Bangladesh offers AIT fellowship

Bangladesh has granted a four-year fellowship to an Indian researcher at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), which is based in Pathum Thani province near Bangkok.

It said the grant, a PhD level doctoral fellowship, was being bestowed to honour the nation's founding father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Bangladesh endowed the Bangabandhu Chair fellowship to the AIT to facilitate research into sustainable and integrated smart energy modeling in the context of Bangladesh and other developing countries, according to the Bangladesh embassy in Thailand.

The first four-year endowment, worth around US$600,000, has been awarded to Prof Joyashree Roy, a Kolkata-based academic at Jadavpur University. She is reportedly interested in multidisciplinary approaches to understanding development issues and climate change.

As the chair professor, Prof Joyashree aims to bring the research on renewable energy to fruition with an emphasis on the mobilisation of energy efficiency across various sectors, the embassy said. She will conduct research and outreach activities that contribute to solution-oriented sustainable energy to help develop Bangladesh's energy sector.

Prof Joyashree will serve as a chair professor at the AIT on a four-year fixed-term contract. At her inauguration lecture, Ms Joyashree said the adoption of a decarbonisation mission at a policy-making level should be considered a priority to achieve a greener future.

The endowment aims to help the country's founding father leave a lasting legacy in Thailand, said Saida Muna Tasneem, the Bangladesh ambassador to Thailand.