About the Author: Dr. Ahmad Zaharin Aris is an Associate Professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He is currently the Head of Environmental Forensics Research Centre at UPM. He received his PhD from Universiti Malaysia Sabah in the area of hydrogeochemistry. His primary research areas are heavy metal toxicities in the environment and geochemistry modeling using the PHREEQC. He is also actively working in the area of hydrochemistry, environmental analysis, and environmental chemistry. He has several joint projects with various international institutions, such as, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science-Asian Core Program (JSPS-ACORE). He was also a member of scientific committee to various international conferences and professional organizations (The Geological Society of London and Young Scientist Network-Academy Sciences of Malaysia) and currently serves as editorial board members for several citation indexed journals.
Ms. Tengku Hanidza Tengku Ismail is a senior lecturer at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. She graduated from the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, USA, with Master of Science in Community Health. Her research areas include human exposure assessment, pesticide exposure, environmental health risk assessment, and public health. She is currently the expert panel (on public health and health impact assessment) on the Review Panel for the Environmental Impact Assessment Report under the Department of Environment Malaysia. She also has vast experience on developing Environmental Education Modules for schools in Malaysia.
Ms. Rosta Harun is a senior lecturer and head of academic advisor at the Department of Environmental Management and formerly was the head of Indigenous Knowledge and Local Community Laboratory at Rainforest Academy, Universiti Putra Malaysia. She holds a BSc and MSc from Ohio University, USA and DEA from Universite de Bourgogne, France. Her research interest is mainly on social effects and environmental ethics. She has been working on environmental values of indigenous and local communities in Malaysia. As a certified facilitator she incorporates facilitation into her work and has also been engaged to facilitate for international and local organizations such as European union, Asian Development Bank (ADB), WWF, Bayer Co. (Malaysia). Rosta has experience in developing modules for Environmental Education and currently involved in developing Geography Curriculum for Secondary schools in Malaysia. She is also a certified life and performance coach.
Dr. Ahmad Makmom Abdullah is an Associate Professor, Deputy Dean (Academic and Student Affair) at the Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He has 15 years of experience in teaching, research and extension. His research area includes the effects of air pollution on plants, plant ecophysiology and air pollution modeling using mesoscale CMAQ integrated model. He has several collaborative work with international institutions: Wageningen UR, The Netherlands and Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) on chicken manure treatment in the Asia Pro Eco Project; and with the Japanese counterparts from NIES, Kyoto University, Yokohama University, FPPRI Japan, on tropical forest regeneration dynamic. During these collaborations, he was involved in organizing International Conferences and workshops. He is currently the expert panel (on air pollution) on the Review Panel for the Environmental Impact Assessment Report under the Department of Environment Malaysia.
Dr. Mohd Yusoff Ishak is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Environmental Management, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. An ecologist by training, he received his PhD from The University of Adelaide, Australia in tropical lakes ecosystem modelling using the Hybrid Evolutionary Algorithm model in 2012. His research interest is in aquatic resources management by means of ecological and hydrological models. He also works on the tropical freshwater lake and wetlands sustainability and habitat enhancement. He is a member of international scientific community such as the Society of Wetland Scientists and Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO).