BIography

Ts. Dr. Mior Ahmad Khushairi Mohd Zahari (Zahari, M.A.K.M. or well known as Assoc. Prof. Ts. Dr. Mior) is an Associate Professor of Bioprocess Engineering at the Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology (FCPET), College of Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP). He was born in Batu Gajah, Perak, Malaysia. He completed his primary education at Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Sultan Yussof, Batu Gajah, Perak and continued his secondary school at Sekolah Menengah Sains Teluk Intan, Perak. Then, he furthered his study at the Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and obtained a Bachelor Degree in Chemical Engineering in 1999.

His interests in knowing about microbe's manipulation for beneficial products has driven him to continue his Master of Science in Chemistry - Biotechnology at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Wan Azlina Ahmad. His work scope during Master Degree involved the recovery of gold from mine tailings. As a part of his research study, knowledge on heavy metal leaching by consortium of bacteria was successfully applied for the pretreatment of mine tailings. Upon the completion of his Master Degree in 2003, he joined the Malaysian Department of Environment (DOE) as an Environmental Control Officer. After that, he joined Universiti Malaysia Pahang as a lecturer in 2005. He started his Doctor of Philosophy study under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Mohd Ali Hassan in Dec. 2008 and obtained his PhD in Bioprocess Engineering from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in May 2013. His research interest is in the field of Environmental Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering which is specializing in the utilization of oil palm biomass for the production of value-added products such as biosugars, biopolymer and biofuels.

To date, he has led various research grants with the amount of research grant funding received so far is approximately RM 500,000 as a Project Leader. He also actively contributes as a co-researcher for other research grants. His success in securing various research funding is due to his well-known records in completing all the projects and of course, most importantly because of his promising research works which are mostly within the interest of the country for prospectus to be scaled up and potential for future benefits. Ts. Dr. Mior has more than 20 publications with a Scopus H-index of 7 and has been cited 161 times in Scopus. Ts. Dr. Mior is a Professional Technologist of Malaysia Board of Technologists (MBOT - Reg. No. PT18040131), graduate member of Board of Engineer Malaysia (BEM – Reg. No. 54592R), associated member of Energy Institute, UK(EI - Reg. No. 0064870) and a lifetime member of Asian Federation of Biotechnology Malaysian Chapter (AFOB - Reg. No. MY00059).