PROFESSOR IR. DR. MOHD AZLAN BIN HUSSAIN

Prof. Ir. Dr. Mohd Azlan Hussain graduated in BSc (Chemical Eng) from Sheffield University in 1980 and was design engineer in Esso Production Malaysia for five years before joining the academic field in 1985 at University of Malaya. His research in modeling and process control began after the MSc course in Univ. of Tulsa, USA in 1987. In 1991, he was sponsored by UNESCO to present his research work in aspects of instrumentation design in Bandung, Indonesia. Further, to that in 1991 he was sponsored by the Japanese Society for promotion of Science (JSPS) under a prestigious award for a scientific exchange program at Kyoto University, Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokushima Universities (all top ranked universities in Japan). In 1992, he was sponsored by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to pursue various  short courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Instrument of Society of America training center for 2 months.

His research work on the use of artificial intelligence and nonlinear techniques for modeling and controls developed further after his PhD at Imperial College in 1996, under the Malaysian Government sponsorship. On returning to Malaysia, he started the process control research group including the setting up of various process control laboratories for teaching and research activities in the department. Collaboration research work with Prof. I.M. Mujtaba of Bradford University and Prof. Paisan Kittisupakorn of Chulalongkorn University also started during this period. He was awarded the Royal Society of UK grant to collaborate with Prof. I.M. Mujtaba of Bradford University in 1999 and again in 2004 resulting in writing together a book “Application of neural network and other learning technologies in process engineering” and writing of over 10 research papers. Joint Supervision of 2 PhD students was also done in this period as well as collaboration with Pardova University, Italy. He was also sponsored by the Thailand Science fund to co-supervise PhD and Masters student at Chulalongkorn University Thailand between 1999 and 2003 with Prof. Paisan Kittisupakorn as well as giving various seminars in Thailand Universities. In 2003 and 2006, he obtained the JSPS/VCC Japanese Scientific exchange program grant to collaborate with various researchers in Kyoto University while giving seminars at the university and this collaboration resulted in the production of various papers and research reports.

He was also pioneer with other researchers in the Electrical Engineering Department for developing the Centre for research called UMPEDAC (Centre for Power Electronics, Drives, Automation and Control) at the Faculty of Engineering. This centre aims at combining various engineering disciplines within one centre to become the leader in the field of automation in the country. This centre has been awarded grants amounting to more than RM10 million, and was granted the status of a HICOE Centre in the country in the year 2008 by the Ministry of Higher Education. He has also been appointed by the Ministry of Science , Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) Malaysia to evaluate numerous projects at the national level for fund allocation and prize awards. He was also appointed as the panel committee for classification of research projects (MASTIC) in the science and technology sector at the national level. Further, to that he has evaluated research projects for various other universities in Malaysia and overseas such as for the Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Qatar National research Foundation and Austria Science Foundation.

He was organizing Chairman of the RSCE/SOMChE 2002 Conference, 8^th AUN /Seed Net Chemical Engineering Conference and Co-Chairman of the PSE Asia 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  He has also been appointed as the International Advisory committee for various major International conference such as the Asian Control Conference (Singapore, 2010), International Symposium on Dynamics and controls of Process Systems (Belgium, 2010), Process Systems Engineering Conference, (Since, 2012) and the World Process System Engineering Conference in U.S.A, 2018.

He is also the corporate member of the Board of Engineers Malaysia, Institute of Engineers Malaysia and IChemE, UK as well as a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and Institute of Engineering and Technology, U.K. He has been involved in the IChemE accreditation assessor training seminar in 2005, and was involved in the IChemE accreditation visit to University Technology Petronas in 2005 and advisor for IChemE accreditation to various universities in Malaysia and Indonesia. He has also been involved in organizing courses on process controls in the country as well as giving seminars on various aspects of nonlinear controls overseas which include the IChemE seminar on neural network (London, UK), Kyoto University (Japan), Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), Khon Khen University (Thailand), Burapha University (Thailand), National University of Singapore, Cambridge University (UK), Nottingham University (UK), Leeds University (UK) and Newcastle University (UK).

The above activities and expertise have resulted with various outputs which include graduation of 17 PhD and 21 Masters student and 7 Postdoc Researchers; 1 book; 9 book chapters; over 150 journal papers and 250 conference proceeding papers; external examiners to 45 PhD and 35 Masters students locally and abroad, as well as paper reviewers to over 70 journals and various books/book chapters. His contribution to research resulted in being appointed as the editorial board of the Asian-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering (Wiley)  Asean Journal of Chemical Engineering and the ACTA Chemica Malaysia Journal. The culmination of these achievements resulted in himself being awarded the university Excellent Service Awards in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014, as well as being appointed the Head of Department in 2003 and the Deputy Dean of the faculty in 2007 and again Head of Department in 2014. He is also included as the MARQUIS “Who’s Who in the world” personality in 2006 and the Who’s Who in the 21^st Century by the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge (2001). Also, he recently obtained grants to supply ultrafiltration units to flooded and remote areas in Malaysia under the Ministry of Education, Malaysia and in the process of commercializing such units. He was also awarded the Top Research Scientiest award by Akademi Sains Malaysia (ASM).