Rofina Yasmin Binti Othman

Biography

Yasmin completed her BSc at University of Surrey and MSc at University of Malaya then received a Chevening scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in Plant Virology at the John Innes Institute U.K. She joined UM as a lecturer in the Department of Genetics and Cellular Biology and was appointed a full Professor in 2005. She runs an active research group and has published extensively, focusing on utilising modern biotechnology strategies to tackle fundamental problems in agriculture as well on issues related to BioPolicies, Bioethics and Biosafety. She has filed more than 10 patents and graduated more than 12 PhD and 25 MSc students. She is an associate Fellow of the IMBN and the Academy of Sciences Malaysia and was a founding trustee of the National Institutes of Biotechnology Malaysia. She is also a founding member of the Asian Network for Biosafety Education and currently sits on the National Biosafety Board. Yasmin was the first head of the Centre for Research in Biotechnology for Agriculture and chair of the University’s Biotechnology and Bioproduct Cluster (UMBIO). She is also chief editor of the Asia-Pacific Journal for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. in 2009 she left UM for a 3 year secondment to the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation Malaysia as Undersecretary of the National Biotechnology Division . During her tenure Malaysia launched the Bioeconomy Initiative Malaysia designed to spur growth of the biotechnology industry. Whilst there, she spearheaded the committee which led to the formation of the National Bioethics Council. She has sat on the Board of Directors of MARDI, the Board of Governors of ICGEB, Trieste and was the National Point of Contact (NPC) for UNESCO’s Microbial Biotechnology Network and SEA-EU-NET (Biotech). She is currently Director of the University of Malaya Centre for Innovation & Commercilisation and chairman of UM's compliance committee. She is also vice president of the Innovation and Technology Managers Association Malaysia. see her profile in Scientific American World Vision: http://www.saworldview.com/wv/profiles/yasmin-othman/

Research Interest

Technopreneurship Biotechnology (Policy, Ethics and Public Awareness (policy, ethics and public awareness) Virology (PLANT VIRUSES, MOLECULAR VIROLOGY,PLANT VIRUS VECTORS) Transgenic Plant (Plant, molecular biology, molecular farming, molecular breeding,risk assessment)