Dr.Zulhairun Abdul Karim is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering (FCEE) at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Zulhairun obtained his Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) from UTM in 2011, and then pursued his PhD in Gas Engineering. During his study, he was actively involved in an academia-industry research project developing novel membrane material for CO2 removal. Right after his PhD graduation in 2014, he was appointed as a Visiting Junior Researcher, and then he was awarded with Postdoctoral Fellowship in Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), UTM. 

He joined the Energy Engineering Department as academic teaching staff in mid-2015, serving Nuclear Engineering Programme, while actively involved with numerous research activities in AMTEC as an associate research fellow. In AMTEC, he holds the responsibility as the Corporate Affairs Manager. On top of that, he plays the role as the Advisor of Nuclear Engineering Student Society (NESS). He is also an associate member of Institution of Chemical Engineers (AMIChemE) and a member of Malaysia Membrane Society (MyMembrane). Besides that, he held the position as the head of laboratory for the Basic Engineering  Laboratory (Makmal Kejuruteraan Asas) in SCEE (2016-2018).  

His research interests mainly centered on nano-enabled membrane technology developed for gas separation and water purification. Despite of his short career span, he has published several scientific publications in high impact factor international refereed journals and book chapters. Recently he had been appointed as one of the Editorial Board Members for Journal of Applied Membrane Science & Technology.