Keynote Speakers (MJVC2026) – Malaysia-Japan Academic Association

Ambassador Masahiko Horie

Former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Malaysia

Advisor, National Committee of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

After serving as Ambassador to Malaysia from 2007 to 2011, Prof. Horie was appointed as Ambassador for Global Environmental Affairs and participated in a series of COPs on Climate Change. Ambassador Horie actively engaged with negotiations to formulate a new framework after Kyoto Protocol and contributed to the adoption of Paris Agreement at COP21 in 2015.

He was elected as Councillor of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2013 and reelected in 2016 and exerted his efforts for mainstreaming youth for the nature conservation.

He was appointed in 2013 as Distinguished Professor at UTM and Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) in Kuala Lumpur and reappointed in 2024 as Adjunct Professor. In 2025, he was bestowed Honorary Doctorate Degree.

At Meiji University, Ambassador Horie played the successive roles of Adjunct Professor, Special Advisor to the President, and today Researcher at MIGA (Meiji Institute of Global Affairs).

Professor Emeritus Dr. David A. Bradley

Adjunct Honorary Distinguished Professor
Applied Physics and Radiation Technologies Group, Sunway University

Professor Emeritus
Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Physics, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Surrey

Honorary Professor University College London (2020 – 2025)

David Bradley PhD (USM), MSc (London), BSc (Essex), F.Inst P., FIPEM, Professor Emeritus University of Surrey, Honorary Professor University College London (2020-2025), and Adjunct Honorary Distinguished Professor, Sunway University, Malaysia. During his career he has been Secretary of the International Radiation Physics Society (IRPS), later becoming its President for a term of three years. For some years he was Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Radiology (the oldest journal of radiology in the world) and the journals Applied Radiation and Isotopes and Radiation Physics and Chemistry. His interests in the fundamentals of radiation interactions have turned to applications, notably in biomedical areas, industry and cultural heritage, also taking in development of luminescence dosimeters, two companies being born out of this (TrueInvivo in the UK and Lumisyns in Malaysia). Supervision of some 33 PhD students has engendered numbers of collaborations. His work has been cited some 17400 times, leading to an h-index of 63.

Professor Emeritus Dr. Shoji Kawahito

Professor Emeritus, Shizuoka University

Chairman, SUiCTE Co. Ltd.

Project Professor, Shizuoka Institute of Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, and Toyohashi University of Technology.

Prof. Shoji Kawahito received his Ph.D. degree from Tohoku University in 1988. He served as Professor at Shizuoka University from 1999 to 2026 and currently holds the title of Professor Emeritus of Shizuoka University. Since April 2026, he has also been serving as Project Professor at the Shizuoka Institute of Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, and Toyohashi University of Technology.

Prof. Kawahito is internationally recognized for his pioneering contributions to CMOS image sensors, ultra-low-noise and wide dynamic range imaging, analog-to-digital converter architectures, and high-resolution LiDAR devices based on CMOS image sensor technologies. He successfully bridged academic research and industrial innovation through university-based startups, serving as Chairman and CTO of Brookman Technology, Inc. from 2006 to 2023, and currently as Chairman of SUiCTE Co., Ltd. since 2024.

Prof. Kawahito is a Fellow of the IEEE and has received numerous prestigious awards, including the IEICE Electronics Society Award, the Takayanagi Memorial Award, and the Walter Kosonocky Award.

Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Dato` Dzulkifli Abdul Razak

Professor Emeritus, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)

Adjunct Professor, University of Malaysia Sarawak

Former Vice-Chancellor, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Al-Bukhary International University, and Rector of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)

Dzulkifli Abdul Razak is Emeritus Professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia and Adjunct Professor at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. A distinguished global leader in higher education, he previously served as Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia and Al-Bukhary International University, and as Rector of International Islamic University Malaysia.

He founded Malaysia’s National Poison Centre and led one of the world’s pioneering UNESCO-recognized Regional Centres of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). He also serves as an invited expert for UNESCO’s Futures of Higher Education initiative and has participated in major international forums, including the UNESCO World Higher Education Conference and the Nobel Prize Dialogue.

Prof. Dzulkifli is widely recognized for advancing the indigenous “Sejahtera” framework for sustainable development and holistic education. His many honors include Malaysia’s National Academic Laureate Award, the prestigious Gilbert Medal from Universitas 21, Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, and the 2026 Dr Wu Lien-Teh Award for Leadership in Public Health.

Professor Dato’ Dr. Zaliha Omar

Senior Consultant, Rehabilitation Medicine, Brunei Neuroscience Stroke & Rehabilitation Centre

Honorary Professor, University Malaya

Professor Dato’ Dr. Zaliha Omar is a pioneering Rehabilitation Physician widely recognized as the “Mother of Rehabilitation” in Malaysia for her transformative contributions to rehabilitation medicine, community-based rehabilitation, and sports medicine. Since the 1980s, she has played a central role in developing multidisciplinary rehabilitation services and advancing rehabilitation education and practice across Malaysia.

She established one of the earliest Rehabilitation Medicine curricula for undergraduate medical education at the University of Malaya and has led academic capacity building in rehabilitation medicine for more than three decades. Prof. Zaliha earned her Ph.D. from Fujita Health University, Japan, focusing on community-based rehabilitation training for multidisciplinary teams.

Her current work emphasizes rehabilitation leadership, geriatric rehabilitation, nature-based rehabilitation, and strengthening rehabilitation education and research across the Asia–Oceania region. She has received numerous national and international honors, including Malaysian royal awards for her contributions to disability rehabilitation, the Herman Flax Award (ISPRM), and the ASEAN Rehabilitation Medicine Association Pillar of Excellence Award.

Professor Dr. Kenji Tanaka

Professor, The University of Tokyo

Professor Tanaka Kenji is a Professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Engineering, specializing in technology management strategy. His academic journey, highlighted by a Doctor of Engineering from the University of Tokyo, is complemented by rich professional experiences at McKinsey & Company and Japan Industrial Partners, Inc. These roles have deeply informed his expertise in bridging the gap between technological innovation and strategic management. In his current role since 2017, Professor Tanaka has been at the forefront of the IoE (Internet of Everything) social cooperation program, driving research and education in technology management. His contributions extend beyond academia, serving as a policy advisor and technical committee member in various prestigious organizations, reflecting his significant impact on the field of technology management and policy.

Professor Ts. Dr. Ali Selamat

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student Affairs & Alumni),
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

Ali Selamat is an academician at Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. An academic institution established under the cooperation of JICA (Japanese International Cooperation Agency) and Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) to provide Japanese oriented engineering education in Malaysia (http://mjiit.utm.my/). Currently he is serving as the Dean for the institute. He is also current a chair of IEEE Computer Society, Malaysia Section. He is also the editorial board of Knowledge Based Systems Journal Elsevier, International Journal of Information and Database Systems (IJIDS), Inderscience Publications, Vietnam Journal of Computer Science, World Scientific Publications, Service Oriented Computing, Springer Verlag and PSU Research Review: An International Journal, published by Emerlad Publications. His research interests include cloud computing, software security, software engineering, software agents, web engineering, information retrievals, pattern recognition, genetic algorithms, neural networks and soft-computing.