Prof. Steivan Defilla

Tianjin University, China

Steivan Defilla, Swiss national, visiting Professor of the school of architecture, Tianjin University; President Assistant of APEC Sustainable Energy Center since 2018. Lead author of the “APEC Sustainable Urban Development Report - From Models to Results”. He is the former (2010 - 2016) Director of the Energy Charter, an intergovernmental energy organization with 50 Member states headquartered in Brussels. He managed the expansion of the Energy Charter to include 30 new observer states, among them China. He also supervised or co-authored 26 studies and analyses and 2 books on energy-related subjects. As Senior Energy Advisor to the Swiss Economics Minister (1999 - 2010) he contributed to the reform of the Swiss electricity sector, the Swiss infrastructure strategy, and the Swiss foreign energy policy. He wrote a book prefaced by the Swiss Energy Minister and co-authored 13 articles in English, German, French, and Russian languages. He also attended Governing Board meetings of the IEA and co-chaired multilateral negotiations at the Energy Charter.

Steven holds a Master's degree in Statistics and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He also holds a Postgraduate degree in Energy from the Federal Polytechnic Institute Lausanne. Steivan is the winner of a United World Colleges scholarship and is fluent in eight languages.

Prof. Muhammad Asif

King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia

Dr Asif has over 17 years of teaching and research experience. He is Charted Engineer, Certified Energy Manager (AEE, USA), Member of the Energy Institute (UK) and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). He completed PhD in Applied Energy Engineering from Edinburgh (UK) in 2002 and has held full-time faculty positions for over 12 years in British Universities. His areas of research interests include renewable energy, energy conservation & management, energy policy, sustainable buildings, and life cycle assessment. He sits on several international energy forums including the accreditation panel of the Energy Institute. His work has been referred to in various European policy documents and directives. He has supervised 12 PhD and 2 MPhil candidates.

A. Prof. Jiashen Teh

Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

Dr. Teh demonstrates the advantages of flexible transmission line rating on high voltage (138-400kV) power grids to enhance the integration of solar and wind energies. The research is state-of-the-art because the new relationships of the flexible line rating technology with existing conditions and legacy technologies are investigated.  The research enables the optimal enhancements of line ratings while preserving the life-cycle of transmission lines, and thereby improving the reliability of transmission grids. With this new discovery, electric utilities worldwide can safely increase the power capacity of their existing grids, which can enhance the integration of renewable energy and improves the delivery of clean energy to consumers at a minimal cost. Consequently, the dependency on traditional, carbon-emitting fuels is reduced. This assists electric utilities to reduce carbon emissions and, enable them to commit to higher level of ESG standard. Dr. Teh is also a Technical Director of UPE-Power in Taiwan, which he has implemented his research findings on line sensor products developed for applications in Taiwan and Japan. He has published more than 50 journal articles indexed in the globally recognized SCIE database, which he is the first/corresponding author in 34 (>70%) of them, and 30 (>65%) of the articles are ranked in the database’s first quarter. His publications have attracted 2085 citations and 28 h-index on Google Scholar. He has secured around RM800k of research funding, where more than 40% of the amount was obtained abroad (Taiwan, Saudi). He has accumulated RM30k of local consultancy projects. He has 1 pending patent filed in Malaysia. He is the main supervisor of 4 graduated PhD students, and another on-going 9 PhD students. For three consecutive years in 2019, 2020 and 2021 he was the top 2% world-most-cited-researchers according to field by Stanford University. He was the 2021 Outstanding Engineer by the IEEE Power & Energy Malaysia and the 2022 Outstanding Young Professional by the IET Malaysia.