Professor Dr. Yvonne Lim Ai Lian currently serves as the Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International) at Universiti Malaya. She holds the position of Senior Professor in the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, and is a member of the University Senate. A Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM), she also co-chairs the Asia Pacific Women in Leadership Programme and is a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities.

Throughout her career, Dr. Lim has held several prominent university and national leadership positions, including Deputy Dean (Research) at the Faculty of Medicine, Director of the International Relations Office, and Associate Vice-Chancellor of Global Engagement at Universiti Malaya. She also served as the President of the Malaysian Society of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine and as a Council Member of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia.

Her research focuses on unravelling the complex host-parasite-environment interactions that contribute to diseases among indigenous and underserved communities, aiming to develop multi-targeted solutions. Additionally, she studies the diversity of gut and skin microbiomes across communities spanning diverse socioeconomic and ecological gradients, ranging from traditional to industrialized societies.

For nearly three decades, she has focused on studying infectious diseases among the Orang Asli (indigenous) communities of Peninsular Malaysia, collaborating closely with the Hospital Orang Asli Gombak. Her active involvement in shaping national policies, including contributing to the Orang Asli Development Policy (DPOA), underscores her deep commitment to community welfare.

Her collaboration with New York University revealed how low levels of helminth (worm) infections promote the growth of probiotic gut microbiota, a groundbreaking discovery published in Science (2016). Her research on the gut microbiome has since expanded to include studies among HIV and cancer patients. More recently, her work in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the USA has delved deeper into parasitic infections and gut microbiome dynamics, as well as the association between skin infections and the skin microbiome.

Dr. Lim’s work has been supported by a range of national and international grants, including the prestigious US NIH R01 grants. More recently, she was awarded another US NIH R01 grant as the principal investigator. She has published over 250 peer-reviewed scientific articles, contributed 9 book chapters, and authored 3 books. A dedicated mentor, she has supervised to completion more than 40 postgraduate students and hosted researchers through extensive collaborations spanning countries such as the US, UK, Australia, Germany, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore.

Dr. Lim has held visiting research and academic roles at prominent institutions, including the Scottish Parasite Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory (formerly Scottish Parasite Diagnostic Laboratory) in Glasgow, Scotland; the Department of Veterinary Science at the University of Melbourne, Australia; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA; and the Department of Molecular Parasitology and Tropical Diseases at Taipei Medical University, Taiwan.

Dr. Lim has received a host of accolades, including the MSPTM Medal (2008) for outstanding young scientists, the Universiti Malaya Excellent Lecturer Award for Science Disciplines (2015), and the Top Research Scientists of Malaysia Award (2016). In 2017, she was inducted as a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia. Dr. Lim has also been featured in the Stanford University's list of the top 2% of scientists globally in her field for several consecutive years.

In 2021, she was honoured with the Fulbright Scholar Award (2021/2022) for a fellowship at the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases at NIAID, NIH, USA. Most recently, she received the prestigious Sandosham Gold Medal Award in 2024, the highest distinction awarded by the Malaysian Society of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine, for her outstanding achievements in the fields of parasitology and tropical medicine.

Dr. Lim is deeply passionate about her journey with the Orang Asli (indigenous) communities and is dedicated to inspiring and empowering her colleagues and students to achieve their fullest potential.