Science and Technology Innovation for a Sustainable Economy

This book discusses the subject of pathways to a sustainable economy through science and technology innovations which are regarded as the important components of the ‘4th Industrial Revolution’. The volume has been developed from Bangladesh’s ‘Vision 2041’ agenda which includes development actions needed to catch up with more developed nations. Most importantly, the goals of the ‘Vision 2041’ have been taken from the dreams of the architect of independent Bangladesh, Bangabandhu (Friends of Bengal) Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. His dream was to make Bangladesh the Switzerland of Asia. The Father of Bangladesh Nation was killed by assassins’ bullets along with his most of the family members in August 1975. After his death, the nation moved backwards while recovering from nine months of liberation post war in 1971.

Between 1975 and 1990 Bangladesh was ruled by military and quasi military governments. Bangladesh established a true democratic regime in 1996 withSheikh Mujib’s daughter, Sheikh Hasina, who formed the government after 21 years with a mandate to realise the dreams of her father. Sheikh Hasina, had her own 20 year vision for Bangladesh, called, ‘Vision 2021’, with plans to make the nation poverty free by 2021. After a pause between 2001 and 2008, Sheikh Hasina returned to power in 2009. Under her consecutive three terms she brought Bangladesh back on track and Bangladesh is one of the nations which reduced poverty half under MDGs by 2015. During her third consecutive term Sheikh Hasina, is on the way to transforming Bangladesh into a ‘middle income’ nation by 2021.

This volume aims to identify and mitigate the challenges of ‘4th Industrial Revolution’ investigating the areas of science and technology innovations for Bangladesh and for other parts of the world keeping in mind establishing a sustainable economy under UN agendas to 2030 (SDGs). The primary audience for this book are UN development agencies, academic institutions, government policymakers and business leaders of the more developed and developing nations alike.

Dr. Mazharul M. Islam has been working as senior researcher at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Bath, UK since July 2018. He has been awarded with the visiting researcher contract by the Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn for a period between 2019–2021. Dr. Islam was born on 27th July, 1977 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has completed his BSc (Hons) and MSc in Chemistry from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1999 and 2001 respectively. He has obtained his PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Hannover, Germany in July 2005 with the ‘George-Christoph-Lichtenberg’ Scholarship of the Land Niedersachsen.           

As of 2020, Dr. Islam has over fifteen years of experience as a research associate and senior research fellow in Computational Chemistry. Prior to joining Bath, Dr. Islam has worked as senior research fellow between 2010–2018 at Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry of the University of Bonn, as postdoc at ENSCP, CNRS, Paris between 2007–2010, as visiting researcher at the University of Milano in 2009, as research associate at the University of South Australia between 2005–2007.         

Over the years, he has gained vast experience in the computational simulation of a wide variety of materials having practical applications in daily lives through interdisciplinary research areas including (i) energy materials such as batteries, solar energy, (ii) investigation of photocatalytic activities of TiO2, (iii) materials for construction, transportation, power generation etc, and (iv) catalyst materials based on mesoporous oxides. He has got the expertise to teach many courses in Chemistry and Materials Science including Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Material Science, Solid State Chemistry, Energy materials for undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Dr. Islam has experienceas a mentor. So far, he has successfully guided three Postdocs, five PhD, one MSc and three BSc students. He has successful collaborations with many world-renowned research groups and has been successful in a number of funding applications.

Dr. Islam has been active for the initiation of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Department at Dhaka University since 2016. He has designed the following courses: Introduction to Computational Chemistry, Quantum Mechanics, Solid State Chemistry, Chemistry of Surfaces and Interfaces, Fundamentals of Nanomaterials, Energy (production, storage and conversion), Green Catalysis and Modern Computational Organic Chemistry. He has taught a course on Computational Chemistry for MSc students there in 2016–17.  

To date, Dr. Islam has achieved over 55 publications in internationally reputed peer-reviewed journals, published and edited 5 books and written 4 book chapters. He has presented his work as invited speaker, contributed speaker and poster presenter at many international conferences. Dr. Islam has shown strong leadership capacity as reflected by his leading role in the organization of few international conferences and workshops. He has organized 3 successful international conferences at the University of Bonn in 2011, 2012 and 2014 and two workshops in 2013 and 2016 in Berlin and one international conference in Dhaka Bangladesh on 30–31 October, 2018. 

Dr. Moazzem Hossain has taught environmental economics, development and trade in the Department of International Business and Asian Studies (currently, Business Strategy and Innovation), Griffith Business School at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia since 1990. Dr. Hossain’s current research includes climate change issues in the Asia-Pacific, including the Bay of Bengal delta and Sundarbans region. He was visiting fellow in various European and US academic institutions including the University of London; University of Sussex; University of Hull; Institute of Social Studies, The Hague; University of Heidelberg and Boston University since 1991. Dr. Hossain produced more than 10 authored and edited volumes on the subjects of South Asian economic development, economic reforms, telecommunications reform, climate change and growth in Asia, climate change and the realization of Asian century, South-South migration and pathways to a sustainable economy published by the prestigious Routledge, Edward Elgar Publishing, and Springer publishing over the last 20 years. Additionally, Dr. Hossain published two major volumes on the Political Economy of Bangladesh: Bangladesh’s Development Agenda and Vision 2021 and Democracy’s Roller Coaster Ride in Bangladesh. Both these volumes were published by the Dhaka based the University Publishing Limited in 2003 and 2009, respectively. Dr. Hossain published in the Journal of Applied Economics, South Asia Research, Disaster Management Journal, Singapore Economic Review, South Asian Journal of the South Asian Studies Association of Australia, International Journal of Environment, Australian Economic Papers and WASD journals. Dr Hossain is the adviser of The Hague based BSUG – Development and Diaspora since 2013. He was the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (SMR) Professorial Fellow of the University Hull, Hull, UK in 2000.