Members - BDIUSA

Sukomal Modak, Ph.D.

Position: Executive Member
Contact: sukomal_mondak@yahoo.com

Bio:

Dr. Modak received his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from BUET in 1989 with distinctions: First Class, First, Honors, Record Marks, and a gold medal. His superior academic accomplishment earned him the Malik Akram Hossain Gold Medal, Fazlur Rahman Khan Scholarship, and University Grants Commission Scholarship in Bangladesh. Thereafter he received two masters’ degrees in Structural Engineering. The first one was from BUET in 1992 with Record GPA and the second one was from Washington State University at Pullman in 1995. He received his PhD in Structural Engineering from Purdue University in 1997.

Dr. Modak served Bangladesh as a Lecturer of BUET for little over two years (1989–1992). After completing his Ph.D., he joined CSI team as a Research & Development Engineer in 1997. Since then, he is one of the lead developers of computer software for structural and earthquake engineering at CSI. His current responsibilities and past accomplishments in implementing and maintaining all the building design codes from across the nations in CSI software products make him one of the most well versed person in building design codes.

Dr. Modak has contributed to the state-of-the-art of computational structural mechanics — mainly in algorithm development for computational structural dynamics. He has written about thirty papers in engineering. He has published his works in many peer-reviewed reputed engineering journals such as International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Journal of Structural Engineering (ASCE), Computers and Structures, and so on. He also has published his work in many peer-reviewed conferences papers, reports, and a book chapter. Dr. Modak has peer-reviewed papers for many engineering journals including International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, Journal of Structural Engineering, Journal of Infrastructure Engineering, International Journal of Earthquake Engineering, and International Journal of Solids and Structures.

Dr. Modak is/has been a member of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Structural Engineering Association of California (SEAOC), Earthquake Engineers Research Institute (EERI); US Association of Computational Mechanics (USACM), International Association of Computational Mechanics (IACM), Sigma Xi–The Scientific Research Society, and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He has served in two technical subcommittees of ASCE Structural Engineering Institute — Emerging Computing Technology and Methods of Analysis.

Dr. Modak wants to use his science, technology, engineering, and mathematics knowledge for the development of Bangladesh. Currently he is interested in the following multi-disciplinary research areas: (a) Development of low-cost high-quality housing for sustainable development with green technology. He is looking at bamboo treated with environment friendly preservatives as a structural material. Challenges are structural configurations, decay protection, fire-resistance, and connection design. (b) Development of low-cost high-performance groundwater non-contaminating septic system using indigenous material for rural sanitation. (c) Improving evaluation systems in public examinations in Bangladesh to encourage fairness and competition. He is interested in the development of success-matrix for different components of the education system.

Structural Engg Software Developer (R&D)
Computers and Structures, Inc. (CSI)
1995 University Ave., Suite 540;
Berkeley, California 94704, USA
Web: www.csiberkeley.com
Web: www.caeplDhaka.com
Tel: (510) 914-7286
Email: Sukomal_Modak@yahoo.com

Adnan Morshed, Ph.D.

Position: Member

Bio:

Adnan Morshed received his Ph.D. and Master’s in architecture from MIT, and B. Arch. from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, where he also taught. He completed his post-doctoral at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. He is currently Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning, the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historians, jury for the National Endowment for the Humanities grants, and, recently, chaired the Society of Architectural Historians’ committee for 2015 Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award. Adnan Morshed has been awarded highly competitive fellowships, among others, the Wyeth Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA), the National Gallery of Art; the Smithsonian Institution; Wolfsonian-Florida International University; and the Society of Architectural Historians. His research has garnered prestigious research grants from the Graham Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and MIT. He is the author of Impossible Heights: Skyscrapers, Flight, and the Master Builder (University Minnesota Press, 2015) and Oculus: A Decade of Insights into Bangladeshi Affairs (University Press Limited, 2012). He has lectured around the world on the history and theory of modern architecture and urbanism, urban ecology and gender justice, and sustainable urban planning in developing countries. His articles appeared in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Journal of Architectural Education, Journal of South Asian Studies, Thresholds (MIT), Center (National Gallery of Art), Constructs (Yale), New Geographies (Harvard), Architectural Design, and Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. He has served as a reviewer for various national and international refereed journals. In 2012, he led the Society of Architectural Historians’ study tour to three South Asian cities: Dhaka, Delhi, and Chandigarh. Currently he also serves on the Board of the $1M Mellon Foundation Grant to MIT’s Global Architecture History Teaching Collaborative, led by Professor Mark Jarzombek. A practicing architect and urbanist, Adnan Morshed has designed buildings in the U.S., Lebanon, Malaysia, and Bangladesh. He is an avid traveler, photographer, collector, and an op-ed contributor to various newspapers and online forums.

