KUCHING: To the ordinary people, Dr Norhayati Abdullah’s petite look belies who she really is and the big task she shoulders in the global world, especially on water.
Awang Tengah (second left) with Dr Norhayati (third left) at the IWA International Water Congress in Lisbon. Others also seen are (from left) Assistant Minister of Public Utilities (Water Supply) Datuk Sylvester Entrie, State Legislative Assembly Speaker Datuk Amar Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar, Assistant Minister of Public Utilities (Electricity and Telecommunications) Dr Stephen Rundi and permanent secretary to the Ministry of Public Utilities Ubaidillah Abdul Latip.
A senior lecturer at the Faculty of Biosciences and Medical Engineering in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Skudai in Johor Baharu, at 34 she is actually a pride of the nation as the International Water Association (IWA) recently elected her as one of its board members. She attended their first meeting on Sept 26 in Lisbon, Portugal.
This is a very meaningful appointment for her, being the youngest Malaysian to sit on the board of an established organisation like IWA and among the nation’s young professionals who holds an important job as a council member of the Malaysian Water Association (MWA) and co-chair of the International Water Association (IWA) Malaysia National YWP Chapter.
She was inaugurated as the chair for the International Young Water Professional (YWP) Steering Committee for 2014-2016 in Lisbon and will represent the YWP as an IWA board member.
“With my new appointment as chair of the IWA Young Water Professional, I feel very honoured for such trust and confidence from IWA. This implies remarkable recognition to UTM as well as my supportive organisation.
“I look forward to delivering solutions for our future water beyond the YWP perspectives as we are already living towards the future. I also aim to develop strong friendship and partnership between YWPs, taking into consideration our cross-cultural personalities, characters and scientific background,” she said on her appointments.
While in Lisbon attending the International Water Congress she had a brief meeting with the Sarawak delegation led by Second Minister of Resource Planning and Environment, Industrial Development and Public Utilities Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan.
According to Awang Tengah, Dr Norhayati is a good role model for young professional Malaysians as she will contribute meaningfully to nation building.
“As a fellow Malaysian, I am very proud of her achievements in IWA and I hope more young Malaysians would be able to emulate her footsteps,” he said.
Besides her active involvement with IWA, Dr Norhayati was recently elected as research manager for UTM Palm Oil Research Centre following her active research in palm oil mill effluent.
Her other credentials include the publications of several high impact journals on aerobic granulation using palm oil mill effluent.
She is also a project leader for several research grants and members of research groups including the UTM Water Research Alliance, Institute of Environment and Water Resource Management (Ipasa), the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and University Community Transformation Centre (UCTC).
On her involvements in the IWA, the association highly recognises her active participation in various events and activities organised by IWA since 2000, which had brought her to travel to various countries specifically for IWA dedicated programmes.
In 2012, as UTM ambassador, she first made Malaysia proud when she was awarded the prestigious Young Water Professional Award in Busan, Korea.
Dr Norhayati obtained her degree in Civil-Environmental Engineering from UTM in 2000, Masters in Environmental Engineering from Newcastle University, England in 2004 and PhD in Biosciences from collaborative work between UTM and Newcastle in 2012.
According to her, her upcoming events will include the 2nd IWA Malaysia Young Water Professionals Conference to be held at Vivatel, Kuala Lumpur from March 17 to 20 next year.
She will also chair the 3rd IWA-UTM International Publication Workshop in March next year.