The Bangladesh Australia Hub INC.

( A THINK-TANK ASSOCIATION BASED IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA )

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: 2020/2022

Founding President

Dr Md Younus

Md  Younus, PhD (Adelaide University, Australia), MPhil (Waikato, NZ), BSc and MSc (first class second in Geography, Dhaka University),  Visiting Research Fellow, the department of Geography, Environment and Population, Adelaide University. He has thirty two years professional experience, includes research, teaching, policy analysis, grant/doctoral thesis and opinion survey evaluation and advocacy in the Asia Pacific Region. Younus has editorial involvement with dozens of international high ranking journals. He has published two books (one from Springer) on climate change vulnerability and adaptation; and 23 articles/papers in refereed journals and proceedings. His publications have been cited in academic literature across the World. He taught several courses on environment (Environmental Studies: Climate Change and Human Adaptation, Environmental Decision Making Tools, Research Project Design and Management, Cities as Human Environments) in Flinders University, Australia; and he also delivered special lectures in Dhaka University, Adelaide University along with other Universities/Institutions/Groups in the USA, UK, Norway, Finland and Australia. Dr Younus has evaluated ANU Doctoral thesis, NOAA’s grant application, and many articles for international refereed journals as a referee.Younus is an Associate Editor / Assigned Editor of the Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, http://www.worldscientific.com/page/jeapm/editorial-board; he is also an Editor of two Journals: Cogent Environmental Science https://www.cogentoa.com/journal/environmental-science and Cogent Social Science https://www.cogentoa.com/journal/social-sciences. He is also an assigned Editor / editorial board member of Sustainability, http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/editors, Climate, Hydrology, Water, Environment. Advisory Board Member, Sci, MDPI Open access journal; http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sci/editors ; Editorial Board Member, Springer Nature Applied Sciences; editorial Board Member, Progress in Disaster Science, Elsevier He was assigned as a team member with various international research activities, such as: International Water Management Institute, BUP, ADB, WMO, Global Water Partnership, and the University of Waikato. He has presented papers in various international seminars in the USA, Norway, Finland, Australia, Bangladesh and the UK. Younus worked with Professors Drs Nick Harvey, Q K Ahmad, Sajjadur Rasheed, Munir Morad, Martin Williams, and Richard Warrick. He was a Scientific Reviewer of IPCC Fourth (2007) and Fifth (2014) assessment reports on adaptation. Dr Younus is a Board Member of Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics (ANZSEE) since 2007. He is a member / life member of 19 International Academic and Development Societies along with the Association of American Geographers, Institute of Australian Geographers, the Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG), Regional Studies Association (UK), International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE), Bangladesh Geographical Society, BNGA, the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia, the Royal Society of South Australia, Field Geology Club of South Australia, The Australian Sociological Association and Bangla Academy. He is a Fellow of Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers. He is a Councillor of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia, and was acting President / Vice President of the Bangladesh Australia Society of South Australia (BASSA) Inc. Currently, Younus is Founding President of the Bangladesh Australia Hub Inc. (BAH), a think-tank based in South Australia where many Professors and academics across the World have been working as resource persons of the BAH. Email: md.younus@adelaide.edu.au younusmaf@yahoo.com Tel: 61 (0) 425358973 61 (0) 480281977 Website link: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/md.younus  https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/md.younus

Vice President

Associate Professor Dr Noore Alam Siddiquee

Dr Siddiquee, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Manchester, UK, 1994, is currently Associate Professor in Public Administration and Teaching Program Director, College of Business, Government & Law, Flinders University, South Australia. He has extensive experience in teaching, research and academic administration spanning over a period of 30 years in a number of institutions in the Asia-pacific region. He taught public administration, policy and governance for over 15 years at the University of Dhaka, International Islamic University, Malaysia and University of Brunei Darussalam before joining Flinders University in 2006. During 2001- 2004 he was the Head of the Department of Political Science, International Islamic University, Malaysia. At Flinders he served as Director of Studies for the Graduate Program in Public Administration (GPPA) from July 2007 – December 2009 and as Leader/Head, Discipline of Politics and Public Policy from February 2014 to June, 2016. During 2016-2017 Dr Siddiquee was Associate Dean (International), Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences, Flinders University. Dr Siddiquee’s research broadly focuses on public sector management and transformations in developing countries assessing the impacts of contemporary reforms on governance and service delivery. He is highly sought after as a supervisor for PhD and other research degrees. At Flinders he has supervised 17 RHD students to completion, in addition to a large number of MPA disserations. Currently he is supervising four RHD students who are at various stages of their studies. Website: https://www.flinders.edu.au/people/noore.siddiquee 

