Prof. Dr Suraya Abdul Rashid is a professor at the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). She received her bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Nottingham University, United Kingdom, in 2000. She then pursued her PhD in Chemical Engineering, focusing on Nanotechnology from Imperial College London, United Kingdom, in 2004. She is a Chartered Engineer under the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), a Professional Engineer under the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM), and a nanotechnologist under the Malaysia Board of Technologists (MBOT).
Prof. Suraya's research interests revolve around carbon nanomaterials synthesis and processing for various applications. She has published over 180 articles in citation-indexed journals and has a current H-index of 41. She was listed as Stanford-Elsevier’s World’s Top 2% Scientist for 2022, 2023 & 2024. She has received numerous national and international awards for her bio-based quantum dots (QD) research, such Emerging Innovator award for Malaysia Commercialization Year 2022, Gold Medal and Special Innovation Award at the iENA Tradeshow in Nuremberg, Germany, 2023, UPM’s Vice Chancellor Fellowship Award 2024 (Product Innovation and Commercialization), Malaysia SCOPUS Research Star Award 2025 (Excellence in Innovation) category, and the Luminory Award 2025 from Malaysian Invention and Design Society (MINDS).
Prof. Suraya is also the founder of a start-up company, Qarbotech, where she serves as Chief Scientist. Qarbotech is currently commercialising its research product, which is a patent-backed photosynthesis enhancer for the agriculture and horticulture industry. In 2023, Qarbotech received commercialisation grants from Temasek Foundation and Khazanah Nasional’s Dana Impak to show proof of scale of the technology in the paddy industry in Indonesia and Malaysia. In October 2024, Qarbotech received additional venture capital investment, resulting in a total of USD2 million raised through a couple of Seed rounds. Qarbotech has received numerous accolades, such as champion of Tech Planter Malaysia and Asia in 2021, Champion of the Climate Impact Innovator Challenge 2023, Awardee of Khazanah Impak Innovation Challenge 2023, Champion of Future Food Awards 2024, and Champion of Startup World Cup Kuala Lumpur Finals 2025. More recently in September 2025, Qarbotech was the first Malaysian company to be accepted into the Breakthrough Energy Fellowship, founded by Bill Gates.
