Prof Roslan is Nilai University V-C

PROF Dr Roslan Zainal Abidin has joined Nilai University as the new vice-chancellor.

PROF Dr Roslan Zainal Abidin (pic) has joined Nilai University as the new vice-chancellor.

A former professor at Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur (IUKL), Prof Roslan was the president and vice-chancellor of IUKL prior to his appointment at Nilai University.

His publications include more than 200 technical papers on environmental disaster issues and presentations at various national and international conferences, seminars and workshops, delivering keynote addresses or as an invited speaker.

He obtained his Diploma and Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Mara Institute of

Technology (now known as Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM).

He then pursued his higher education in Japan after he successfully obtained the Japanese Government Scholarship Award.

He graduated with a Master’s and PhD in Agriculture from Miyazaki University and Kagoshima University in 1989 and 1992 respectively.

Prof Roslan was a postdoctoral fellow of the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) at the Seoul National University, an honorary visiting professor of the University of Exeter, United Kingdom and a research fellow with the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science at Kyoto University, Japan. Besides that, he was also a visiting professor at Miyazaki University, Japan from 2016.

After 15 years in the Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia, he left his role as a senior engineer and embarked on an academic career at Mara Institute of Technology (now known as UiTM) in 1995.

In 1997, he joined the Faculty of Civil Engineering as a senior lecturer and was later promoted to associate professor.

He was subsequently awarded full professorship in 2001, with his major field of research in Soil Erodibility Evaluation and Rainfall Induced Landslide.

From 2002 to 2010, he was appointed as the director of International Research Centre on Disaster Prevention (IRCDIP) by the Universiti Technologi Mara (UiTM) vice-chancellor.

Between 2001 and 2016, he received 11 gold, 10 silver and 12 bronze medals for excellence in

invention and innovation research products at both the national and international arenas.

Additionally, he received special awards including Best Innovation Award from the president of Taiwan Invention Products Promotion Association at the International Invention, Innovation and Technology Exhibition (ITEX) 2008, Innovation Award in Government and Private Sector Joint Research awarded by chief secretary to the Government of Malaysia in 2006, National Public Service Innovation Award from the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit, Prime Minister’s Department, and Merit Award from the Selangor state government, with the latest being the Gold and Silver Awards at ITEX 2016 and 2017 respectively.

In 2015, Prof Roslan received the Outstanding Contribution to Education Award followed by the Education Leadership Award in 2016. Both these awards are from the Asian Confederation of Businesses.

He was also one of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) delegates to Kyrgyzstan in 1997. This was led by Tan Sri Dr Omar Abdul Rahman for a scientific and academic collaboration between ASM and Academic Science of Kyrgyzstan.

Currently, Prof Roslan is a panel assessor for the Malaysian Qualifications Agency, a member of the Malaysian Hydrological Society and one of the judges in the panel for the annual invention and innovation competition in both the national and international arenas.

He is a member of the Editorial Board for the Malaysian Construction Research Journal and deputy chairman for the Landslide Technical Working Group under Construction Research Institute of Malaysia.