Vice President

Associate Professor Dr Salim Momtaz

I, Associate Professor Dr Salim Momtaz, became interested in human-environment interactions and their impacts when I was teaching environmental courses at Central Queensland University, Australia, in the late 1990s. During this time my research was supported by an ARC grant and I also received an invitation by the Queensland Premier’s Department to carry out a social impact assessment (SIA) of the proposed upgrade of Awoonga Dam on the Boyne River near Gladstone and the proposed Castle Hope dam on the Calliope River. My investigation involved field visits, surveys, and discussions with various stakeholders. The report titled “Independent Social Impact Assessment: Proposed Castle Hope Dam and Awoonga Dam Upgrade” (CQU Press: 1998) was submitted to the Premier’s Department. The report was discussed in the Queensland State Parliament. Due to the potential negative impacts and community dissatisfaction as identified in the report the government decided to not go ahead with the new dam and accepted many of the recommendations of the report. This excellent outcome that demonstrated the power of SIA inspired me to conduct further investigations into this planning instrument. I turned my research focus to developing countries that had just started to embrace EIA and SIA. Over the next few years I published 5 peer reviewed articles on SIA and public participation in developing countries. My EIA research culminated in the publication of a book titled ‘Evaluating Environmental and Social Impact Assessment’ (Elsevier 2013). The book develops a framework for assessment of EIA. My research interests naturally progressed into investigating climate change adaptation. The move was inspired by the window of opportunity to look into the ways in which climate change concerns could be incorporated in EIA and SIA. My climate change research resulted in a number of peer reviewed journal articles and a book ‘Experiencing Climate Change in Bangladesh’ (Academic Press: 2015). My research on ‘climate change’ is continuing with PhD projects in Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam. I have supervised 12 PhD students to successful completion and currently supervise six PhD students. I also had stints as a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC. USA and Department of Geography, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. I have published six books and many peer-reviewed journal articles in the last few years. Website: https://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/salim-momtaz

Vice President

Associate Professor Dr Mizanur Rahman

Dr Md Mizanur Rahman, is an associate professor in Geotechnical Engineering and leading a geotechnical research group of 3 academics, 2 research associates and about 10 PhD students. He has a strong track record of translating his fundamental theoretical research into industry-funded engineering applications for liquefaction assessment, pavement engineering, recycling materials for the circular economy, soil reactivity and buried lifeline. His research fund is over $4.3M since 2012. Some of his current fellowship and industry-funded projects are- 2019: Endeavour Executive Leadership Award(fellowship) by the Department of Education and Training, Australian Government (UniSA News) 2017-20: ARC Linkage (LP160101561) for “Evaluating potential static liquefaction of tailings to prevent failures”. 2016-19: Development of design procedure and software for Concrete Block Pavement (CBP) for Concrete Masonry Association of Australia (CMAA) Limited: DesignPave v1.0and Permpave v2.0. 2018: Influence of soil reactivity on pipe burst for SAWater. He has published about 140+ peer-reviewed articles and known internationally for the excellence of his multidisciplinary research.  He is presenting in three international technical committees, i.e. TC101 – Laboratory Testing, TC202-Transportation and TC307-Sustainability, for the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). He is also a technical committee member for Australian Geomechanics Society, SA-NT chapter and serving a technical committee member for organising the 20th International Conference of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in Sydney in 2021. A/Prof. Rahman was graduated in Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Honours) from Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET) in 2002. He was awarded the University Gold Madel for his outstanding academic record. In between 2003-6, he joined as a lecturer in Civil Engineering in RUET and then quickly promoted to assistant professor. He obtained his PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of New South Wales (UNSW Canberra) in 2009. The title of his PhD dissertation was – “Modelling the effect of fines on liquefaction behaviour of sandy soil”. In between 2009-10, he worked as a research associate and postdoctoral fellow at UNSW Canberra, Australia and University of Canterbury, New Zealand respectively. In December 2010, he joined at UniSA as a lecturer and promoted to senior lecturer and associate professor in 2014 and 2018 respectively. Website: https://people.unisa.edu.au/mizanur.rahman

