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On Monday, September 15, 2025, “The 2nd J-PEAKS International Joint Symposium & Malaysian NAIST Alumni Association (MNAA) Kickoff Symposium”, was held at Leave a Nest, Cyberjaya, Malaysia.

The symposium opened with remarks from NAIST President Shiozaki, who highlighted the university’s recent selection for the Japan Program for Accelerated Internationalization of Research Universities (J-PEAKS). He outlined NAIST’s vision to further strengthen collaboration with academic communities in Southeast Asia and to contribute to addressing various societal challenges. He also expressed his hope that the establishment of the NAIST Malaysia Alumni Association (MNAA) would expand opportunities for alumni to thrive and remain actively engaged with the university.

In response, MNAA President Wong conveyed his respect for Japan’s alumni culture and expressed his aspiration to build a strong alumni network that would support NAIST’s goals in the Southeast Asian region.

Mr. Kitaoka, Representative from the Embassy of Japan in Malaysia, then spoke about NAIST’s contributions to scientific collaboration and student exchange to date. He expressed his expectation that the launch of MNAA would further enhance academic ties between Japan and Malaysia and promote future student exchanges between the two countries.

The academic session began with a presentation by Prof. Demura (Biological Sciences). This was followed by presentations from representatives of three NAIST divisions: Dr. Nur Ayunie (Biological Sciences), Dr. Mohd Ruzeiny (Information Science), and Dr. Aimi (Materials Science). They shared updates on their current work and reflected on how NAIST contributed to their career development and success. In addition, Dr. Jonathan Lim spoke about the importance of intellectual property (IP), drawing from his professional experience in Singapore. Dr. Adrian Chek introduced the background of the event and shared how the organizing team successfully brought the symposium together despite the sudden change in schedule.

The symposium continued with an award ceremony recognizing distinguished contributions to NAIST. The NAIST International Exchange Service Awards were presented by President Shiozaki to Prof. Sudesh (USM), Prof. Jennifer (UM), and Prof. Wong (UTAR). The MNAA Appreciation Certificates were introduced by MNAA President Prof. Wong, and commemorative gifts were presented to the award recipients, Dr. Loh (UTAR), Dr. Zarina (UM), and Dr. Fiqri (UM), in recognition of their outstanding contributions.

The event concluded with closing remarks by Prof. Maki, Advisor of MNAA.

The organizing committee would like to sincerely thank all parties who made this event possible, including the support from the NAIST Alumni Association, NAIST J-PEAKS, the Indonesian NAIST Alumni Association, the Thai NAIST Alumni Association, and Leave a Nest Malaysia.