Publication Links:

The tragicomic destiny of Dhaka

Occupy Narayanganj: Can the mayor-elect be the harbinger of good urban governance?

Deaths unforeseen: The killing fields of Bangladeshi roads

A post-Dhaka Bangladesh

Ahmad and the unskilled labour market

The mother sublime

The BGMEA Tower mystique

“Yunusgate”

Arial Beel’s Versailles moment

A sociology of Dhaka’s traffic congestion

Bangladesh at a crossroads?

A doctor with a mission

Armenians in Dhaka

Goodbye master planning – Hello bottom-up urbanism

How compact cities can save Bangladesh

Saving the Sundarbans, rethinking economic growth

Splitting the capital, saving the country

The Banality of Cruelty

Ashraf Ali, D.Sc., MBA

Position: Member

Bio:

Dr. Ali, a former Lecturer of BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh (1979-1981), has written the book on advanced engineering (2004) “Boundary Element Methods: Applications in Sound and Vibration” published by Taylor & Francis/Balkema of The Netherlands. He has written about forty papers in engineering, a half of which were published in peer-reviewed engineering journals such as International Journal of Solids and Structures, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Journal of Engineering Mechanics (ASCE), Computers and Structures, Journal of Acoustical Society of America, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, and so on. Dr. Ali has peer-reviewed papers for the engineering journals: International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Engineering Mechanics (ASCE), and International Journal of Solids and Structures. His research areas of interest include computational mechanics (finite element and boundary element methods), hyperelasticity, random vibrations and structural dynamics, infinite elements, structural stability, thermal analysis, acoustics and structure-acoustics coupling, explicit dynamics, and so on.

Dr. Ali established Bangladesh Development Initiative (BDI) in 1988 and was its founding President. He has edited two books in social sciences: Development Issues of Bangladesh (1996) and Development Issues of Bangladesh-II (2003) both published by UPL, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dr. Ali is an editorial board member of BDI’s Journal of Bangladesh Studies. He established the Seattle chapter of AABEA (American Association of Bangladeshi Engineers and Architects) in 1998 and was its founding President. He is a life-long member of AEDSB (Association for Economic and Development Studies on Bangladesh).

Dr. Ali is interested in promoting the production of value-added commodities in Bangladesh such as capital, intermediate and durable goods with domestic R&D (Research and Development) component. In Dr. Ali’s opinion, this is the only way Bangladesh can aspire to become a middle-income country in the foreseeable future.

15160 SE 54th Place, Bellevue, WA 98006, USA
(425)-373-4013; e-sas@msn.com

B.S. Civil (Structural) Engineering (1979) BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh; M.S. Civil (Structural) Engineering (1983) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA; D.Sc. Civil (Structural) Engineering (1986) Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA; MBA (2004) University of Phoenix, USA.

Publication Links:

Go for capital goods industry: An NRB expert says how Bangladesh can advance in industrialisation

Following in Mahatir’s Footsteps

Economic Symbiosis

Badruzzaman Ahmed, Ph.D.

Position: Member
Contact: badruzzaman@bdiusa.org

Bio:

Ahmed Badruzzaman is currently an independent energy consultant and a visiting scholar at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) at University of California, Berkeley. Over a 30-year period, his work has spanned industrial and academic research, part-time teaching with Ph. D dissertation guidance, and assessing energy options. An author of several papers and two US patents, he is an internationally recognized expert on the use of nuclear technology in downhole measurements. He is also a keen student of nuclear power, and a proponent of sustainable small energy systems in the developing world. On the latter, he mentored his former employer’s set up of an alternative livelihood options project in one of their operations in partnership with two Diaspora-run NGO’s http://www.spaandanb.org/projects/chevron.html

Dr. Badruzzaman earned a Ph. D. in Nuclear Engineering & Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY in 1979. During 2001-2009, he taught part-time at University of California, Berkeley. He was an Adjunct Professor at Texas A&M University and a Member of the Board of Visitors of Claremont Graduate University’s School of Mathematical Sciences. He is a Fellow of American Nuclear Society, a recipient of several technical awards from petroleum-related professional societies. A strong proponent of technology transfer, he has spoken on his research around the globe. In 2006-2007, he toured over 20 countries as a Distinguished Lecturer (DL) of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). He later chaired the DL Committee. He has twice been a Distinguished Speaker of the Soc. of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts (SPWLA). He was a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency during 2011-2012, an official reviewer of a 2008 US National Academy of Sciences’ report, served as the editor of the technical journal, Petrophysics, and the VP of Publication of SPWLA.

