PROF. DATUK DR SITI ZAWIAH BINTI OMAR

Outline of Work profile: I was given a scholarship by concerns in England (1974) to complete my higher Secondary education; I then read the Natural Sciences Tripos at Cambridge, specializing in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical and Physical Chemistry. I worked as a researcher with T.K. Lim in University of Malaya examining his Spin Free Q.M.(1980-82) and then went to the University of Georgia, Athens, (USA)  where I wrote my own dissertation in Thermodynamics (1986)  under the supervision of Darwin W Smith.  He  encouraged me never to build on any other person\\\'s foundations, nor to attempt any "me-too" science and fashions, which has become during the intervening years the central  paradigm in the control, management  and administration of science worldwide. This advise seems to have made a permanent impression on me, although  this recommended thorny pathway might  lead one to confront  many a Goliath; others -more pragmatic-  might interpret the recommendation as inviting one to tilt  at windmills.  He seemed to sense that with intense work and hope, communities and peoples could solve their own problems with economy, capability and satisfaction, rather than to opt for   external ordering through  compliance and indifference to whatever resources that could be cultivated and utilized proximately. Perhaps he had overestimated the quality of independence and historical recollection, anamnesis, value-attribution  and cultural coherence  of the many peoples of at least Afro-Asia. I briefly obtained a post-doctoral fellowship at Montana State University where I   studied  Statistical  systems, developing a theory of recoverable transitions. I then returned to Malaysia  (1989),  where I  have worked as an academic  ever since. In the year 1994-1995, I spent my  first sabbatical in K.I.L., Slovenia. In 2000-2001, I  spent my  second sabbatical leave at the Physical Chemistry Institute, Trondheim, Norway. The third sabbatical (2007)   was spent  in (i) the Physics Laboratory (HUT, Helsinki) and (ii) Arrhenius Laboratory, Sweden with Prof. A. Laaksonen  studying charged interactions in MD. Research Interests: Up to 2008, I had been working intensely on various fundamental topics in especially thermodynamics and Molecular Dynamics, producing many  new theorems, and critiquing many fundamental ones, such as Liouville\'s theorem, which underpins so much of Quantum and Classical thermodynamics.  In recent times, under the encouragement of Prof Keshav from the Physics Department, I am also supervising students in routine Applied DFT theory, polyelectrolyte simulations and recently, in heavy ion contamination of water sources.  I view these as training programs which has temporarily -I hope- put an end to my own research and thinking, but perhaps it is important to ensure that  people can be trained in part to build manpower capacity , but again suitability of training is a complex issue that cannot be reduced to blind numbers and procedures. I am also keen on communicating with people who are concerned with scientific media development that is accessible and available to communities of especially low financial capability and resources, and of the development of sustainable science based on independent solutions to  actual  problems immediately confronting the researcher  along historical lines and in terms  of  the  value attribution that such endeavors should or could generate. My  awards  and recognitions include a Bronze Medal (Expo Science,2006, U.M.)  and listings in Who’s Who in the World   and Who’s Who in Asia (Marquis 2007). I am also keen in relating to people who have an interest and passion in wishing to investigate some aspect of nature that is within my capability and interests.  All too  often, scholarship has been reduced to predefined mechanical functioning –that can be defined with various Key Performing Indices-   like a component within a pre established machine, whereas  good  scholarship involves movement into the unknown, where there is no pre-established structure and where the risk factor and unpredictability factor are  very high . Field of Expertise: Thermodynamics, Molecular Dynamics Simulations (using own algorithms), General Theory  of Physical systems Research interests: Molecular dynamics of hysteresis dimer chemical reaction (to 2006) and theory of chemical interaction from 2006 -2007 (MD of dimer reactions using  conventional potentials without hysteresis) 2007 – 2010 MD  of charged systems and the electromagnetic field