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Vice Chancellor

PROF DATO' Ir. Ts. DR MOHAMED IBRAHIM ABDUL MUTALIB
(Vice Chancellor)

Professor Dato' Ir. Ts. Dr Mohamed Ibrahim bin Abdul Mutalib was a graduate from University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia in Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Chemical Engineering. 

He started work life with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) as an Assistant Lecturer with the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Natural Resources. After 3 years of serving UTM, he was then awarded with a scholarship under Skim Tenaga Pengajar to pursue his postgraduate in MSc Process Integration at The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in 1990 . Due to his outstanding performance, the UMIST Process Integration Research Consortium honoured him by offering him a scholarship to continue his PhD, which he later completed in 1995. Upon the completion, he rejoined UTM as a Senior Lecturer and served until March 1997 before he decided to continue his career as academia with Institute of Technology PETRONAS (ITPSB). ​

In UTP, Professor Dato' Ts. Dr Mohamed Ibrahim bin Abdul Mutalib was appointed as Lecturer II and shortly was made the founding Head of Programme for Chemical Engineering in 1998 when ITPSB was upgraded to Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP). He was responsible in designing the curriculum for the Chemical Engineering programme and developing the support resources required. In 2000, he was appointed as the Director of Research and Consultancy and among his immediate task was to jointly develop the Research & Development (R&D) and Consultancy master plan for UTP. He jointly lead the master plan development with Arthur d' Little and completed it in the middle of 2002.

Moving forward, he oversaw the implementation of the master plan and served on the director position until the end of 2009. Subsequent to that, he was also appointed to lead the PETRONAS Ionic Liquids Center which enabled him to spearhead research in the area of Ionic Liquids Application. At the same time, he was also tasked to head another strategic plan known as UTP Transformation Plan where he co-led with the Registrar of UTP, En Solihuddin Ahmad Nasarudin. The Transformation Plan was developed for the purpose of transforming UTP into a research-led university, aiming towards world class research capability. The Transformation Plan was completed in 2010.

 In view of his past experience and contribution in management position, he was appointed back to the university management position as the Dean of Faculty of Engineering in 2013. During his tenure, the faculty of engineering continued to progress strongly and has improved its QS rating to top 300 world. 

During his stint in 2002, he was promoted to Associate Professor and later to a full professor in Chemical Engineering in 2014. Currently he is an active researcher with current area of specialisation involving ionic liquids synthesis & thermo-properties and development of ionic liquids processes for acid gas removal, desulfurization of fuel and several others. Prior to that, he had published over 80 journal papers listed in SCOPUS recent databank with an h-index of 18. Besides, he also won a number of accolades in product competition including the Best Green Invention in ITEX 2015.

At national level, he was involved in the development of Programme Standard for Engineering and Technology Programme for Malaysian Quality Agency in 2012 which is used as the standard for national accreditation for all universities. In addition to his academic and research commitments, he have also served as an evaluator for Engineering Accreditation Council, Malaysia for the accreditation of B.Eng programmes in line with the Washington Accord. Due to his immense contribution, he had the privilege of working as a Reviewer with numerous groups including the National Research Grant Schemes such as IRPA, E-Science, FRGS and TechnoFund.

Internationally, he had been invited to become a committee members of several international conferences as well as becoming a plenary speaker in several of them. In line with this, he had also added to his growing commitments the focus to review several reputable journals in Chemical Engineering field such as Industrial Engineering & Chemistry Research, The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, ASEAN Journal of Chemical Engineering, Separation and Purification Reviews, Chemical Engineering and Design, Chemical Engineering Technology and others. Not to mention that he was being invited and appointed to be a reviewer for Qatar National Research Foundation Grant.


Prof Dato’ VC, Ir. Ts. Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim bin Abdul Mutalib, is a Professional Engineer registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia, and he currently holds the status of a Fellow with IChemE, UK, as well as being a Chartered Engineer recognized by the UK Engineering Council.

On 1st April 2016, he had been entrusted by the Management to assume the position as the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academic. His role is to strengthen the academic division further in support of the university's corporate agenda, as the university has crafted many strategic plans and initiatives.

Starting from 1st November 2017, he had been given the responsibility to cover the duties of a Vice Chancellor for Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS. 

Effective 16 May 2018, Professor Dato' Ir. Ts. Dr Mohamed Ibrahim bin Abdul Mutalib is appointed as the fourth Vice Chancellor of UTP. 


On 4 January 2022, Professor Dato' Ir. Ts. Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim bin Abdul Mutalib was appointed as a board member of the Malaysia Board of Technologists (MBOT).