Resumé

Mat B. Zakaria, Sm.Sn. (UKMalaysia), M.Sc., Ph.D. (Salf)

The candidate was born on the 20th April, 1951 in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. He finished his undergraduate study in chemistry at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in 1974 and completed his postgraduate studies at Salford University, United Kingdom (in polymer chemistry) with Master of Science in 1976 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1983. The candidate started his career at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia as a tutor in the Chemistry Department, Faculty of Physical & Applied Sciences in 1974 and appointed as a lecturer in 1976. In 1984 he was promoted to the post of Associate Professor in the same department (which had restructured to become School of Chemical Science and Food Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology), the post he held to date.

He teaches polymer chemistry and physical chemistry subjects at the department for all levels, first to fourth year, of the undergraduate curricula, supervised both undergraduate and postgraduate students; participates in various faculty and departmental academic activities including serving in various ad hoc committees, such as protem committee for the establishment of Material Science Department, Carricula revision committees, designing new courses, et cetera.

His specialised research area is hydrogel and hydrocolloids, especially those derived from polysaccharides. He is one of the researchers who introduced chitin and chitosan research in Malaysia, beginning in the 1980s. The research theme was supported by the relevant Ministries in Malaysia (IRPA 01-07-03-002 and IRPA 02-07-03-011), in which the candidate is one of the project leaders, to the extent that it has attracted many private sectors for commercial development, including governmental agencies such as Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC), who promotes the research results on behalf of the candidate's team to private sectors both in Malaysia and in other countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. One such effort was culminated in the incorporation, in December 1997, of a Joint Venture Company to produce chitosan, Chito-Chem (Malaysia) SB, comprises of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (represented by Bureau of Consultancy on behalf of the candidate's team), Eastern Global SB (Parit Buntar, Perak), Perfect Persuit SB (Kuala Lumpur), and MTDC itself. The candidate was appointed one of the Board of Directors.

Candidate and his team has laid down a platform for a regular regional meeting: the Asia-Pacific Chitin Symposium (APCS); the first was held in UKM (Bangi, Malaysia) in May 1994, in which the candidate was the Honorary Secretary; and the second in AIT (Bangkok, Thailand) in November 1996, and the third in Taiwan Ocean University, Keelong in September 1998. The 4th APCS would be held jointly with the 8th International Conference on Chitin and Chitosan (ICCC) at Yamaguchi University, Japan in September 2000.

Candidate has contributed substantially at the national level in the field of textbooks development, both for school and university education. In this aspects, he is noted for a close collaboration with the Institute of Language & Literature of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia (Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka, Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia) of which the candidate is an academic resource personnel in science for all publication matters: books, translations, terminology, dictionaries and encyclopaedia. Four books by the candidate are being adopted by the Education Ministry for use as textbooks in the secondary schools, and a polymer book is used by almost all local universities as the textbook in the teaching of basic polymer chemistry. Translations (into Malay Language) by the candidate include the encyclopaedic Vogel's Textbook of Practical Organic Chemistry and Greenwood & Earnshaw's Chemistry of the Elements, and the Flory's "bible" of polymer chemistry, Principles of Polymer Chemistry and Rudin's Elements of Polymer Science and Engineering. For the outstanding contributions the candidate was awarded the rare and prestigeous Academic Writer Award by the Educational Book Division of the Institute in 1992.

Candidate's other contributions can be elucidated et seq in detail in his curriculum vitae.

Jan, 2000