Professor Dato’ Dr Makhdzir Mardan is a leading expert in the field of beekeeping in Malaysia and has spent time researching on the different bee species.

Dato’ Makhdir began his career as a lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture (1979), Universiti Pertanian Malaysia. Over the career span of 30 years in UPM, he distinguished himself with research and consultancy in the area of (i) giant honeybees, (ii) hive-design of the carpenter bees, (iii) remote-sensing and GIS on giant honeybee distribution in the Melaleuca forest in Marang, Terengganu, (iv) distribution and locating of bee trees in the BELUM rainforest, (v) formation of beekeeping and honey hunting coorperatives, (vi) pollination tropical orchard trees and many others.

He has received numerous national and international awards for his excellent achievement in research namely IDRC Fellowship Award (1985), The Royal Thailand, Excellent Research Award in beekeeping research via the Asian Apicultural Association (AAA) (1993) and UPM Research Excellent Award (1999).

Apart from research, he has also been actively involved in university management and professional associations. Among key positions held were Deputy Vice Chancellor for Development (2001-2003), Director AgroBio Unit of the UPM Chancellory (2003-2005), Director for Institute of Plantation Studies (2004-2006), Vice-President of Asian Apicultural Association  (since 2011), Vice-President of World Propolis Science Forum (since 2012) and member of Advisory Board for the International Union Studies of Social Insects (IUSSI) (since 2011). Although he is now engaged in several business initiatives he still continues his interest in bees with support from the Yayasan diRaja Sultan Mizan.