Professor Datuk ChM. Ts. Dr. Taufiq Yap Yun Hin

Professor Datuk ChM. Ts. Dr. Taufiq Yap Yun Hin is currently the Senior Professor (VK5) at Universiti Putra Malaysia and Chairman, Board of Director, University College of MAIWP International (UCMI) was born in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah on 14th January 1968. He earned his BSc (Hons) in Chemistry and MSc (Natural Products) in 1992 and 1994, respectively at Universiti Putra Malaysia. He then went on to earn his PhD (1997) in heterogeneous catalysis at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), United Kingdom.

Professor Taufiq-Yap started his career as a tutor in July 1993 and then lecturer at the Department of Chemistry, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) since August 1997. He was promoted to Associate Professor on 1st May 2002 and to full professor on 1st October 2007. He was the founding Head of Catalysis Science and Technology Research Centre (PutraCAT) from 1st Sept 2008 until Sept 2014. Professor Taufiq-Yap was appointed as Vice Chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Sabah from July 2019 - July 2022. In April 2024, he was appointed as the Chairman, Board of Director, University College of MAIWP International (UCMI) in Kuala Lumpur. His research interest lies in the catalytic production of bioenergy from biomass and wastes and natural products chemistry. Up to date, he published 511 Scopus indexed scientific publications with h index 75 and total of citations of 20,911 (SCOPUS). Throughout his career, Professor Taufiq-Yap has been the recipient of the following Awards and Distinctions: National Young Scientist Award (2002); The Outstanding Young Malaysian Award (2008), Top Research Scientist Malaysia (2013), Malaysia’s Research STAR Award (2018 and 2025) and listed as World’s Top 2% Scientist by Stanford University, USA. He received the highest award Gold Medal for Excellent in Chemistry 2022 from Malaysia Institute of Chemistry. Professor Taufiq-Yap was appointed as Fellow of Academy Science of Malaysia (2015), Fellow, Malaysia Institute of Chemistry (2009) and Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry, United Kingdom (2008); He is currently the Visiting Professor of Henan Agriculture University, China (2020-2025) and also in several universities i.e. Nagoya University, Japan (2011 and 2012), Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (2012) and Curtin University Sarawak (2011-2015). He was elected as Titular Member of International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). He is the President of Malaysian Catalysis Society (2016-now) and Executive Council Member of Asia-Pacific Association of Catalysis Society (APACS).