Dr. Nor Hadiani Ismail was a Professor of Chemistry at the Faculty of Applied Sciences and former Director of the Atta-ur-Rahman Institute for Natural Products Discovery, Universiti Teknologi MARA. She obtained her B.Sc. (Honours in Chemistry) from the University of Waterloo, Canada, in 1986, and her Ph.D. in Natural Product Chemistry from Universiti Putra Malaysia in 1999. Her doctoral thesis, Chemistry and Biological Activity of the Roots of Morinda elliptica, supervised by Malaysia’s leading natural product chemist, Prof. Emeritus Dr. Nordin Lajis, was awarded the Tan Sri Ong Kee Hui Medal for Best Postgraduate Thesis 1999 by the Institut Kimia Malaysia.

As Head of the B.Sc. Applied Chemistry Programme at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, UiTM (2002–2007), Dr. Nor Hadiani actively promoted chemistry education and careers in chemistry. Her academic and research career grew in parallel with her involvement in the Malaysian Natural Products Society. She rose from a young researcher to a full professor while serving the society in various capacities, including ordinary committee member, assistant secretary, secretary, vice president, and eventually president in 2020. Her research group collaborated extensively with national universities and research agencies, as well as international partners from Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. Together, they explored Malaysia’s rich plant biodiversity, applying cutting-edge methodologies and instrumentation in natural product isolation, structure elucidation, biological activity studies, and the synthesis of bioactive compounds. These efforts resulted in 229 publications in international refereed journals, with an H-index of 47 to date.

In recognition of her contributions, Dr. Nor Hadiani was named a Top Research Scientist Malaysia (TRSM) in 2017 and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) in 2020.
 

Professor Dr. Habibah A Wahab, FASc. is the present Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Innovation at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Prior to that, she served as the Dean of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USM.

Habibah started her academic journey after obtaining her PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology from King’s College London in 1999, where she founded the research group "Pharmaceutical Design and Simulation (PhD)" and later helped establish the Laboratory of Biocrystallography and Structural Bioinformatics, which evolved into the Centre for Chemical Biology, USM, by 2008

Promoted to full professor in 2010, she became USM's youngest female professor at the time. Her extensive service includes two tenures at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation,  as the Director and Director-General of the Malaysian Institute of Pharmaceuticals and Nutraceuticals.

Habibah has published over 100 articles in high impact journals and has been recognized internationally as visiting Professor/researcher  at institutions like Universite Henri Poincare, France, Osaka University ans Shinshu University, Japan, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand as well as Padjajaran University in Indonesia. 

Anake Kijjoa is Professor Emeritus of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Institute Abel Salazar (ICBAS), and a Head of the “Chemistry and Biological Activities of Marine Natural Products Research group” of the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR) of the University of Porto, Portugal. His research interests focus on isolation, structure elucidation and biological activity of Natural Products from plants, marine sponges, and soil and marine fungi. He has supervised several Master’s, PhD’s students and Post-doctoral fellows of both Portuguese and international students. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Burapha University (Thailand) in November 2008, Kasetsart University (Thailand) in July 2009 and Khon Kaen University (Thailand) in September 2018. He was a Chairman of the organizing committee of the 6th European Conference on Marine Natural Products (Porto, 19-23 July 2009), and a member of International Advisory Board of VII- XI European Conferences on Marine Natural Products, a member of the Marine Board of the European Science Foundation (ESF) working group (2009-2010). He was a keynote and invited speaker in several international conferences and symposia on Natural Products research. He is a regular reviewer of several peer-reviewed journals (Phytochemistry, Phytochemistry Letters, Planta Medica, Journal of Natural Products, Marine Drugs, Molecules, Natural Products Communications, Tetrahedron, Tetrahedron Letter, etc.). He is an Associate Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the Section (Structural Studies of Marine Natural Products) of the journal Marine Drugs (MDPI), Associate Editor-in-Chief of Marine Medicine (LumoScience), Editor of Marine Life Sciences & Technology (MLST)(Springer Nature) and member of editorial boards of various scientific journals. He is a coauthor of more than 200 original research papers and several book chapters. He was a keynote speaker and invited plenary speaker in numerous international conferences. 

Toshio Morikawa is Professor at the Pharmaceutical Research and Technology Institute, Kindai University, Japan. He was born in Kyoto Prefecture in 1972 and received his Ph.D. from Kyoto Pharmaceutical University in 2002 under the supervision of Professor Masayuki Yoshikawa. He began his academic career at Kyoto Pharmaceutical University in 2001 as an Assistant Professor. In 2005, he moved to the Pharmaceutical Research and Technology Institute, Kindai University, where he became Associate Professor in 2010 and Professor in 2015. Since 2023, he has also served as Director of the Antiaging Center at Kindai University. His research interests include: (1) the discovery of bio-functional molecules from natural resources (MONOTORI science: isolation, structure elucidation, synthesis, and bioactivity evaluation); (2) medicinal chemistry research utilizing natural products, including structure–activity relationship studies and elucidation of mechanisms of action; and (3) the development of functional foods for the prevention and improvement of lifestyle-related diseases. He has received several awards, including the Young Scientists Award (2005) and the Award for Scientific Contributions (2018) from the Japanese Society of Pharmacognosy, and the Divisional Scientific Promotion Award from the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (2022). He has published more than 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Natural Medicines (Springer Nature) since April 2026.

Professor Jenis Janar (Ph.D.) is the Director of the Research Center for Medicinal Plants at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Prof. Janar is a leading scientist with over 25 years of experience in the chemistry and technology of natural compounds. Her research focuses on the development of novel bioactive molecules derived from Kazakhstani medicinal and edible plants, using advanced spectroscopic and analytical methods, as well as comprehensive biological evaluation for therapeutic applications. She has successfully led numerous research projects, both nationally and internationally, and has authored more than 150 scientific publications, many in high-impact journals. Moreover, she is the author of 7 books and 12 patents. In 2022, she launched a small-scale facility dedicated to the production of plant-based products, which has since developed a range of bioactive supplements and herbal teas designed to promote health and well-being. She has successfully registered 8 natural health supplements in Kazakhstan. Prof. Janar is a member of various professional societies and committees, such as the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP), Asian Society of Natural Products (ASNP), Malaysian Natural Products Society (MNPS), International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce (INPST), and the Technical Advisory Committee of COMSATS Joint Center for Industrial Biotechnology, National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology.

Dr. Vuanghao Lim is an Associate Professor at the Pusat Kanser Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Malaysia. He obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Technology from USM and completed postdoctoral training in plant metabolomics at The University of Queensland, Australia. His research primarily centres on natural product drug discovery, with a strong emphasis on metabolomics, chemometrics, and data-driven approaches for identifying and validating bioactive compounds. His work integrates LC–MS-based metabolomics with advanced statistical and machine learning tools to uncover biomarkers and therapeutic leads from complex biological systems. He is particularly engaged in the standardisation and quality control of natural products, as well as preclinical evaluation to support their pharmacological potential. While also involved in nanodrug delivery research, his current focus is on translating metabolomics insights into meaningful biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Recognised among the World’s Top 2% Scientists (Stanford University global ranking), Dr. Lim has secured numerous competitive research grants and leads multidisciplinary collaborations across academia and industry. He has published extensively in high-impact journals in the fields of metabolomics, pharmacology, and natural products. Beyond research, he actively contributes to capacity building in the region, having conducted specialised metabolomics and chemometrics workshops in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. He also serves as a visiting professor, research advisor, external examiner, and grant evaluation panellist, contributing to academic development and research excellence at both national and international levels.