Profile
Dr. Tarekul Islam is a Professor at the Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). He graduated in Civil Engineering from BUET in 1994 and obtained his Master's degree in Water Resources Engineering in 1996 as a recipient of the Netherlands' Lamminga Foundation Scholarship. He joined IWFM as a Lecturer in 1996 and was promoted to Professor in 2010. He received the Monbusho Scholarship from the Government of Japan to pursue his Ph.D. in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Tokyo, Japan, from 1997 to 2000. He was also awarded the prestigious Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship for postdoctoral research in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Hiroshima University, Japan, from 2006 to 2008.
Dr. Islam has held several visiting academic positions at internationally recognized institutions. In 2011, he served as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Disaster Risk Management and Sustainable Development at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia, where he made significant contributions to the development of curricula for the introduction of a Master's program in Disaster Risk Reduction, sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In 2016, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Integrated Water Systems and Governance of UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, the Netherlands. He has also served as a part-time faculty member at the Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies, University of Dhaka; the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Islamic University of Technology; and the Departments of Civil Engineering and Environmental, Water Resources, and Coastal Engineering at the Military Institute of Science and Technology. He played a pivotal role in introducing the multidisciplinary postgraduate academic program in Humanitarian Engineering at BUET in 2023 - the first program of its kind in South Asia.
Dr. Islam has established extensive research collaborations with renowned universities and research organizations across South Asia, Europe, the United States, Japan, and China. He has participated in numerous international collaborative research projects supported by a wide range of organizations and funding agencies, including the European Union (EU), Alliance of International Science Organizations (ANSO), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Department for International Development (DFID), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the UK Overseas Development Administration.
Alongside his academic responsibilities, Dr. Islam has held a number of important administrative and institutional leadership positions. He served as Director of the Directorate of Planning and Development (P&D) at BUET from January 2019 to November 2021 and as Director of the Institute of Water and Flood Management from 2013 to 2015. He also served as Provost of Shahid Smriti Hall, BUET, from 2010 to 2012. In addition, he served as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Water and Flood Management from August 2019 to August 2021 and again from 2022 to 2025.
Dr. Islam has also contributed to several national institutions and professional bodies. He has been serving as a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), Dhaka, Bangladesh, since May 2023. He served as a Member of the Governing Board of the Bangladesh National Scientific and Technical Documentation Center (BANSDOC), under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, from September 2018 to February 2022. During the same period, from July 2018 to February 2022, he served as a Member of the Governing Board of the National Museum of Science and Technology under the Ministry of Science and Technology. He also served as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies (IDMVS), University of Dhaka, from 2016 to 2025.
In recognition of his research excellence, Dr. Islam was awarded the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh's Best Researcher Award in the Engineering and Technology category in 2003. As a Principal or Co-Investigator, he has contributed to more than 25 research projects and supervised the thesis research of over 40 graduate students. He has served as a consultant on over 120 nationally important projects across various government and non-government sectors. He has delivered numerous invited lectures and presentations on a wide range of issues related to water and flood management. Dr. Islam has published more than 160 papers in international journals and conference proceedings.
Last updated on 11 August 2026