The University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), Australia, has conferred certificate of Emeritus Professor Award on Dr Shahjahan Khan, currently serving as the vice-chancellor (VC) of Asian University of Bangladesh (AUB).
Emeritus Professor Dr Shahjahan Khan earlier 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, said a press release.
UniSQ Chancellor John Dornbusch presented the award to Professor Dr. Shahjahan Khan at AUB campus in Dhaka yesterday (Thursday). The chancellor carried his academic gawn and the certificate with him for this occasion.
The function was attended by Professor Ren Yi, pro-vice-chancellor of UniSQ, Dr Muhammad Jafar Sadeq, chairman of AUB Board of Trustees, AUB Treasurer Professor Md Nurul Islam and AUB Registrar AKM Enamul Haque.
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.
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 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 the 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.
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.