Materials scientist Haiza Haroon will lead her expedition to South Island, New Zealand, endeavoring to discover the potential use of earthy material, namely clay collected from Omarama Clay Cliffs, as a nanofiller for biomedical applications. Above and beyond, Haiza is motivated to explore the possible use of Omarama clay to isolate dangerous waste materials from the environment, such as removing pollutants and pesticide formulations. The research outcome of this expedition will provide beneficial scientific knowledge on how the origin, climate, composition, geological factors, etc., can determine the properties and quality of clay. Haiza and her research team have hypothesized that clay originated from Clay Cliffs, New Zealand, and may consist of different metal ions composition compared to clay from Malaysia since it was originally formed by the flow of ancient glaciers from lakes and rivers in the area over a million years ago.

Nanoclay-incorporated copolymer possesses exceptional properties such as thermal/flame resistance, barrier function, stiffness, superhydrophobicity, biocompatibility, stimuli responsiveness, sustained drug release, resistance to hydrolysis, outstanding dynamic mechanical properties including resilience and low-temperature flexibility, excellent hydrolytic stability and antimicrobial properties. Due to being non-toxic, nano clays and their composites have attracted researchers in this field to study their potential applications in the biomedical field, such as bone cement, tissue engineering, drug delivery systems, regenerative medicine, wound healing, and enzyme immobilization.

Haiza has a Ph.D. degree in Materials Engineering and is currently working as a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering & Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP). Her research interests are in hybrid nanofluids, nanocomposites, green chemistry, nanomaterials, and nanotechnology.