Ts. Dr. Sathiabama T. Thirugnana is currently the Director of UTM Ocean Thermal Energy Centre and a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Currently, she is focused on Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) and its efficient technology to tackle Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 2050 decarbonization action plans with O&G industries.

Nevertheless, she returned to homeland Malaysia, via the Brain Gain program under the Ministry of Human Resources in 2008 and since then she has been actively involved in knowledge-transfer initiatives.