Dr. Badruzzaman has spoken in the US and abroad on world’s energy options. He organized sessions on the topic at various Diaspora forums to raise awareness of the existential energy crisis that exists in his native Bangladesh. He chairs Bangladesh Environmental Network’s energy panel, and was the lead author of its 2006 report (http://www.benglobal.org/issues_files/BEN_ER2006.pdf). In 1999 2000, he led the establishment of a Section of the SPE in Bangladesh. He organized two special sessions at the 2013 BDI Conference at Berkeley on the role non-remittance Diaspora can play in development through non-profit and technology initiatives. He is a strong supporter of UC Berkeley’s Bangla language program and recently led the community effort to permanently endow it. He serves on Executive Committee of the Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies at ISAS, U C Berkeley.

Publication Links:

Energy Challenges and Opportunities: World and Bangladesh-A Comparison of Perspectives

Elora Chowdhury, Ph.D.

Position: Member
Contact: elora@bdiusa.org

Bio:

Elora Halim Chowdhury is Professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Director of the Human Rights Program at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, where she is also affiliated with the Asian Studies Department, the Cinema Studies Program and the Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights. She received her Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from Clark University, Massachusetts. Her teaching and research interests include transnational feminisms, critical development studies, gender violence and human rights advocacy, narrative and film with an emphasis on South Asia. Her book Transnationalism Reversed: Women Organizing Against Gendered Violence in Bangladesh (SUNY Press, 2011) was awarded the National Women’s Studies Association Gloria Anzaldua book prize in 2012. She is the co-editor of South Asian Filmscapes: Transregional Encounters (University of Washington Press, 2020 with Esha Niyogi De), Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Rights: History, Politics, Practice (Routledge, 2019 with Rajini Srikanth), and Dissident Friendships: Feminism, Imperialism and Transnational Solidarity (University of Illinois Press, 2016 with Liz Philipose). Her work has appeared in numerous leading journals in her field including Meridians: Feminism, Race & Transnationalism; Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society; Feminist Studies; Hypatia: Journal of Feminist Philosophy; and Gender, Place & Culture. Her current book project is tentatively titled, Disruptive Archive: Women, War and Muktijuddho Cinema. She serves as the Series Editor to the Dissident Feminisms book series at the University of Illinois Press and on the Editorial Boards of the journals Feminist Formations; Studies in South Asian Film and Media; and Journal of Feminist Scholarship. Dr. Chowdhury has been the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, Syracuse University and the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies. Prior to joining UMass, Dr. Chowdhury worked for a range of philanthropic, development, and policy institutions including BRAC, UNICEF, and the Ford Foundation.

Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

617-287-6764

Publication Links:

Indian Gang-Rape Victim’s Attackers Charged with Murder, Protesters Push for Broader Women’s Rights

Professor Nurul Islam

Position: Honorary Member

Bio:

Professor Nurul Islam has fully earned his reputation as one of the world’s leading development scholars and practitioners. He received his B.A. and an M.A. in economics (ranked first in the first class) from Dhaka University, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. He held prestigious Fellowships at the London School of Economics, Cambridge, Oxford and the Netherlands School of Economics. He had taught in, and Chaired, the Department of Economics at Dhaka University. Among his twenty nine books are: Development Planning in Bangladesh: A Study in Political Economy, published by UPL in 1979 and reprinted in 1993; and Making of a Nation: Bangladesh — An Economist’s Tale, Dhaka, Bangladesh: UPL, 2003. He received the Bangladesh Bank Award (2009) for his original contributions to theoretical and applied development economics. Throughout his long and distinguished career as an economist, researcher, social scientist and public intellectual, Professor Islam has worked tirelessly to uphold the welfare and interest of the people of Bangladesh. Through his many books, articles and speeches, he has contributed to a corpus of knowledge that has improved our understanding of economic theory and planning, poverty, process of economic growth, and role of politics in developmental dynamics.

Professor Islam has remained active outside the world of academe. He has served as the Assistant Director General, Economic and Social Policy Department, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); as the Deputy Chairman/Minister, Bangladesh Planning Commission Ministry, Government of Bangladesh, 1972–75; as the Chairman of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and the Director of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics. He served as a member and Chairman of the UN Committee of Development Planning Policy; Member, Executive Committee, International Economic Association (IEA), 1968–74; Treasurer, IEA, 1974–75; Member, UN Committee on Development Planning, 1974–77; Member, Executive Committee, Third World Forum, 1974–77. He also served on the editorial board of The World Economy (1977–80) and on the advisory committee of World Development (1977–97).

Professor Islam’s role as the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of the newly established nation was critical and historic. Along with a distinguished cohort of fellow planners and economists, he led the group in planning to rebuild the nation after the massive and sustained destruction during the nine-month long liberation war in 1971. Even before the war, he played an instrumental role among a core group of economists who had advised Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to underscore the economic argument for an independent Bangladesh.

National Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury (Deceased)

Position: Honorary Member

Bio:

Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury received his B.Sc. from what was then the East Pakistan University of Engineering & Technology (EPUET, now BUET), and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from University of Southampton (UK). His academic awards include a Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship and an honorary doctorate from Manchester University.

Having begun his academic career in 1963 as a lecturer in civil engineering at EPUET, Dr. Choudhury rose to the rank of Professor at BUET in 1976. He held several administrative positions at BUET before joining BRAC University as its first Vice Chancellor and remained in that position for nine years. In 2012, he joined the University of Asia Pacific as its VC. In 2018, the Bangladesh Government recognized his numerous academic contributions by bestowing upon him the title of “National Professor.”

The author of some 70 papers in international journals and conference proceedings on a vast range of topics, Professor Choudhury gained prominence early with his important 1967 article in American Concrete Journal. This article presented a simplified method for the analysis of shear walls in high-rise buildings, known since then as “Coull and Choudhury method,” that has been used in the design of a large number of high-rise buildings all over the world. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (Bangladesh), the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), Bangladesh Computer Society, and the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences.

Professor Choudhury has served as consultant to a large number of national and international agencies on projects related to tall buildings, industrial buildings, transmission towers, aircraft hangars, stadiums, ports and jetties, and the computerization of public and private sector organizations. He has served on the panel of experts to the Bangladesh Government and international donors for the Bangabandhu (Jamuna) and the Padma Bridges, and led Bangladesh Government taskforces on cyclone shelters, earthquakes, IT policy, and voter lists. He has served as Chair, Board of Directors, Bangladesh Shilpa Bank (Industrial Bank of Bangladesh) and as Chair, Board of Governors, Bangladesh Institute of Technology, Chittagong, now renamed CUET. He was appointed Adviser (Minister) in the 1996 Bangladesh Caretaker Government, with responsibility for the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Water Resources.

Professor Choudhury has been widely recognized by numerous organizations, including the Rotary Club Foundation, Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, and Lions International. He has received the Sarojini Naidu Medal, the Ahsanullah Gold Medal, and Dr. Md. Ibrahim Gold Medal. In 2017, the government of Bangladesh awarded him the Ekushey Padak for his contribution to Science and Technology. In 2018, the government of Japan conferred upon him the “Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon,” one of its highest civilian awards. He is the recipient of the 2017 BDI Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr. Hameeda Hossain

Position: Honorary Member

Bio:

Dr. Hameeda Hossain received her BA in literature and history from Wellesley College and her doctorate in history from Oxford University. Her career has spanned academic research, publishing and editing, as well as crafts development and advocacy for women, workers, and human rights. She has been consistently aligned with progressive causes and efforts, particularly on issues relating to secularism, civil liberties, and economic justice.

Dr. Hossain began her professional life as an editor with Oxford University Press in Karachi. She helped to co-found and served as the editor of the English language political monthly magazine, Forum, which played a critical role in raising awareness of the systemic inequities and discrimination suffered by the people of East Pakistan. Following Bangladesh’s independence, she joined the University Press Limited in Dhaka as an editor and also became actively involved in the rehabilitation of the women survivors of wartime sexual violence. Her efforts to develop and market local artisanal crafts led to the formation, in November 1974, of KARIKA (Bangladesh Hastashilpa Samabaya Federation Ltd.) This work, in turn, inspired her to write her doctoral dissertation at Oxford on the history of weavers in colonial Bengal, under the supervision of Professor Tapan Raychaudhuri. She has published widely on a variety of topics, including women’s experiences of the war, arts and crafts, the ready-made garment industry, women workers and human rights. Her publications in these subjects include No Better Option? Industrial Women Workers in Bangladesh, (1990, UPL, co-authored with Salma Sobhan and Roushan Jahan); The Company Weavers of Bengal: The East India Company and the Organization of Textile Production in Bengal, 1750-1813 (2010, UPL, and Oxford University Press, Delhi); and Of the Nation Born: The Bangladesh Papers (2016, Zubaan Books, co-edited with Amena Mohsin). In 2004 she co-authored Bangladesh’s Shadow Report for CEDAW and in 2010, the UN CEDAW Alternative Report on Bangladesh.

Dr. Hossain has attended major international women’s events in her capacity as a women’s rights activist, including the inaugural UN Conference for Women in Mexico City in 1975. She has been associated with several women’s and human rights networks in the Global South, such as Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, and South Asians for Human Rights. As a founder member and founder chairperson of the legal aid and human rights organization Ain o Salish Kendra, she assumed responsibility for its research and advocacy programs. She is currently convener of the Sramik Nirapotta Forum (Workers’ Safety Forum), vice-chairperson of Research Initiatives Bangladesh, and a member of the board of the Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Foundation.