Professor Ahmad Fauzi bin Ismail is the Founding Director of the Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), UTM. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical and Process Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom, under the Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholarship. Prof. Fauzi is the recipient of more than 200 prestigious national and international awards. Among his most notable accolades are the Mustafa Prize Award / (OIC/Muslim Nobel Prize) 2023 (the first Malaysian to receive the Award), The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Prize in Engineering Sciences 2019, Merdeka Award 2014, Malaysian Toray Science & Technology Foundation Award 2013, and three consecutive Malaysia’s Rising Star Awards (2016–2018), Malaysian Young Scientist Award, 2001. He also received the ASEAN Young Scientist and Technologist Award 2000 and the Elsevier Groundbreaking Research Award, 2025.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.
