Profile
Dr. Tarekul Islam is a Professor at the Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM) of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). He graduated in Civil Engineering in 1994 and did his Master's in Water Resources Engineering in 1996 from BUET. He was a Lamminga Foundation Scholar before joining IWFM as a Lecturer in 1996. He received Monbusho Scholarship from the Government of Japan to pursue Ph.D. at the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Tokyo, Japan during 1997-2000. He was also a recipient of the prestigious JSPS fellowship to pursue post-doctoral research at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Hiroshima University, Japan during 2006-2008.
He was a Visiting Professor at the Department of Disaster Risk Management and Sustainable Development of Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia in 2011 where he immensely contributed to updating and developing new course curricula for introducing a Master's program in Disaster Risk Reduction under the sponsorship of UNDP. He was also a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Integrated Water Systems and Governance of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands in 2016. He was a part-time faculty of the Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies of Dhaka University; the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Islamic University of Technology; and the Department of Civil Engineering and Department of Environmental, Water Resources and Coastal Engineering of the Military Institute of Science and Technology.
He has developed excellent research collaborations with many renowned universities and research organizations in South Asia, Europe, the USA, Japan, and China. He has taken part in many international collaborative research projects with funding from European Union (EU), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), the 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 UK Overseas Development Administration.
He held different administrative posts along with academic positions. He is serving as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Water and Flood Management of BUET since September 2022. He served as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Water and Flood Management of BUET from August 2019 to August 2021. He was a Member of the Governing Board of Bangladesh National Scientific and Technical Documentation Center (BANSDOC) under the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh from September 2018 - February 2022. He was a Member of the Governing Board of the National Museum of Science and Technology under the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh from July 2018 - February 2022. He is also serving as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability (IDMVS) of Dhaka University since 2016 - date. In the past, he served as the Director of the Directorate of Planning and Development (P & D) of BUET from January 2019 to November 2021; the Director of the Institute of Water and Flood Management of BUET from 2013 to 2015. He also worked as the Provost of Shahid Smriti Hall of BUET from 2010 to 2012.
He has worked as a member of different committees of international scientific and technological organizations. He is a member of the Special Task Force on Sustainable Mountain Education of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD); a member of the Thematic Work Group on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Resilience of Himalayan University Consortium (HUC); Principal Focal Person of the Himalayan University Consortium (HUC) to BUET and Coordinator of the Mission Idea Contest of the University Space Engineering Consortiums (UNISEC), Japan.
He was awarded by the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh as the best researcher in Engineering and Technology category in 2003. He has taken part in 25 research projects as a Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator. He has supervised the thesis works of 31 graduate students. He has rendered many consultancy and advisory services to nationally important projects of different government and non-government organizations. He has imparted numerous talks on various issues of water and flood management as an invited speaker. He has published 154 papers in international journals and conference proceedings.
Last updated on 23 January 2023