He held administrative posts for 18 years. These posts include Program Chairman (FoodTechnology Program, 2001-2002), Deputy Dean (Academic and Student Development) 2003 to2007, and briefly in 2009, Deputy Dean (Research and Postgraduates studies) 2010-2014, andfor one year in 2019. He served as Dean for the same school for five years (2014-2018).

His current job functions include lecturing, supervising students in research,
conducting research (mainly in the design & development of functional food and protein function enhancement), consulting in functional food and protein functionalities, refereeing and publishing scientific papers, evaluating grant proposals,examining thesis and writing scientificreports/articles.

He promoted the understanding of integrated quality system development of ASEAN agro-based food industries. Past activities include sitting in the Malaysian Ministry of Healthcommittee for Functional Food (Codex Coordinating Committee on Functional Food Regulationfor ASIA). He also sat in the Penang State Government committee for Science and Technologyawareness program.

Subjects taught by Dr Azhar include Introduction to Food Science and Technology, FoodCommodity, Food Processing and Preservation, Biochemistry, Nutrition, Thinking Skills,Quality Management of Food, Functional Food, and Persuasive Oral Presentation.

Dr Azhar is also involved actively in public services. Since 1997 he has beenthe consultant/science advisor to various consultancy projects with Foodand Nutrition companies dealing with food supplements and functional foods/beverages. He has been an International Speaker on multiple topics:Nutrition and Functional Food Science, Research needs of Small and Medium enterprises of ASEAN, Halal Practice and many more. From 1997to 2010, he has delivered scientific/educational talks to more than 20,000 people on The Science of Functional Foods and subjects related to quality systems in the ASEAN region (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei).He has been active in helping government agencies with up to date knowledge of Food Science and continuing education; these agencies include The Ministry of Health and The Ministry of Defense. He was also appointed as a Governing Board Member of an international certification body dealing with quality management system certification.

Dr Azhar serves as a program advisory committee for the Ministry of Plantation
Industries andCommodities, grant evaluator for the Ministry of Higher Education,
and visiting scholar for aninternational university. From 2014 to 2021, he has served
as a Food Science Program examiner forvarious food science programs of public and private universities in Malaysia.

Azhar's achievements in research have been featured in various publications and the media.Initially, his research interest has been on protein functionality (enhancement of protein functionsby the use of sugar-protein interactions and cross-linking agents) and then on the design &development of functional foods or 'almost-illegal products"/ingredients (adding value to foods byconverting them to functional or
health-enhancing products). With the university's emphasis onsustainability, he has redirected his research theme towards "Sustainability-Led-Innovative-Manufacturing", or SLIM. This has led to a commercialization of the research product called"Slimmee".

As of January 2022, he has successfully graduated 9 PhD and 7 MSc graduates as the mainsupervisor.
Dr Azhar also runs online schools on Introduction to Food Science and Technology (https://azhar-s-school-
nutrastrategist.thinkific.com/courses/FoodScienceSchoolOnline), Food Quality Management (https://azhar-s-school-nutrastrategist.thinkific.com/courses/IMK316- food-quality-and-management), Functional Food
(https://azhar-s-school-nutrastrategist.thinkific.com/courses/FunctionalFoodSchoolOnline) and Nutrition Baics for WeightWatchers (https://www.openlearning.com/courses/nutrition-basics- for-weight-watchers).