Dr Jillian is a senior lecturer at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UM, with a PhD from the University of Western Australia. She studies marine biogeography, with a special interest in seagrass ecosystems, their connectivity to coral reefs, and their use as habitats by fish and dugongs. Her work is directed toward strengthening marine conservation in Malaysia.

Affendi is a Research Officer in the Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES), UM. He has been studying corals for more than 25 years and focuses on the ecophysiology of hard corals (Scleractinia). He leads the Malaysian Society of Marine Sciences as elected President and is the country coordinator for the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network for East Asia.

Dr Nuradilla is a senior lecturer at the Institute of Biological Sciences (ISB), Faculty of Science, UM. She holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from University of California, Davis, USA. Her primary interest is investigating environmental stress response and resilience in various organisms through the lens of genetics and molecular biology. In Project PULIH, her background in mammalian stem cells gave her the idea of exploring coral regeneration at the cellular level.