April 26, 2023, by Lisa Chin

Meet our new team member

We are pleased to introduce the newest addition to our Graduate School team, Dr Fook Choy Yap who recently joined us as an Assistant Manager for Researcher Training Development and Postgraduate Researcher Engagement. This is an exciting role where Dr Yap manages the development and delivery of an extensive portfolio of researcher training and development activities. Working collaboratively and closely with key stakeholders across the University, the focus is to ensure that our postgraduate researchers develop the skills they need to take their specialism to the world. This extensive portfolio of specialist training is mapped against UK and national frameworks to ensure that it is beneficial to enhancing the knowledge, behaviours and attributes of successful researchers.

At the Graduate School, we believe that how we deliver researcher training and development is just as critical as what training we offer. That is why we employ specialist staff with the pedagogical skills and experiences to ensure that our courses and other opportunities are rigorously designed and effectively delivered.

Read on to know more about Dr Yap.


Dr Yap is a trained marine biologist who completed his PhD at the University of Malaya. After completing his doctoral degree, he was offered a postdoctoral position at the Biodiversity Research Centre at Academia Sinica, Taiwan, where he worked from 2019 to 2021. During his postdoctoral fellowship in Taiwan, he received training from experts in the fields of genomics and marine ecology. Upon returning to Malaysia in 2022, he took on another postdoctoral research fellowship at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), where he worked on developing biological control approaches for the oil palm industry. Dr Yap has published numerous papers in the areas of marine ecology, functional morphology, and developmental biology during his postgraduate studies and postdoctoral career. Additionally, he has experience in writing research grant proposals; having successfully secured a collaboration grant between the University of Malaysia and Queen’s University Belfast, and an internal grant from the University of Malaya.

Dr Yap is passionate about sharing his knowledge and experiences as a graduate student and postdoc with students, in hopes of providing them with greater clarity about postgraduate studies and career paths after graduation.


Please join us in welcoming Dr Yap and wishing him success in his new role.

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