Dr. Hasmahzaiti Binti Omar

Biography

Dr. Hasmahzaiti Omar received her PhD degree in the field of biodiversity from University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur in 2013. During her study (2008-2013), she is a fellow staff and had collaborates with several experts on small mammals who worked from Field Museum of Natural History, Madagascar; Natural History Museum of Geneva, Switzerland and Raffles Museum, Singapore. After finished her PhD, she serve as lecturer in Ecological and Biodiversity Program in the Department Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Malaya. Now, she expand her research interests on taxonomy, systematics and phylogeography studies of shrews (Family Soricidae) and other small mammals in East and Southeast Asia. Currently, she collaborates with several international researchers from Asia and Europe, e.g. Institute of Low Temperature Science (Hokkaido), Kyoto University Museum, Research Center for Biologi-LIPI (Bogor), Vietnam National Museum of Nature, Hanoi University, Natural History Museum of Geneva and Lousiana State University for sharing information data and sample collections of small mammals in Southeast Asia as well as throughout the world. Within one year working with the university, she had conducted Asean Vertebrate International Networking Symposium in University of Malaya on December 2014 under Japan program (JSPS) and appointed as secretary for this symposium. She is also serves as committee members for Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS program), Aquatic Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (CEBAR), Malaysian Nature Society, UNICEF, Animal Ethics (IACUC). Now, she has 3 PhD students and 4 Masters under her supervision. Her job scope has been expanded to different field. Beside taxonomy and systematics of small mammals, now she involved in several field of studies related to the host (treeshrews, rats, shrews, squirrels) as carrier for parasites and diseases that commonly found in human residences, agriculture areas, water and forests. Several publication related to the host as main carriers has been published in ISI journals. Currently, she involved as one of committee member of Agriculture postgraduate program in Faculty of Science and will teach for several courses of agriculture at Institute of Biological Science that will be implemented on 2018-2019.

Research Interest

Biogeography (shrews, rats, squirrels, treeshrews) Animal Taxonomy (Soricomorpha, Rodentia, Scandentia) Phylogenetics (Soricidae, Murinae, Sciuridae) Animal Systematics (Vertebrate)