Dr. Wan Abd Al Qadr Imad Wan-Mohtar is an Associate Professor and fermentation technologist at the University of Malaya's Functional Omics and Bioprocess Development Laboratory, located in the Faculty of Science, Institute of Biological Sciences. Professor Brian McNeil, a fungal fermentation expert, and Professor Linda Harvey, author of Practical Fermentation Technology (John Wiley & Sons), supervised him at Glasgow's Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Wan-Mohtar's research focuses on extended liquid fermentation and mushroom microbiology. He holds a BSc in Microbiology (Local Basidiomycetes), an MSc in Food Biotechnology (Bioprocessing), and a PhD in Fermentation Technology (Ganoderma lucidum). He applies his mushroom liquid growing skills to extract mushroom colours, protein, polysaccharides, and oil for SDG2 Zero Hunger, SDG6 Clean Water and Sanitation, and SDG7 Affordable and Clean Energy. He represented Malaysia among nineteen international scientists on food security post-2050 at the ''Innovative, sustainable, and circular agricultural systems for the future" utilising mushrooms in Morocco in 2019 and Korea in 2023. At the age of 40, he has 150 high-quality research articles and has been appointed as a Visiting Research Fellow at Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest in Ireland through 2024. He has also been appointed to the Young Scientist Network (YSN)- Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) till 2024, the Asian Federation of Biotechnology Malaysia (2023-2026), the Solar Research Institute (SRI) UiTM, CESPRO UKM Research Fellow (2021-2023) and Academic Fellow: Research Fellow for UNAIR (2023-2026). He recently published a chapter on Cultivation Strategies of Medicinal Mushrooms in Submerged-liquid Fermentation (SLF) (2019) and Ganoderma in Traditional Culture (2024) with Taylor & Francis. He has finished sabbatical break at United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) in 2024-2025 on hot-climate mushroom discovery (Arabian truffles). His current plan for mycology is to create Mycotechnology Research Centre Malaysia (MRCM) which covers key mycology goals such as Mycoremediation, Mycoprotein, Mycoenergy and MycoConstruction. He is top-2% scientist 2025 by Stanford University in the field of biotechnology
Current niche area: Mycoremediation using Ganoderma
Future and Functional foods
Fungal Oils