Dr Lau is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Business and Economics,  academic board member of Asia-Europe Institute (AEI) and researcher at Malaysia-Japan Research Centre (MJRC), Universiti Malaya. He previously served as Deputy Dean (Postgraduate) of the Faculty of Economics and Administration (2020-21), and Head of Department (Applied Statistics) for two terms (2013-14 and 2021). Apart from lecturing Statistics and Econometrics at FEA since 2006, he was invited to teach MBA and undergraduate classes in International Finance and Financial Econometrics at the Faculty and Graduate School of Business (GSB), University of Malaya, and both MBA and undergraduate classes at the IUMW between 2009 and 2010.

Prior to joining academia, he worked for four years in financial institutions before being awarded the Monbusho Scholarship (MEXT) by the Japanese Government. He studied at the Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University, under the supervision of Emeritus Professor Kazuhiko Nishina, Professor of Finance,  former Dean of the Graduate School of Economics and Vice President of Osaka University. In addition to presenting his work at Nippon Finance Association Conference in Tokyo (2004 & 2005), he was selected for the Asian FA / FMA Doctoral Student award for presenting his work at the Asian Finance Association Conference in Taipei (2004), Kuala Lumpur (2005) and Auckland (2006). 

From Sept 2012 to May 2013, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Risk Management Institute, National University of Singapore (NUS), a research group member in credit rating dynamics. He also attended the Executive Education Program in Portfolio Management, Asset Allocation and Behavioral Finance conducted by Emeritus Professor Burton Malkiel, Yacine Ait-Shalia, Harrison Hong and colleagues at the Bendheim Center for Finance, Princeton University, in June 2013.

He was invited by the Malaysian Productivity Centre (MPC) to collaborate in the Competitiveness Opinion Survey 2014-2015 and contribute to Malaysia's Business Optimism Index (BOI) study by Dun & Bradstreet, authoring a professional text for the Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII) from 2014 to 2015. He participated in a consultative project with RAM Holdings Berhad in 2020-21, and was also part of a team in an international project under Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), led by Heriot-Watt University and  funded by  the UK Government (https://researchcovid19pandemic.com/research-collaboration-and-funding/). He has also been invited by Universitas Airlangga for an International Research Collaboration from 2023 to 2025. 

He has worked and supervised students in applied finance, financial economics, econometrics and capital market. 20 of his PhD students have passed their viva voce. His earlier work confirms the relationship between equity style and fund performance (MF, 2007). His later work establishes economic content and information transmission in equity-style indices as leading economic indicators (Ekonomie a Mgmt, 2015) and information content on Islamic equity stylie indices, a joint work with Dr Shahrin Shaharuddin (EMFT, 2017; CEF, 2017; CMR, 2017; JIMEF, 2020). His joint work with his former PhD student, Dr You-How Go, has new findings for spot futures relation in Crude Palm Oil Market (Resources Policy, 2017; J. Commodity Markets, 2020; NAJEF, 2021; JES, 2023; NAJEF, 2024).

His recent work explores market participants' trading behaviour in the Japanese Stock Market during QE tapering (APFM, 2019) and Indonesian Stock Market (ICMR, 2021). Todate, he has authored two books for Palgrave Macmillan (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-97-0980-9), a professional text for Malaysian Insurance Institute, one open university module, two BOI reports, and two edited books for university press. In addition, he has been cited by the press and interviewed by the media (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBmCmC5eHRM).

He has been invited to present his work at BNM Economics Research Workshop, Development Economics Research Group (DECRG) Half-Baked Seminar at the World Bank Research Hub in Malaysia, Asian Finance Association Conference, Nippon Finance Association Conference, JEPA International Conference (Awaji Yumeibutai International Conference Center), Japan Finance Association (Kobe & Tokyo), PBFEAM Conference, Malaysian Finance Association International Conference (MFAIC), Malaysian Statistics Conference (MyStats), National Financial Literacy Symposium (NFLS), FAEA Conference, ISI Regional Conference, BMEB Conference by Bank Indonesia Institute in Bali, 13th NCTU and 16th NYCU  International Finance Conference (National Yang-Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan), ISBIS Conference in Barcelona, Piraeus, and Kuala Lumpur, DTI Conference organised by the Institute of Economics (Ural Branch) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He received the Best Paper Award at the 23rd and 24th Malaysian Finance Association International Conference in 2021 and 2022 and the Call for Paper Award (Best Paper) at the University-Industry Talent Bridging Conference organised by the Institute for Capital Market Research Malaysia (ICMR) in 2023. He was selected for an international joint training workshop on Environmentally Green Technology and Net Zero Emission at the National Tsing Hua University from 17 to 28 Oct 2023, funded by the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), Taiwan. He was selected as a recipient of the AUA Scholar Award 2023-2024.

Dr Lau is an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), ISBIS Council Member (2019-2023), and EXCO member of the Malaysian Economic Association (MEA). He has also served as Jan Tinbergen Awards Committee member under the International Statistical Institute (ISI). Before this, he was the Hon. Secretary (2018 to 2022) and Hon. Treasurer (2014-2018) of MEA. He also served as Hon. Secretary of the Malaysian Finance Association (MFA) from 2015 to 2019 and was a founding member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) Malaysian chapter in 2008. Beyond academia, he was an Officer Cadet at PALAPES USM (1992-95) and commissioned by HM The King as Reserve Officer (Lt M) on 17 June 1995. At present, he is an active member of Japan Graduates' Association of Malaysia (JAGAM).