Prof Dr Zakri Abdul Hamid

Tan Sri Emeritus Professor Dr Zakri Abdul Hamid is currently the Chairman of Atri Advisory, a consultancy company providing advice to governments and the private sector to develop policies, programmes and projects on sustainable development particularly in meeting the aims of the Sustainable Development Goals. 

From 2010 to 2018, Professor Zakri was the Science Adviser to the Prime Minister of Malaysia. From 2001 to 2005, Professor Zakri co-chaired the UN’s mega-study, “Millennium Ecosystem Assessment”. He is the founding Chair of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board. He sits on the Global Leadership Council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). He has been appointed by the United Nations (UN) as the Co-Chairman of STI Advisory Board of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Recently, he has been appointed as the member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Scientific Advisory Board and Vice-Chair of the Governing Council of the UN Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries.

He was previously the Joint-Chair of the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT); Chair, Malaysian Bioeconomy Development Corp (Bioeconomy Corp); Chair of the Board of Directors, University of Malaya andChair of the National Professors Council. He is presently Pro-Chancellor, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) and Pro-Chancellor of Multimedia University.

Zakri’s professional interests include crop science, biodiversity, science diplomacy and education for sustainable development. He has received numerous awards: Fulbright-Hays Fellowship (1981); Rotary Research Foundation Gold Medal Award (1999); ISSAAS Matsuda Award (2013); ASEAN Meritorious Service Award (2014); Zayed International Prize for the Environment (2014), the Academy of Science of South Africa Distinguished Visiting Scholar Award (2015), Merdeka Award for the environment category (2015) and the ASEAN Biodiversity Hero (2017) and the Midori Biodiversity Prize (2018).

In Malaysia, he has been conferred the rank of Senior Fellow by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia with the title of “Academician” (2015); Honorary Doctorate in Science, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (2013), Honorary Doctorate in Biotechnology, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (2013) Honorary Doctorate in Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia (2015); Honorary Doctorate in Science, University of Nottingham (2015). Also, conferred with a Datukship (1991); Dato’ Sri (2012) and a ‘Tan Sri’ (2014). 

In January 2017, the US-based “Biofuel Digest”, an influential industry magazine has hailed him as one of the “Top 100 Influential Persons in the Advanced Bioeconomy 2017”. In August 2017, he was the recipient of the 2017 Global Competitiveness Award, conferred by the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils (GFCC). 

Three species have been named after Zakri: a beetle (Paleosepharia zakrii), a cicada (Pomponia zakrii) and a pitcher plant (Nepenthes zakriana).