Jack Cannon Lecture

Prof. Dr. Khozirah Shaari was born in Perak, Malaysia in 1961 and obtained her PhD in Phytochemistry at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, in 1994 (P.G. Waterman).  After spending her early research career as a Research Officer at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), she moved into the academic world, by joining the Dept. of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in 2001, where she teaches Organic Chemistry, Spectroscopy and Natural Product Chemistry.  She became a full Professor in 2010, following which she was promoted to the post of Deputy Director and later the Director for Research Management, in the office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, responsible for the management and coordination of UPM’s research matters, including grants and research policies.  In 2017, she returned to academic life serving as Head for Laboratory of Natural Products at Institute of Bioscience but continued to contribute to research management matters as a member of UPM Committee for Research and Innovation.  She has served as member of Grant Review Panels at both national and international levels.  Dr Khozirah’s research interests encompass areas closely related to the chemistry of bioactive natural products, spectroscopic methods for structural analysis, organic synthesis and structure-activity-relationship studies, standardization and quality control aspects of natural products, metabolite profiling and molecular networking, and metabolomics.   She has directed the research of more than 30 graduate students and authored/co-authored numerous research publications, achieving H-index of 42 and 6631 citations (Scopus).   She has lectured extensively, a regular contributor to scientific conferences and seminar meetings, giving invited talks for small and large international audiences.  She also participated actively in editorial activities, regularly reviewing papers in chemistry- and biomedical-related journals.  She has served as an Associate Editor for Journal of Ethnopharmacology (Elsevier) and an Editorial Board Member for Phytochemical Analysis (Wiley).  She was an Associate Member of IUPAC Committee on Chemistry and Industry (COCI), a Board Member of the Asian Network of Research on Anti-diabetic Plants (ANRAP), an Advisory Committee Member of Phytochemical Society of Asia (PSA), and Committee Member of the Malaysian Natural Products Society (MNPS).   Starting in September 2021, Dr Khozirah Shaari continued to serve UPM for four more years as Research Fellow at the Natural Medicine and Products Research Laboratory (NaturMeds), Institute of Bioscience, UPM.  After 32 years of active academic and research career, she is presently fully retired.