Executive Member

Dr Mohammed Wazid

Dr Mohammed Wazid is an Australian-based health professional. Mohammed is trained as a (General Practitioner), and has 2 practices located in Wynn Vale and Modbury in South Australia. He obtained his MBBS Degree from Rangpur Medical College, Bangladesh; later he obtained RACGP fellowship in Australia. He migrated in New Zealand and later he has settled in South Australia. He was founding Secretary of Bangladesh Medical Society of South Australia (BAMSA); he is also Vice President of BAMSA. Dr Wazid is currently Secretary of Federation of Bangladesh Medical Societies of Australia (FBMSA), which is a prime association of Bangladeshi doctors who practice in Australia. He is also an Examiner of Australian Medical Council (AMC). https://healthengine.com.au/doctor/sa/modbury/dr-md-wazid/p29477 https://www.healthshare.com.au/profile/professional/194315-dr-mohammed-wazid/#overview

Executive Member

Engineer Abu Ahsan Siddique

Ahsan has been in the electricity industry for 18 years during which he has been responsible for design and leading the development of several transmission lines in Australia (SA, WA, VIC, TAS and NT) and abroad.  Ahsan worked as Principal Consultant on several innovative transmission lines augmentation projects in South Australia (https://www.tdworld.com/transmission-reliability/article/20972493/a-unique-approach-for-managing-line-assets). At present, he is leading a team of 42 engineers in a global consultancy company (Jacobs, Australia) as the “ANZ Lines & Structure” Operations Manager. He is also Jacobs’s Global Practice Leader (ANZ, Malaysia, Middle East and USA) for Overhead Line Engineering. Ahsan has his own business in Bangladesh in the transmission line engineering sector (Electricity Transmission Consultants, Bangladesh, ETCBL). ETCBL has now 12 employees. ETCBL is now well reputed organisation in South Asia and working with major international turnkey contractors as their design and optimisation partner. South Australian safety approach in the power industry has a very high standard and Ahsan had implemented similar safety approach in several projects in Bangladesh. EDUCATION/QUALIFICATIONS
  • B. Sc. in Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (B.U.E.T.), 2002
  • Post Graduate Diploma in Electrical Design of Transmission Line organized by QUT, Brisbane, Queensland, AU
REGISTRATIONS/ CERTIFICATIONS
  • RPEQ, Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland- 2017;
  • NER (National Engineering Register – Structural)-2017;
  • Professional Engineer (MIEAUST-Civil)
MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS
  • Panel Member Cigre Overhead Line Design Panel AUB2
AWARDS/HONORS
  • Appreciation memo from ElectraNet for the emergency restoration design effort following the SA storm of 28 September 2016.

Executive Member

Dr Mohammed Hamidul Haque

Dr Mohammed Hamidul Haque received his BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1980, 1983, and 1988, respectively. He has more than three decades of teaching experiences at six universities. Prior to joining UniSA, he worked with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore as Associate Professor for more than a decade. His main teaching and research expertise are in the areas of electrical power systems, renewable energy systems, electrical machines, and applications of power electronics to power systems. Dr. Haque has published more than 130 referred journal and conference papers in the areas of power system modelling and simulations, steady state and dynamic analysis, electical machines, renwable energy systems, wind generating systems, and integration of renewable sources to power grid. He also published a book on electrical machines. His publications have received about 2,000 citations in Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I7cJ_34AAAAJ and hl=en). Dr. Haque played key roles in organizing three IEEE sponsored/co-sponsored international conferences related to power engineering in Singapore. He established the IEEE Power and Energy Society Chapter in South Australia in 2013. Since then he has been serving the Chapter as Chair. He has been on the Editorial Advisory Panel of two journals and reviewer of numerous journals related to electrical power and energy systems. He has been an International Advisory Committee member of a number of international conferences. Dr. Haque is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a Fellow of Engineers Australia and a Chartered Professional Engineer, Australia. Further info including the list of publications are available at https://people.unisa.edu.au/mohammed.haque

Executive Member

Dr Mustafizur Rahman

Dr Mustafizur Rahman is currently working as a Senior Data Scientist in Australian Taxation Office (ATO). He has a PhD in Computer Science from University of Melbourne. He started his career as a Lecturer in Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) after graduating in Computer Science and Engineering from the same university. Dr Rahman has over 15 years of extensive experience of solving challenging business problems using cutting edge technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Science and Cloud Computing. He has worked in academia, government (Defence Science and Technology, Services Australia) and industry (IBM, Commonwealth Bank). He has wider knowledge of developing solutions for AI based automation and data driven decision making in the context of Australia and Bangladesh. He is a proud father of one gorgeous daughter, and husband of a wonderful wife who is a medical professional. In his spare time, he enjoys travelling to new places, playing various sports, and spending time with family and friends.

