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts (2022-2024) and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (2016-2018). Before his retirement, he also served as Head of the Maritime Social Sciences and Humanities Unit, Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES) and Head of Universiti Malaya Migration Research Centre (UMMRC), Universiti Malaya. He was appointed and served as a Visiting Professor at various universities, Huazhong Agriculture University, Wuhan, China (2024), Thammasat University (2021), Universitas Indonesia (2020-2021) and Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2020). He can be reached at hanafih@um.edu.my.

Rizal was part of the very first batch of Sport Science students that graduated from University of Malaya in 1999. In year 2000, he went on to pursue an MSc (Human Movement) at the University of Western Australia, graduated the following year and started to teach in UM in 2001. He formally completed his Phd from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Malaya in 2012; investigating the critical parameters of the ten-pin bowling delivery. Rizal’s primary focus is in on technical performance enhancement of various sport skills. More recent research include studying the reliability of the taekwondo scoring system, designing an apparatus to help the visually impaired exercise and; looking at the effects of leg length discrepancies on gait. He has also done work related in anthropometry and talent identification. Moreover, Rizal has a particularly keen interest in investigating and finding solutions for applied problems in an array of different fields. He was the Deputy Director of Undergraduate Studies & Development at the Centre for Sport & Exercise Sciences, UM from 2016 to 2019. He has also lead the transformation of UM sports facilities, which has seen a near ten fold increase in fixed monthly income in the last two years. At the same time he was instrumental in establishing the UM Sports Science Support Services (UM4S) which is the current commercial arm of the sports science labs.  On the sporting side, Rizal is an accomplished floorball and hockey player that played at all age group levels for KL hockey up to national junior’s team. Now an active coach, recently winning the 2018 National U14 gold with the KL ladies hockey team. The highlight of his coaching career thus far is being the assistant coach for the national mens hockey team in 2008/09. He was also the coach cum player for the Malaysian Floorball Team and won a bronze medal at the 2015, 2019 & 2023 SEA Games, and currently serves as the president of the Malaysian Floorball Association.

Professor Sr Ts. Dr. Syahrul Nizam was born in Klang, Selangor and married to a wonderful wife blessed with three children, Amierul Danish, Sarah Nuha and Ahmad Darwish. Syahrul starts his built environment career when completing a Certificate in Building Services Engineering from Polytechnic Jitra, Kedah (POLIMAS) in 1994. Upon completing his course, he has been a practical technician at the Holiday Inn Shah Alam for 6 months. During his training, Syahrul has been exposed to hands on and management works on maintenance aspects. After completing his studies at POLIMAS, Syahrul have been employed by a Civil & Structure Consultant which company was based in Petaling Jaya. Syahrul have been in the company for 11/2 years as an Autocad-Operator (Draught Person). Due to high enthusiasm and encouragement for continuing studies, Syahrul have been offered a place at University Science of Malaysia entering BSc. (Hons) Housing, Building & Planning course majoring in Building Technology in 1997. Looking at opportunities and support given by the university, Syahrul have continued his studies to the Masters level on Building Technology soon after graduating his first degree in 2000. Upon completing his degree course, Syahrul carried out a practical training as a civil engineer at Majlis Perbandaran Klang. During his training, he has been exposed with building design, procurement and government procedures that leads him to successfully completed the process of designing and tendering for the construction of 20 Units Food Complex in Klang, Selangor.  On leaving the University Science of Malaysia in 2001, Syahrul joined Corak Petikan Sdn. Bhd, a construction company based in Kedah as a Building Coordinator. From this company, Syahrul moved to join a public listed company Negara Properties (M) Berhad in 2002 as the Management Trainee. During this period, he has applied his extensive knowledge in building design, construction materials, construction management and procurements procedures in managing and supervising a construction project located at Nilai, Negeri Sembilan. Due to Syahrul great emphasize and interest on research field, Syahrul left his working environment and sailed for United Kingdom to undergo a research on buildings. Syahrul Nizam enrol as a PhD student at UMIST which is now University of Manchester in 2003 and later graduated in 2006 in the field of Facilities & Building Performances. During his studies, he has been actively involved in sports, social activities as well as research arena serving as Housing Bureau, Vice President of Malaysian Research Group, UK to name a few. Pursuing his career as academia, Syahrul Nizam joint University of Malaya on the 27th December 2007 and currently attached to the Building Surveying Department, Faculty of Built Environment. His expertise is in the field of Facilities & Building Performance. Prof. Syahrul currently holds over 150 publications in several ISI (WoS)/Scopus indexed journal as well as in reputable international and national journal. Prof. Syahrul is also the executive editor of the Journal of Surveying, Construction and Property, regional editorial for Journal of Facilities Management, UK (Emerald) and member of the editorial board for several international and local journals. Prof. Syahrul is also a Registered Building Surveyor, RISM; Professional Technologist, MBoT; Certified Facilities Management Manager, CIDB and Qualified Professional MyCrest, CIDB. Prof. Syahrul has made his present with the industry through his appointment as expert panel, technical advisors and committee members for JKR, CIDB, ISO as well several other government agencies and private organizations. Prof. Syahrul has received several awards including Outstanding Paper Award 2011 by Emerald UK, ISM Excellence Award: Best Article 2011and 2016 and Top Building Surveying Author in The Malaysian Surveyor 2013 and 2016 to name a few. Recently, Prof. Syahrul was awarded the Order of Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, S.I.S (Darjah Kebesaran Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah) by his Royal Sultan Selangor marking him as one of the high-ranking individuals who have contributed excellence to the Sultan of Selangor and His Majesty's Government. Professor Sr Ts. Dr. Syahrul Nizam has always being up to date with the current development and actively conducting research in the field of built environment nationally as well as internationally. Apart from numerous internal/local/ministry research grants, Prof. Syahrul has been given the trust to conduct a national level research by Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) research arm under Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia (CIDB) in developing Facilities Management Strategies in Malaysia. Under partnership with University of Manchester, UK, Prof. Syahrul was awarded a research grant under Newton Ungku Omar Fund by the British Council to look into Sustainability through Building Information Modeling (BIM) leading to the creation of the future cities for the UK and Malaysia. Moving on, Prof. Syahrul has led a team in developing Building Information Modelling Facilities Management training modules for CIDB. Currently, Prof. Syahrul is leading a research team in developing Electronic Energy Benchmarking System (EeBS) funded by JKR Malaysia.