Outer space has been a subject that fascinated Dr Nur Adlyka Ainul Annuar since she was young. She was inspired by movies like Armageddon and Apollo 13 to dive deeper into the field of astrophysics. Adlyka would go on to obtain her BSc in Physics & Astrophysics from the University of Sheffield in the UK.

The Johor native was declared the winner of Britain's Women of the Future Award South East Asia 2021 in the Science, Technology and Digital category. She was part of the international NASA team that discovered a hidden, supermassive black hole in a nearby galaxy while pursuing her PhD at Durham University.

Adlyka's research focuses on finding active supermassive black holes that are hidden by thick clouds of gas and dust in our universe by using a space-based X-ray telescope.

She is now an active principal researcher and lecturer in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.