M. Shah Nawaz Chowdhury, PhD student (Bangladesh)
Area of interest
Mr. Chowdhury’s research interests span issues in the field of coastal oceanography. He is specifically interested in shellfish ecology, marine habitat (seagrass, saltmarsh and mangroves) restoration, their functioning and associated ecosystem services.
Relevant research
Mr. Chowdhury started his PhD at the Wageningen University in June 2014, which aims to explore the use of ecosystem engineers (i.e., organisms that create or modify or maintain the habitat in which they live, example: oysters) in solving coastal erosion problems under the ‘Building with Nature’ research framework. His research is collaborated and supervised by Wageningen Marine Research (former, IMARES) and AFI chair groups together with the Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries (IMSF) at the University of Chittagong. The objectives of his study is to provide the coastal people of Bangladesh with an alternative technique for climate change adaptation, by using oyster reefs in such a way that they can protect shore through changing tidal flat eco-morphology, and can also facilitate the coastal habitats in the region.
Before his current position as PhD candidate, Mr. Chowdhury obtained BSc (2005) and MSc (2007) in Marine Science from the Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries at the University of Chittagong (BD). He also attended summer school program at Arizona University, USA. He had a long research track in issues related to integrated coastal resources management and was involved as associate researcher in various projects until 2013 operated by the Coastal and Ocean Research Group of Bangladesh (CORG) and IMSF, University of Chittagong. In addition, he received fellowship from Cornel University to conduct higher study on Marine Bio-acoustics at Friday Harbor Lab in Washington University, USA. In March 2013, he joined in the position of lecturer at his home Marine Institute, University of Chittagong and promoted to assistant professor in 2016. After completion of his PhD, Mr. Chowdhury will join again in the Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries at the University of Chittagong to serve his nation.