Date: January 15, 2022
Dr. A.K.M. Saiful Islam is a Professor at the Institute of Water and Flood management of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). He has received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (1989) from BUET, a Master of Science in Water Resources Engineering (1999) from BUET, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (2004) from Drexel University, USA. His research interests aim at climate change impact on hydrology, water resources management, urban and coastal flood management, remote sensing for disaster risks reduction. His research adopted regional climate modelling, basin-scale hydrological modelling, river hydrodynamic modelling, urban flood modelling, coastal and storm surge modelling, weather forecast modelling, satellite remote sensing for environmental monitoring, hydroinformatics for disaster risks reduction and climate change adaption. He has published over 55 peer-reviewed journal articles, more than 100 conference papers, and contributed to 6 book chapters. Over the past decade, Dr. Islam has led several major international scientific climate change assessments and the reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He contributed to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report and IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C as an Expert Reviewer. He is currently a Lead Author on the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report.
Dr. Islam has given more than 100 invited talks and seminars throughout the world, speaking on diverse topics focusing on climate change impacts on water resources, challenges of weather and flood forecasting, urban drainage management, estimation of riverbank erosion using remote sensing, cyclonic storm surges under sea-level rise, changes in meteorological droughts, environmental impact assessment & mitigation, and climate vulnerability & risks assessment. He is teaching about 10 graduate courses and organized many workshops locally and overseas. He also currently serves as the Coordinator of the Climate Change Study Cell at IWFM, BUET.