Datin Dr Mariani Bt Md Nor received her Bachelor Degree In Science Education from University of Malaya and obtained her Ph.D in Children Cognitive Psychology from Bristol University, Bristol, United Kingdom in 1998. Currently, she is a Professor and Director of Early Childhood Education Center at the Faculty of Education, University of Malaya. She is currently the Vice President for Early Chilhood Care & Education (ECCE) Council Malaysia.

Dr Mariani’s research interests include cognitive psychology, early childhood education, developmental psychology, educational psychology, psychology: human development, psychology: child and adolescent development. Her niche area focuses on children psychology/early childhood education.

Datin Dr Mariani Md Nor had received 4 international awards, I national award and 14 university awards. Among them are: Silver Medal (1st Runner Up) – Overall Category IKBAR – Development of New Instrument for Measuring Adversity Quotient (AQ) Among Polytechnic Students Using Rasch Measurement (International Research Conference And Innovation Exhibition (IRCIE 2016), Gold Medal Development of IKBAR in Measuring Adversity Quotient (AQ) For  Students Using Rasch Model (International Research Conference And Innovation Exhibition (IRCIE 2016), Excellent Service Awards (2003, 2006, 2007, 2013), and has worked for 22 years at University of Malaya and was awarded loyal service from the university in 2014.

Datin Dr Mariani Md Nor participated actively in research expos, conferences and seminars where she has received 1 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze medals. She had published 66 articles in refereed journal, with 10 ISI articles and 11 scopus as well as some articles in conference proceeding. She has written 27 books and had conducted more than 150 presentations either as keynote speaker, invited speaker, workshop presenter, poster presenter and conference paper presenter at international and national conferences. She is also one of the founding members of Global Alliance for Educational Change and Social Development who represented Faculty of Education University of Malaya.

She had supervised 34 PhD students (15 graduated, 2 waiting for Viva, 17 on-going), 11 Master’s students (Dissertation) & 24 Master's students (Mixed Mode), 115 Master’s students (Project Paper all graduated) and 129 Bachelor Degree students. Datin Dr Mariani Md Nor teaches average 3 courses per semester and assumes various administrative roles at the faculty.

Currently, she is the Vice President of the Early Child Care & Education Council Malaysia. She has also contributed a lot to the society namely for the betterment of young children’s education and elderly people in Malaysia as well as in other Asian region. She has been holding the post of the advisor for the Early Childhood Education Society University of Malaya since 1997 and the society is one of the top most active societies in the University. Datin Dr Mariani serves the country as one of the prominent intellectual commentators in electronic media (Astro, TV1/2/3, Bernama, AlHijrah) pertaining to psychological aspects of life.

Her international lustre and networking is well acknowledged by universities from China, Hong Kong, United States of America, Japan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and others. She is one of the key resource persons for certain universities in Indonesia pertaining to the development of early childhood education program. She is also appointed as the visiting Professor for MSU in Early Childhood Education Program and as the visiting scolar at the University Yogjakarta, Indonesia in 2017. Being the expert in Early Childhood Education and Psychology, she is given the trust to be academic advisors in several university colleges in Malaysia.

Her concept in life is she is 99.9% sure not everybody likes the way she is but she is 100% sure she is not bothered about it to make sure she could give happiness to other people and help the needies.