The University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), Australia awarded certificate of Emeritus Professor Award to a prominent Bangladeshi academic in a function in Dhaka on Thursday 18 May 2023.
This is a rare honour for a Bangladeshi born Australian academic. Only a handful of Bangladesh academics achieved this kind of highest professional recognition from western universities for their exceptional research and academic contribution.
The Chancellor of the UniSQ, Mr John Dornbusch presented the Award to Professor Dr Shahjahan Khan, the current Vice Chancellor of Asian University of Bangladesh (AUB). The Chancellor carried his academic gown and the certificate with him for the occasion to honour Professor Khan.
In another unprecedented recognition of his outstanding contribution, UniSQ, Australia has introduced Professor Shahjahan Khan scholarship for international students, especially for the students of UniSQ of Bangladesh origin.
This is a huge achievement bringing top level hounour and respect to his family, Bangladesh, Islamic world, and beyond. His remarkable achievements and recognition are inspiration to future generations of academics and researchers in Australia and Bangladesh.
The function was attended by Professor Ren Yi, Pro Vice Chancellor International of UniSQ; and Dr Muhammad Jafar Sadeq, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Professor Md Nurul Islam, Treasurer and Mr AKM Enamul Haque, Registrar of AUB.
Emeritus Professor Dr Shahjahan Khan served at the Southern Queensland University, Australia as the founding professor of statistics, and after 37 years he decided to come back to Bangladesh to serve his beloved motherland.
A world-class scientist, Professor Khan is a statistician with expertise in statistical inference, multivariate analysis, public health, evidence-based decision-making and meta-analysis.
He has published over 260 research papers, and presented 20 workshops, 28/3 keynote/plenary addresses, and over 60 invited talks in international scholarly gatherings. He has supervised 20 PhD and 3 MPhil students.
He is an elected expatriate Fellow of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS), and Fellow, Royal Statistical Society, UK; Elected Member, International Statistical Institute (ISI), Netherlands; Member of Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS), USA; and Statistical Society of Australia.
He is the founding Chief Editor of Journal of Applied Probability and Statistics (JAPS), USA since 2005.
He received prestigious Q M Hossain Gold Medal from Bangladesh Statistical Association (2012), 4th recipient since 1997, and ISESCO-ISOSS Gold Medal (2001), and ISOSS Gold Medal (2007) for his outstanding research contributions and international professional leadership.
He obtained his PhD (1992) and MSc degrees in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Canada; and BSc (Hon) and MSc in Statistics from Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh.
He started his academic career as a Lecturer at Dhaka University, Bangladesh in 1980, and was awarded Commonwealth Scholarship in the UK.
He joined the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia in 1993 at a Lecturer. He served as the founding Professor of Statistics at USQ since 2011. In addition to teaching at UWO, Canada he has taught at University of Dhaka, Bangladesh; King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia; Sultan Qaboos University, Oman; and University of Bahrain, Bahrain. At USQ, he has served as the Statistics Discipline leader, member on the Academic Senate/Board and Chair of Multicultural Staff Network.
As the President of the Islamic Countries Society of Statistical Sciences (ISOSS) 2005-20011, he organized international statistics conferences in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Egypt, Qatar, Indonesia, and Pakistan. In 2011, ISOSS organised an international conference in Lahore in honour of Professor Khan.
As a visiting Scientist he has visited and made presentations at Tokyo University, Japan; National University of Singapore; Carleton University, Canada; Calcutta University, India; University of Malaya, University Technology Malaysia, and University Putra Malaysia; Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia; Daffodil International University, Bangladesh; and Karachi University, Pakistan.
For his outstanding contribution and dedicated service to the community he won the Cultural Diversity Ambassador Award of Queensland Government (2014), Queensland Police Service Award (2016), and USQ Award of Excellence for Diversity and Inclusion (2018). He served as the Chair of USQ Multicultural Staff Network 2013-2020, and organised many local and international seminars and symposia on Multiculturalism to promote respect and dignity among diverse communities.
Professor Khan is the founding President of Islamic Society of Toowoomba Inc (1994) and the Chair of Toowoomba Islamic Charitable Trust (2013) and Garden City Mosque. He served as the Vice President of Islamic Council of Queensland.
He has lived and worked in 10 different countries in Australia, Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, and Middle East, in addition to travelling extensively to many other countries.
Professor Khan comes from a very respectable Muslim family of the southern district of Gopalgonj, Bangladesh. He is married to Anarkali Lutfun Nahar and they are blessed with 3 sons.
The eldest son is a highly accomplished IT specialist and the junior 2 are well educated entrepreneurs running their production industries in Australia.