Biographical note

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. Dr. Mukhlis A. Rahman is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Petroleum & Renewable Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor, Malaysia. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2004. He began his academic career as a tutor in the Department of Gas Engineering, UTM. He obtained a Master’s of Engineering (M. Eng) in 2006 before was appointed as Lecturer at UTM. In 2007, he undertook his PhD studies at Imperial College London, United Kingdom, focusing his research on ceramic hollow fiber membranes with micro-reactor characteristics. After receiving his PhD in 2011, he was promoted to Senior Lecturer at UTM. He is currently supervising a number of PhD students and Master degree students, with current research interests in inorganic/ceramic membranes for fluid separation. To date, he has published one original research book and more than 100 articles in refereed journals, with an h-index of 15. He has also led 12 research grants and has been a member of more than 50 research projects. Mohd Hafiz Dzarfan Othman is an Associate Professor in Department of Energy Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering; the Deputy Director of Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC); and also Head of the Renewable Energy Research Group, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia. He received his Bachelor and Master degrees from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and PhD from Imperial College London, United Kingdom. Dr. Othman’s current research focus is on development of inexpensive ceramic/polymer membranes for environmental protection and energy generation. Until 2017, he has supervised 29 PhD students and 19 Master degree students and has published almost 100 articles in Scopus-indexed journals, with an h-index of 15. He has been the principal investigator in 20 research projects (including two international grants) and co-investigator in another 50 projects, with a total worth of RM 16million (about USD 4million). Through these projects, he and his research team have successfully developed a novel membrane for the treatment of recalcitrant organic pollutant in water as well as an economical fuel cell for efficient electricity generation. He has been granted two patents and 10 more are currently being examined. Dr. Othman is an active member of the Young Scientist Network-Academy of Science Malaysia (YSN-ASM), a group of outstanding young scientists of Malaysian nationality with an age less than 40 years old who have the capability to contribute to strengthening the Malaysia scientific community. He was also selected as a member of the prestigious Global Young Academy (GYA). Professor Takeshi Matsuura is a senior academic with a career spanning more than 50 years and has held several distinguished posts in many countries including the USA, Canada, Japan, Germany and Singapore. Most recently he joined the University of Ottawa (1992) as the British Gas/NSERC Industrial Research Chair. He served as professor of the Department of Chemical Engineering and the director of the Industrial Membrane Research Institute (IMRI) until he retired in 2002 and was appointed as professor emeritus in 2003. He received the Research Award of International Desalination and Environmental Association in 1983. He is a fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada and a member of the North American Membrane Society. He has delivered plethora of invited lectures and presentations to many of the world’s foremost scientific events and conferences. He has published over 400 papers in refereed journals, authored and co-authored 6 books and edited 8 books. A special symposium was held at the Eighth Annual Meeting of the North American Membrane Society to honour Prof. Matsuura (together with Dr. S. Sourirajan) for life-long contributions to membrane research and a similarly the International Conference on Membrane Science and Technology 2013 was held in his honour. In addition, he has received the George S. Glinski Award for Excellence in Research and the occasion of his 75th birthday was marked with a special edition of the journal Desalination.