Kamarul Arifin Ahmad

Prof. Ir. Dr. Hj. Kamarul Arifin Ahmad is currently a Professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). He holds a Bachelor's degree from Universiti Sains Malaysia, an MSc in Aerodynamics (Aerospace Dynaics) from Cranfield University, and a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast. In 2015, he obtained his Professional Engineer (PE) status from the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM). Between 2016 and 2018, Prof. Kamarul was seconded to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. He is a former Head of the Aerospace Malaysia Research Centre (AMRC), as well as the former Head of the Aerospace Engineering Department at UPM. Prof. Kamarul has over two decades of teaching experience in Aerospace Engineering, having taught at institutions including Queen’s University Belfast, USM, UPM, and KSU in Saudi Arabia. He has served as an External Assessor for UTHM, UTM, and UPNM. His research has secured more than RM 2.5 million in grants, and he has authored or co-authored over 250 journal and conference papers. He currently serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including the ASEAN Engineering Journal, Aircraft and Spacecraft Journal, CFD Letters, and King Saud University – Engineering Sciences. Prof. Kamarul has successfully supervised 20 PhD candidates. He is the co-founder and co-chairman of the International Conference on Computational Methods in Engineering and Health Sciences (ICCMEH), an annual event jointly organized by UPM, Manipal University (India), and the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Japan). As an innovator, he has developed more than five invention products, including three patents, with one innovation successfully commercialized. He is also the founder of a UPM spin-off company. From 2022 to March 31, 2024, he served as the Director of Putra Science Park (UPM’s Intellectual Property Office), where he actively promoted UPM’s intellectual properties to industries and communities. In 2025, he successfully led and completed a national-level working committee responsible for developing the 10-Year Blueprint for Higher Education in Malaysia, a strategic framework that aims to transform and future-proof the country's higher education system.