Biography Summary
Assoc. Prof. Ir. Ts. Dr. Zaki Yamani bin Zakaria (you can call him just Zaki) acquired his first degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Bradford, England in 1999 and Chemical Engineering Master Degree and PhD, both from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in 2004 and 2014, respectively.
Work Background
Previously, he worked as a chemical engineer in an oil and gas-related company and an as a process engineer in an edible oil refinery. He joined the faculty as a lecturer in July 2008. He then continued to pursue his Ph.D in Chemical Engineering also in UTM and successfully graduated in 2013. His Ph.D research dealt with catalytic reaction engineering, where the title of his Ph.D is “Catalytic conversion of glycerol to olefin”.
Professional Affiliations
Zaki is a Professional Engineer (PE) under the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) since 2011, a Chartered Engineer under the Engineering Council of UK since 2011, a Professional Technologist under the Malaysia Board of Technologists (MBOT) since 2018, a Certified Energy Manager under ASEAN Energy Management System (AEMAS) since 2016.
He is also a member of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM), the Institution of Chemical Engineers, UK (IChemE), and Associate ASEAN Engineers. Recently he joined the Society of Engineering Education Malaysia (SEEM) in 2020 and also Malaysia Zeolite Association (MyZA) in 2021. He served as a committee member for both societies.
He is a member of the Chemical Reaction Engineering Group (CREG) and a member of the Resource Sustainability Research Alliance of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Present Positions
Zaki is currently an Associate Professor (since Oct 2022) in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).
In 2019, he joined the Centre for Engineering Education (CEE), as a Research Fellow. Then in early 2021, he was appointed as the Director of CEE and hold this position till now.
Previous Positions Held
Between 2014 and 2016, in the faculty, he was the head of Universiti-Industry Exchange Program (UNIX) and head of the Analytical Laboratory. He did extremely well in managing and marketing both UNIX and Analytical Laboratory, which can be seen from the number of internships as well as income generation for the lab.
In August 2016, he was appointed as the Facility Manager for the Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering (FCEE) where his responsibilities are to manage 34 laboratories and IT-related matters in FCEE besides leading and managing 43 technical staff under him.
The scope of his job also covers safety and health aspects, managing the purchase of state-of-the-art lab equipment in the FCEE (valued at more than RM20m), and working alongside Pejabat Harta Bina (PHB) for selected laboratory renovation/upgrading projects. To date, he has been servicing UTM for almost 15 years, starting off as a lecturer and continuously doing well as a senior academician as well as an active researcher.
Research Interest
Zaki has a strong background in reaction engineering, more specifically in catalytic reaction engineering which deals with catalyst development, characterization, and testing of raw materials to higher value-added compounds.
As an established researcher in his area of expertise, he is not only teaching undergraduate courses but also Master's courses (MKKH, MKKK, MKKE) since 2014. He is also actively involved in supervising undergraduate final-year projects and postgraduate research projects at Master's and Ph.D level.
At the moment he is supervising 7 Ph.D students and 1 Master full research student. He has graduated 1 Ph.D student and 1 Master student as the main supervisor. He also co-supervises 4 Ph.D students and 1 MSc student. 25 students (taught course and research) have successfully completed their research dissertation under him (between 2015-2022) and graduated.
His email: zakiyamani[alias]utm.my