Executive Member

Dr Sharif Rasel

Dr. Sharif Rasel is a Lecturer of international business at Flinders University. Prior to joining Flinders University, Sharif held positions at Monash Business School in Melbourne, Ministry of Public Administration in Bangladesh and Wageningen Economic Research (LEI) in the Netherlands. Before joining Flinders University in December 2019, Sharif taught international business and strategy at Monash Business School for six years. He received commendations for outstanding teaching performance from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Vice President (Education), Monash University. Sharif received his PhD from Monash University in 2017. Situated within the contemporary theoretical debates in international business literature, his Ph.D. thesis examined within-country location decision strategies of international firms using a multi-disciplinary approach that is grounded in the fields of international business and economic geography. Sharif obtained his BSc in Economics (First Class with Second Place in order of merit) from Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh and MSc in International Development Studies (with distinction) from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
For further information check here: https://www.flinders.edu.au/people/sharif.rasel

Executive Member

Dr Md Julker Nine

Dr. Md J. Nine is an early-career research fellow based in ARC Research Hub for Graphene Enabled Industry Transformation, University of Adelaide, Australia. Dr. Nine’s current research interests involves colloids and interfaces science for synthesis and application of multifunctional coatings based on graphene and other 2D materials. The applications of coatings are not limited to self-cleaning, corrosion resistant, fire-retardant, acoustic insulation, anti-bacterial, radiation shielding and sensing. He was awarded Doctoral Research Medal as well as Postgraduate Alumni University Medal for outstanding research at PhD level in University of Adelaide, Australia. He was also awarded Carbon Journal prize-2018 for an outstanding PhD thesis in carbon materials science and technology. His PhD works generated three intellectual properties (IPs) on graphene technology and one of them was licenced to an industry. He has published more than 38 scientific journal papers, 3 patents, 2 book chapters, >15 conference presentation in the area of colloids and interfaces including graphene and other carbon nanomaterials. Dr Nine serves as an editorial board member of the journal “Polymers ” (MDPI) as well as a member of Extended advisory board of the journal “Carbon ” in Elsevier. Websites: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/mdjulker.nine https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/mdjulker.nine

Executive Member / Treasurer

Mr Rafiqul Huq

Mr Rafiqul Huq, studied in Dhaka College. He obtained Bachelor and Master’s degree from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is an Australian. He is a founding executive member of the BAH, and he is also a Treasurer of the BAH. He has currently been completing CPA and is studying in the University of Adelaide. He was a Banker in Bangladesh. He has wide range of knowledge on socio-economic, environmental, political and development issues in Bangladesh and Australia.

Executive Member / Secretary

Mr Syed Amin

He is a PhD Scholar / Researcher at Geography, Environment and Population, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, the University of Adelaide, South Australia. He is a senior Assistant Secretary, Government of Bangladesh; currently he is on-leave for pursuing PhD Research at Adelaide University, South Australia. He obtained his Master’s degree from Japan. Mr Amin also obtained Master’s and Honours Degrees from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has wide range of knowledge on environmental, socio-economic and Governmental issues relating to rural ultra-poor, poverty and development at local levels in Bangladesh. He has written master’s thesis, number of project papers, reports and research articles while he was in Japan and Bangladesh. He is currently the founding Secretary of the think-tank: Bangladesh Australia Hub Inc. (BAH).

Executive Member

Dr Raunak Konok

Dr Raunak Konok is a Medical Practitioner in South Australia. She worked in the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Women’s and Children’s Hospital, South Australia as a Registrar, and she finished her training on Paediatrics medicine from these hospitals. She obtained her MBBS degree from the Dhaka Medical College under the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She passed Bangladesh Civil Service (Health) exams and subsequently, served as a doctor at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. She has wide range of interests in Women’s Health, Chronic Disease, Mental Health, Occupational Health and Paediatrics. Dr Konok is a Founding Executive Member of the BAH.