Tanveerul Islam

Dr. Tanveerul Islam received his Ph.D. on Land Use Planning Management & Design (LPMD) in December, 2006. He joined Texas Tech as a doctoral student in the multi-disciplinary LPMD program, College of Architecture in spring 2003. Before that he was pursuing MS in Geographic Information Sciences (GIS) at the University of Texas-Dallas. He obtained a bachelor degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) in April, 2002.

At Texas Tech, Dr. Islam was awarded research assistantship from the renowned Wind Science & Engineering Research Center (www.wind.ttu.edu) to conduct his Ph.D. research. The center is one of the highly prestigious institutes of Texas Tech University and famous worldwide for its multi-disciplinary windstorms research. Dr. Islam's involvement with the center made him interested in hurricane research and natural disaster management. For his dissertation, Dr. Islam studied tropical cyclones in the North Indian Ocean especially those formed in the Bay of Bengal and developed a reliable and comprehensive climatology of landfalling tropical cyclones for the coast of Bangladesh, which is a pioneer study in that geographic location. Using Monte Carlo simulations and GIS, he analyzed the characteristics of the landfalling tropical cyclones and identified cyclone risk and vulnerable areas. Dr. Richard E. Peterson, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences was the chair of his dissertation. Other committee members include Dr. Kishor C. Mehta, P.W. Horn Professor of Civil Engineering and honorable member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and Dr. Saif-Ul Haq, Associate Professor of Architecture. From his Ph.D. research, Dr. Islam submitted three papers in peer-reviewed journals which are currently under review.

During graduate studies, Dr. Islam presented his research findings in prestigious national and international conferences on behalf of the Texas Tech University. He was given Graduate School Travel Award to present his research in the 27th American Meteorological Society (AMS) Conference on Hurricanes & Tropical Meteorology at Monterey, California in 2006. His represented Texas Tech University and the United States in the 16th World Conference on Disaster Management held at Toronto, Canada in June, 2006 and in that conference his research abstract was accepted to present from over 320 submissions worldwide. The LPMD program supported his travel to Canada. In 2004, Dr. Islam presented a poster in the 26th AMS Conference on Hurricanes & Tropical Meteorology held at Miami, Florida and he was awarded travel grants from the LPMD and the Department of Geosciences.

Dr. Islam won the 2nd prize in the 4th and 5th Annual Graduate Research Poster Competitions consecutively in 2005 and 2006. This is an annual event organized by the Graduate School to promote high quality graduate student research. He was the recipient of George T.C. Peng Urban Studies Scholarship 2004-2005 from the College of Architecture for his academic excellence. He received the Texas Public Education Grant in 2006 nominated by the International Cultural Center. At Texas Tech, he was actively involved with various student organizations. He was the Vice-President and Webmaster of the Bangladesh Student Association and was an active member of the Texas Tech Chapter of the American Meteorological Society. In summer 2006, he was selected as a faculty to teach in a K-12 education project 'Science: It's a Girl Thing' by the Institute for the Development and Enrichment of Advanced Learners (IDEAL).

Dr. Islam is a member of a number of professional societies including American Meteorological Society (AMS), American Association of Wind Engineering (AAWE), Texas Floodplain Management Association (TFMA), Bangladesh Institute of Planners and the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. He is a nationally accredited Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM®) recognized by the Texas Floodplain Management Association for his expertise on floodplain management.

At present, Dr. Islam is working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Texas Beaches & Shores, Texas A&M University-Galveston and continues his research on hurricanes and natural disaster management. His current significant research projects include developing response strategies for hurricanes that hit Texas and the Gulf coasts quickly and 'Galveston Futures'- a long-term project aimed at coastal urban livability and sustainable development for the Galveston Bay regions.