Mukhlis Abu Bakar is Head and Associate Professor at the Asian Languages & Cultures (ALC) Academic Group, 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 crosses 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 literacy practices in 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 "The Bloomsbury Handbook of Culture and Identity from Early Childhood to Early Adulthood" (2021) with Wills, de Souza, Mata-McMahon, Mukhlis & Roux as co-editors, and a book by Routledge "Rethinking Madrasah Education in a Globalised World" (2018) with Mukhlis as 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 in the NTU Board of Discipline. His current public service roles include: Member of the Malay Language Council and Co-Chairman of the Anugerah Guru Arif Budiman (an award for Malay Language teachers), MCCY; Member of the Singapore National Translation Committee and Head of the Malay Resource Panel, MCI; Member of the Project Evaluation Committee of the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism (LKYFB) as well as its Research Advisory Panel, MOE. Mukhlis has previously served in MSF's Advisory Panel on Parenting, and MOE’s Malay Language Learning and Promotion Committee, 2005 Malay Language Curriculum and Pedagogy Review Committee, and 2010 Malay Language Review Committee. He has also served as Member of the Board of Directors of Mercy Relief, a local disaster relief agency, and currently sits on its Advisory Council.