Biographical note

Dr. Woei Jye Lau is currently an associate professor in the School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Dr Lau has a very strong research interest in the field of membrane science and technology for water applications and has published >250 scientific papers with total number of Scopus citations exceeding 10,000. He is the author of the book Nanofiltration Membranes: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications published by CRC Press in 2017 and has edited several books published by CRC Press and Elsevier. Currently, Dr Lau serves as a subject editor for Chemical Engineering Research and Design (Elsevier) and is associate editor for Water Reuse (International Water Association). In recognition of his research excellence, Dr Lau received the Australian Endeavour Research Fellowship in 2015, UI-RESOLV Program 2016 (Indonesia), Mevlana International Exchange Program 2017/2018 (Turkey), Sakura Exchange Program 2018 (Japan), TÜBİTAK’s Fellowships for Visiting Scientists 2018 (Turkey), ASEAN-India Collaborative R&D Scheme 2019 and the 6th Science & Technology Exchange Program (Iran). A.F. Ismail is a Professor at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), where he runs a membrane technology research group at AMTEC. He has also held the post of Dean of Research for the Materials and Manufacturing Alliance at UTM. Dr. Ismail’s research interests cover membrane formation, membranes for wastewaster treatment and gas separation, and nanofibers and nanostructured materials for energy applications. He has authored or edited 4 books, and published several book chapters. Dr. Ismail has received several awards, including the ASEAN Young Scientist and Technologist Award in 2001 (the first Malaysian to receive this award), the Malaysian Young Scientist Award in 2000, and the Malaysian Intellectual Property Award for the Patent Category, and the Merdeka Award for Scholastic Achievements in 2014. He was also the first Malaysian scientist to twice win the National Innovation Award in Waste to Wealth and Product categories, both in 2009 and 2011. Prof. Dr. Ahmad Fauzi Ismail is the Founder and First Director of Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC). His research interest are in development of polymeric, inorganic and novel mixed matrix membranes for water desalination, waste water treatment, gas separation processes, membrane for palm oil refining, photocatalytic membrane for removal of emerging contaminants, development of haemodialysis membrane and polymer electrolyte membrane for fuel cell applications. His research has been published in many high impact factor journals. He also actively authored many academic books in this field which published by reputable international publishers. He is the author and co-author of over 600 refereed journals. He has authored 6 books, over 50 book chapters and 4 edited books, 6 Patents granted, 14 Patents pending. His h-index is 66 with cumulative citation of over 19,300. He won more than 150 awards national and internationally. Among the most prestigious award won is the Merdeka Award for the Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Category at 4th September 2014, Malaysia’s Rising Star Award 2016 for Frontier Researcher category at 1st November 2016, Malaysia’s Research Star Award 2017 on 5 October 2017, Malaysia’s Research Start Award 2018. Recently, He was appointed as UNESCO Chair on Groundwater Arsenic within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. He is the Chairman of Academy of Sciences Malaysia (Southern Region), Fellow of The Academy of Sciences Malaysia, Chartered Engineer in the UK (CEng) and a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (FIChemE). Ahmad Fauzi also served as the Editorial Board Members of Desalination, Journal of Membrane Water Treatment, Jurnal Teknologi, Journal of Membrane Science and Research, Journal of Membrane and Separation Technology and the Advisory editorial board member of Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology. He involved extensively in R&D&C for national and multinational companies related to membrane-based processes for industrial application and currently have two spin off companies. He is the founder of Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC) and now recognized as Higher Education Centre of Excellence (HICoE). Currently Ahmad Fauzi is the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research and Innovation, UTM. Arun M. Isloor is a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry and serving as a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India, since last 16 years. His research interests includes Membrane technology, Nanomaterials, Medicinal Chemistry & Polymer chemistry. Amir Al Ahmed is working as a Research Scientist-I in the IRC-Renewable Energy and Power Systems (IRC-REPS), at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia. He completed his Ph.D. (2003) degree in Applied Chemistry from the Department of Applied Chemistry, AMU, India, followed by three consecutive postdoctoral fellowships in South Africa and Saudi Arabia. During this period, he worked on various multidisciplinary projects, in particular, conducting polymer, electrochemical sensors, nano-materials, polymeric membranes, electro-catalysis and solar cells. At present, his research activity is fundamentally focused on 3rd generation solar cell devices, such as, low band gap semiconductors, quantum dots, perovskites, and silicon nanowire based tandem cells. At the same time, he is also having projects on energy storage technologies, such as, electricity, hydrogen (in porous materials) and heat. He has worked on different NSTIP, KACST and Saudi Aramco funded projects in the capacity of a principle and co-investigator. Dr. Amir has 8 US patents.