Dr. Mariatulqabtiah Abdul Razak works at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, and a research associate of the Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). She just received the L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award 2022 (Malaysia programme) on 30th November 2022, during her research attachment at the Pirbright Institute, UK, under the collaboration with Prof. Dr. Munir Iqbal of the Avian Influenza Group. Dr. Maria graduated with a first class honours degree for her Bachelor of Science (Biotechnology) at Universiti Putra Malaysia back in 2006. Then, she pursued her PhD studies at Imperial College London, which was fully-funded by the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. She developed and characterised the recombinant fowl pox viruses coexpressing avian influenza and chicken cytokine genes for her PhD, under the supervisions of Emeritus Prof. Dr. Mike Skinner and Prof. Dr. Abdul Rahman Omar. This project has intrigued her scientific curiosity in the areas of molecular biology, immunology and vaccine development. Upon graduation in 2011, she was appointed as a senior lecturer at UPM and promoted to an associate professor in January 2020. She had led several national competitive grants from the Government's ministries including MOSTI and MOHE, and currently leading an international grant from the International Veterinary Vaccinology Network (IVVN), U.K. Her research projects involve rapid diagnostic strategies against viruses, and the development of avian vaccine vectors, i.e. recombinant viruses and virus-like particles, for structure elucidations, antigenicity, immunogenicity and pathogenicity. Her interest in global networking is evidenced by journal article co-publications with the U.K. (Imperial College London, the Pirbright Institute) and Taiwan (NPUST), and catalogue-chapter publications with the U.K. (Imperial College London) and the U.S. (John Hopkins University). Apart from being a member of the Young Scientist Network-Academy of Sciences Malaysia, she is also a member of several national and international societies of microbiology and veterinary. Dr Maria believes in the importance of knowledge and technology acquisition and dissemination across continents to promote a global scientific impact.