Download Raha profile - The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus

Name
Position
: Y Bhg Prof Dr Raha binti Abdul Rahim
: Director of the Higher Education Excellence
Planning Division
Institution : Department of Higher Education Ministry of
Education Malaysia
Email
: [email protected]
Raha graduated with a Degree in Microbiology from Oklahoma State University, USA in
1987 and proceeded to do her MS degree at the University of Oklahoma. Upon completing
her degree, she returned to Malaysia and joined Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in June
1991. She then went to the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and completed her PhD
thesis in 1995.
Raha has received more than RM5million in research grants as the principle researcher. Her
main research interest is the Development of Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) for expression and
delivery of useful proteins, specifically in plasmid biology, vaccine delivery and cell factory
systems of LAB. She is also involved in other researches including identification of genetic
markers and authentication of halal products by molecular methods. Raha has graduated 9
PhD and 15 MS students as the main supervisor, and the grants received have also
supported the final year projects of many BS Biotechnology students. In addition, 6 patents
have been filed and a spin-off product from the research is in the process of being
commercialized. She has presented her work at local and international conferences and
published more than 100 papers in peer reviewed journals.
As a lecturer, she teaches courses related to her area of expertise such as Cell and
Molecular Biology, Genetic Engineering, Introduction to Microbial Biotechnology, Techniques
in Molecular Biology and Industrial Microbiology at the undergraduate level, and Research
Methodology at the Post-graduate level.
In addition to lecturing and research, Raha is also active in extension work. She was
consultant to the Malaysian Royal Police and JAKIM on topics related to DNA fingerprinting
and genetically modified organisms as well as to several Biotech-related companies. Raha
often serves as a panel for the Malaysian Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation to
evaluate and monitor research proposals and progress. She sits as a jury to the recipient of
the Young Scientist award for Merck, a multinational drug company, jury for Mahathir
Science award for Academy Science Malaysia and the International L’oreal Young Scientist
award.
Raha is currently the Director of the Higher Education Excellence Planning Division, Ministry
of Education Malaysia since May 2014. She was previously the Director of Research
Management Center, UPM. She was also the Chairman of UPM’s Biosafety committee for
Genetically Modified Organisms and the Coordinator to the Microbial Culture Collection Unit,
UPM. She has served as the Deputy Director of UPM’s Research Management Center UPM,
the Head of the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, and Deputy Dean of Research
and Post Graduate Studies, at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences. At
the national level, Raha was a past President of the Malaysian Society for Microbiology and
is a continuing EXCO member. She is also affiliated to several other professional societies
such as the Malaysian Society for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and the Malaysian
Genetics Society. At the international stage, she is a member of the American Society for
Microbiology and the current Secretary General to the Asian Federation of Societies for
Lactic Acid Bacteria. She was promoted to a full Professor in 2007