Advanced Composite Materials for Wastewater Treatment

N. Norzita is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Currently she is a Deputy Director (Academic & Student Affairs and Research & Innovation) at Pagoh Campus, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. She received her B Eng. degree in Chemical Engineering from University Sains Malaysia, in 1999. She obtained her M.Eng in Chemical Engineering from UTM in 2002 and PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Canterbury, New Zealand in 2010. She is a Professional Engineer and a Chartered Chemical Engineer (IChemE). Her research interest in “waste to wealth” includes the development of adsorbents and catalysts for wastewater treatment and renewable fuel, mainly biodiesel. To date she has authored and co-authored more than 300 articles in journals, conference papers, and book chapters. She has actively participated in exhibitions locally and internationally and received numerous awards for her research in waste-derived materials. She has filed patents for 9 products as a principal inventor. She has supervised 25 Phd and 20 Master students, 4 postdoctoral researchers and more than 80 undergraduate students.

R.A. Ilyas is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia. He is also a Fellow of International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM), Sweden, Fellow of International Society for Development and Sustainability (ISDS), Japan, a member of Royal Society of Chemistry, UK and Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), UK, Chair of Science Outreach for Young Scientists Network - Academy of Sciences Malaysia (YSN-ASM) 2023. He received his Diploma in Forestry, Bachelor's Degree (BSc) in Chemical Engineering, and Ph.D. degree in the field of Biocomposite Technology & Design at Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. R.A. Ilyas was the recipient of the MVP Doctor of Philosophy Gold Medal Award UPM 2019, for Best Ph.D. Thesis and Top Student Award, INTROP, UPM. He was awarded with Outstanding Reviewer by Carbohydrate Polymers, Elsevier United Kingdom, Top Cited Article 2020-2021 Journal Polymer Composite, Wiley, 2022, and Best Paper Award at various International Conferences. R.A. Ilyas also was listed and awarded among World’s Top 2% Scientist (Career-Long Achievement) Year 2022 and 2023, World’s Top 2% Scientist (Subject-Wise) Citation Impact during the Single Calendar Year 2019-2023 by Stanford University, US, PERINTIS Publication Award 2021 and 2022 by Persatuan Saintis Muslim Malaysia, Emerging Scholar Award by Automotive and Autonomous Systems 2021, Belgium, Young Scientists Network - Academy of Sciences Malaysia (YSN-ASM) 2021, UTM Young Research Award 2021, UTM Publication Award 2021&2023, and UTM Highly Cited Researcher Award 2021. In 2021, he won Gold Award and Special Award (Kreso Glavac (The Republic of Croatia) at the Malaysia Technology Expo (MTE2022), Gold Award dan Special Award at International Borneo Innovation, Exhibition & Competition 2022 (IBIEC2022), and, a Gold Award at New Academia Learning Innovation (NALI2022). He was awarded with Best Scientific Book Award from COMSTECH, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Pakistan and ModTech, Romania. His main research interests are (1) Polymer Engineering (Biodegradable Polymers, Biopolymers, Polymer composites, Polymer-gels) and (2) Material Engineering (Natural fiber reinforced polymer composites, Biocomposites, Cellulose materials, Nano-composites). To date he has authored or co-authored more than 500 publications on green materials related subjects.

Nur Hafizah Ab Hamid is currently a senior lecturer at Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia. She received her Bachelor of Engineering (major in Chemical) from The University of Queensland, Australia in 2013 under the scholarship from Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA). In the following year, she was awarded a scholarship from MARA and Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) to pursue for her Master in Engineering Science at The University of Queensland, Australia. Upon completing her Master Degree, she was then offered a full scholarship by The University of Queensland, Australia in 2016 for her doctoral study in wastewater treatment and membrane filtration areas. Her current research areas involve (i) materials engineering (adsorbents) (ii) membrane filtration (iii) wastewater treatment design and control, and (iii) greenhouse gases (GHG) emission. She has been actively involved with publications in the top-tier journals.