Professional engagements: Sheikh Tawhidul Islam is a Professor and Director in the Institute of Remote Sensing and GIS, based in one of the public universities of Bangladesh – Jahangirnagar University. He worked in the Department of Geography and Environment (joined in 1998 as a Lecturer) of the same University for about two decades and held the ‘Professor’ position there before joining the Institute in February 2021. Dr Islam received his PhD Degree from the Department of Geography based in Durham University, United Kingdom (2002-2006) under British Commonwealth Scholarship Programme. In the PhD thesis he assessed the state of deciduous Sal (Shorea Robusta) forests located in the central parts of Bangladesh using satellite remote sensing techniques and applied political ecology as the theoretical framework to assess the interplay of factors that caused forest cover change in the area. The result of the PhD work was nationally commended and later appeared in the national daily newspapers as headlines. He produced more than 100 academic and professional works during the last 20 years among which more than 40 works were published in peer reviewed academic journals and the remaining, more 60 research works were carried out for a number of international and national agencies. Dr Islam respects the value of partnerships and contributes in developing new and fostering the existing partnerships across the scale (local and global). He looks at the problems within contextual settings, in a connected manner and uses systems thinking/dynamics approach to do the assessments.

Works in the man-nature interface, integrating science-social science methods: Dr Islam has been working in the interface between man and nature and use both quantitative (geospatial techniques, science/data) and qualitative methods (uses different conceptual frameworks, social theories) to examine and better understand the societal, environmental problems in a changing climatic context. He has been working on climate change impacts/adaptation issues of Bangladesh and beyond for more than a decade and contributed to the public policy formulation/reform process. His review paper on four decades of climate change impact mitigation process in Bangladesh might give a comprehensive idea on how climate change issues are being tackled in Bangladesh.