Professor Dr Hazizan Md Akil FASc is a leading expert in natural fibre composites, especially Kenaf fibre. His research interests include polymer composites, with special emphasis on natural fibre-reinforced composites, mechanics of composites, impact response of composites and sandwich structures, chitosan, and dynamic response of composites using Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar Technique. He is one of the team leaders for the cluster of polymer composites research in USM, focusing on producing pultruded composites from Kenaf fibres. He has published over 250 journal papers, with an H-index of 65 and 16,751 citations. He is regularly invited to review international research grant proposals from research funding agencies such as the Qatar Foundation and the National Science Centre, Poland. A globally-renowned expert in natural fibre composites, he has made significant contributions that have reshaped the field. He is currently an editorial board member of several international journals such as Journal of Natural Fibers (Taylor & Francis), Composites part ‘C’ (Elsevier B.V), Nonlinear Engineering-Modelling and application (De Gruyter). Professor Hazizan is often consulted for his expertise by various international and local institutions, universities and industries. These include Lembaga Kenaf dan Tembakau Negara (LTKN), the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), the Asian Workshop on Polymer Processing (AWPP) Association, Asian Polymer Association (APA) and MMFG Composites Sdn. Bhd. He is also involved in community service, helping improve the socio-economy of rural communities through the knowledge transfer project to develop Kenaf fibre-based polymer composites for various applications.