Professor Dr Asma Ismail FASc takes over the role of ASM President from Tan Sri Datuk Dr Ir Ahmad Tajuddin Ali FASc who has completed his second 3-year term as President on 27 December 2016 as stipulated under the Academy of Sciences Malaysia Act 1994. She is also the Founding Director and Professor at the Institute for Research in Molecular Medicine (INFORMM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).  She graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno, USA with distinction in biology in 1980, received her MA in Microbiology in 1983 from Indiana University, Bloomington, USA and obtained her PhD in the field of Cellular and Molecular Biology at the School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Reno, USA in 1986.

Asma specializes in Medical Microbiology, Clinical Microbiology and Medical biotechnology. Her research emphasis is in the scientific discovery of biomarkers and development of rapid diagnostics of infectious diseases especially typhoid and paratyphoid fever for low resource settings.