Rate My Professor Iftekhar Ahmed

Associate Professor Iftekhar Ahmed serves in the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He earned a Bachelor of Architecture (Honours) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, a Master of Science in Architecture Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford Brookes University. His extensive career encompasses teaching, research, and practical fieldwork in disaster management. From 1992 to 2004, he was Lecturer, Assistant Professor, and Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. He then worked as Shelter Specialist for the United Nations Development Programme in Bangladesh, overseeing the construction of over 16,000 houses in a post-flood reconstruction program. Subsequently, he served as Project Manager at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in Thailand, managing disaster risk reduction programs across Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. Before joining the University of Newcastle as Lecturer in 2016 and advancing to Associate Professor, he held research fellow positions at RMIT University, Monash University, University of Melbourne, and other institutions.

Ahmed specializes in policy and social aspects of disaster risk reduction, resilience of the built environment, and sustainable development. His research interests encompass post-disaster housing reconstruction, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, urbanization, appropriate construction technology, community engagement, developmental architecture, and vernacular architecture, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. He previously convened the Master of Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development program. Key publications include the authored book "Disaster Resilience in South Asia: Tackling the Odds in the Sub-Continental Fringes" (Routledge, 2020), "Up to the Waist in Mud: Earth-Based Architecture in Rural Bangladesh" (1994), and edited volumes such as "Resilience and Sustainability in Architecture and Urban Planning: Policies, Practices, Strategies and Visions" (2023) and "Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development Volume 2" (2022). He has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and reports. Ahmed has secured 14 research grants totaling $644,782 from funders including the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, United Nations Development Programme, Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research, and Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He supervises PhD candidates and collaborates internationally on disaster resilience projects.