Professor Dato’ Seri Ir. Dr. Abdul Rahman bin Mohamed, FASc, is the Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia. He was formerly the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Innovation. Prof. Abdul Rahman is also a certified Professional Engineer, prominent scholar and researcher. Professor Abdul Rahman attended Maktab Rendah Sains MARA (MRSM) Kulim in Kedah before continuing his studies at the University of Southern California in the USA, where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. Subsequently, he received his Master’s degree and completed his Ph.D. in 1993 in the same field from the University of New Hampshire, USA.

Professor Abdul Rahman began his professional career as a lecturer at the School of Chemical Engineering (SCE), USM in 1993. He was one of the pioneers of the School and served as the Dean of SCE. As an active researcher, his research interests span across the areas of reaction engineering and catalysis, air pollution, wastewater treatment, fuel technology and nanotechnology. His collaboration with international researchers includes those from Osaka University and Nagaoka University of Technology in Japan; and with the University of Lorraine (France) where he has also broadened his research influence.

He has received more than 80 research grants from various national/international organisations, amounting to more than RM25 million and has published more than 600 research papers in international/national journals and conference proceedings with Scopus bibliographic database recorded H–Index of 93 and total citation around 30,656. He has also graduated more than 50 Master’s and PhD students.

As a result of his excellent research achievements, he has received more than 60 national/ international awards, honors and recognitions, viz; Malaysia Toray Science Foundation Award and Top Research Scientists Malaysia (TRSM) (2012); Malaysia’s Rising Star Award (2015); MARA/MRSM Icon (2017) and Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate (2018, 2019 & 2021). Apart from his extensive research work, Professor Abdul Rahman has been instrumental in the success of the University’s cooperation and partnership with the industry. His active involvement in the Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science and Technology Centre (CREST) has seen a boost in collaborative R&D projects between USM and the industry.

At the national level, Professor Abdul Rahman serves as the Technical Advisor for the Public Private Research Network (PPRN) and Evaluation Panel for Translational Research@MOHE under the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. He is a Field Expert in the Nanotechnology Area and Project Leader of National Graphene Consortium under the National Nanotechnology Centre. As a fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM), he has been appointed by ASM as the Industry Focus Group Leader for the Malaysia Science, Technology, Innovation Master Plan (STIMP) 2020-2030 and recently appointed as Chairman of the Task Force on National Nanotechnology Policy and Strategy (NNPS) 2021-2030.