I came across a very nice quote over the Facebook page. And I just had the urge to repost it here as a reminder to myself and students.

Credits to the Wonders of Physics Facebook page.

The visit to Thai Nguyen for the International Conference on Applied and Engineering Physics (iCAEP) was my first experience in Vietnam. The conference was held together with another meeting, the 6th Academic Conference on Natural Science for Young Scientists, Master and PhD students from ASEAN countries (CASEAN-6).

It was a very fruitful trip getting to know experts from the Southeast region and the kind of research they do. The financial support provided by the Institute of Physics, Vietnam Academy of Science is very much appreciated.

The Myanmar group in the conference

Representing Malaysia in the CASEAN-6 conference

Glad to be invited to the 50th anniversary celebration of the Institute of Physics, Vietnam Academy of Science during my visit to Hanoi.

It was a tremendous morale boost early this year when I got to know that my application for the Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility programme was successful.

For that application, I proposed to visit Prof. Luis Robledo from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM) to learn about mean-field calculations using the Gogny force as well as to discuss possibility of research collaborations between UTM and UAM.

We had a fruitful discussions over the 5 days stay in UAM touching on many issues mostly on research progress and academic programmes designs. Luis had me acquainted to the locally developed computer code and we managed to arrive at a potential research topic that we can collaborate on. 

During my stay, I had also presented on the results obtained from my team’s work in collaboration with Prof. Philippe Quentin and Dr. Ludovic Bonneau from CENBG. I was very glad that the work received some appreciations and kind comments from physicists in Madrid.

Physics aside, I really appreciate Luis’s patience in translating Spanish cuisines at every lunch meals and explaining various issues regarding the local cultures. I got to try local dishes such as gazpacho, paella and chorizo all thanks to Luis’s recommendation. More about my visit to key places in Madrid is given in another link.

With Luis in his office.

Lunch with Prof. Alfredo Poves after my talk.

Outside the Faculty of Science building.

Statue of Avicenna along the pathway to the faculty.

The walk from the faculty to the nearby RER train station.

Hafiza successfully defended her MSc research work today. Congratulations to her!

Photo taken after viva presentation.

And so it is time for celebration – together with Anita who had just completed her viva session last month. All the best to both of them who will be pursuing their doctoral study in Japan.

The two celebrities for today.

Lyana doing a great job in promoting the food.

Hafiza and Anita with their strong supporters.

My research group members – April 2019

Our official photographer – Aliah.

Our special guest.

Big congratulations to Nurhafiza and Nor Anita for securing the Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Scholarship to pursue their doctoral study in Japan.

Hope that this would be a good start for them to pursue their interest in fundamental nuclear physics research.

Nurhafiza (sixth from right) and Nor Anita (seventh from right) during the award ceremony.

Today is my first time meeting Dr. Radziah from School of Computing and Dr. Nor Farahwahidah from Faculty of Education – all thanks to Dr. Syaharizatul from Azman Hashim International Business School.

It all started with me proposing a research program to Dr. Syaharizatul just 5 days before the TRGS application deadline. Its really crazy, and  i didn’t really expect anything positive would comes out of it.

But I really underestimate her enthusiasm in the program that I proposed. She first connect me to Dr. Radziah immediately after I told her about the project. Then she search for another person (Dr. Farahwahidah) whom she thinks is more suited to lead the project which she has been working on for the last 2 days. I really salute her for her dedication to the team!

I certainly hope that our application would be successful. But whatever it may be, I just want to express my gratitude for having the opportunity to meet and discuss things with them. I learnt a lot especially in terms of writing research proposal from the education point of view.

From right; Dr. Farahwahidah, Dr. Syaharizatul, Dr. Radziah and Dr. Faizani

I am glad to be invited as a speaker in this year edition of the Winter School on Nuclear Science & Technology organized in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia on the 26th to 28th November 2018.

During the school, I gave lectures on fundamentals of Hartree-Fock method and its applications to basic nuclear fission studies. The notes for the lectures can be obtained here.

It was a very interesting session for me especially having the opportunity to meet Dr. Hao from University of Hue, Vietnam also a theoretician and Prof. Tsekanovich, an experimentalist working on nuclear fission.

My MSc students Nurhafiza (left) and Nor Anita (right) with Prof. Philippe Quentin.

Dr. Hao and Prof. Tsekhanovich having discussions during break.

Discussions with Prof. Philippe after the school.

With (from left) Prof. Shahidan from UKM, Prof. Philippe, myself and Kelvin Lee.