Mukhlis Abu Bakar is Head and Associate Professor at the Asian Languages & Cultures (ALC) Department, National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

Mukhlis was trained in speech perception at Bangor and Edinburgh universities in the UK for his graduate studies, a field that straddles the disciplines of phonetics and cognitive science. He went on to work on Malay linguistics at the National University of Singapore, his first academic appointment. His interest in education brought him to NIE where he developed an expertise in the literacy practices of preschoolers before expanding into bilingualism and biliteracy. In recent years, he picked up phonetics again, specifically socio-phonetics, researching on pronunciation and identity in the Malay language. In between, he ventured into madrasah education.

Mukhlis has secured several research grants as Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator and Collaborator for projects on literacy, bilingualism and socio-phonetics. Among his recent publications include a volume by Bloomsbury "The Bloomsbury Handbook of Culture and Identity from Early Childhood to Early Adulthood" (2021) (co-editor with Wills, de Souza, Mata-McMahon & Roux), and a volume by Routledge "Rethinking Madrasah Education in a Globalised World" (2018) (sole editor).

Mukhlis teaches in the areas of linguistics, critical discourse analysis, sociocultural approaches to literacy, and bilingualism and bilingual education, for which he has received several teaching awards. He also conducts workshops for teachers on Bilingual Teaching Methods.

Mukhlis supervises MA and PhD students and has served as Higher Degree Internal Examiner at NIE as well as External Examiner for universities in Singapore and Malaysia. He currently sits on the Editorial Board of Jurnal Bahasa, a publication of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Malaysia), and Jurnal Linguistik, a publication of the Persatuan Linguistik Malaysia. He has previously served as Associate Editor of Asia Pacific Journal of Education and Co-editor of Journal Pendidikan Awal Kanak-kanak.

Mukhlis has served on the NTU Board of Discipline (2020-2023). His current public service roles include: Member of Singapore National Translation Committee and Head of Malay Resource Panel at MDDI; Member of Project Evaluation Committee and Research Advisory Panel of the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism (LKYFB) at MOE. Mukhlis has previously served in MCCY's Malay Language Council Singapore and Anugerah Guru Arif Budiman Committee (2020-2024), MSF's Advisory Panel on Parenting (2018-2023), and MOE’s Malay Language Learning and Promotion Committee (2010-2016), Malay Language Curriculum and Pedagogy Review Committee 2005, and Malay Language Review Committee 2010. He has also served as Member of the Board of Directors of Mercy Relief (2003-2018), a local humanitarian relief agency, and currently sits on its Advisory Council.