She received her PhD in 2010 from the University of Aberdeen, and specializes in tropical forest ecology. Her current research focuses on tropical plant diversity and conservation, the impact of invasive Acacias on natural ecosystems in Brunei as well as heath and peat swamp forest ecology and rehabilitation. She has successfully secured both local and external research grants as the Principal Investigator for these projects. Dr Rahayu was a visiting research scholar to the New York Botanical Garden, the Peabody Museum at Yale University, Old Dominion University and Princeton University in 2012. She is currently the Brunei Country Coordinator for the ASEAN-Korea Environmental Cooperation Project (AKECOP) and the Brunei Darussalam National Project Coordinator for the ASEAN-India ASEAN-India Project on Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation in Southeast Asia (Phase 1).