Dr. Abdul Momen
Abdul Momen, the founding and incumbent president of BACABANA, is currently working as manager of chemistry department at SHINE Medical Technologies in Janesville, WI. He studied Applied Chemistry at University of Dhaka. He graduated with a PhD from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2015. His PhD research and postdoctoral research at Argonne National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory focused on separation of radionuclides and other metal ions using extractive separation techniques.
Dr. Abul Hussam
Abul Hussam is now a Professor of Chemistry and the Director for the Center for Clean Water and Sustainable Technologies (CCWST) in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at George Mason University, Virginia, USA. Professor Hussam graduated from the Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka with a B.Sc. (Hons) in 1975, M.Sc in 1976, and Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh, USA in 1982. After a postdoctoral research at the University of Minnesota he joined the George Mason University in 1985. Professor Hussam’s research and teaching areas include analytical chemistry, environmental chemistry, and chemistry in organized media. These experiences allowed him to develop novel experimental techniques including measurement, and mitigation of toxic arsenic species in groundwater.
Professor Hussam has published and presented over 100 scientific papers in international journals, proceedings, and books. He was awarded the 2007 Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability from the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), TIME Magazine- Global Heroes of the Environment in 2007, Outstanding American by Choice by US Citizenship and Immigrations Services in 2008, Doctor of Science Honoris Causa (D.Sc.), University of Dhaka in 2009, and the University of Pittsburgh 225th Anniversary Medallion in 2014 to name a few. Professor Hussam believes education, science and technology education, in particular, are the only means to lift countries out of poverty.
Dr. A K Fazlur Rahman
Dr. Fazlur Rahman studied and taught ( 1975-83) chemistry at Jahangirnagar University prior coming to overseas. He did his MA in Chemistry from Brandeis university and PhD from the Australian National University. He did his pos doctoral works at the university of Tasmania, Ames Laboratory and at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Rahman is the recipient of South West ACS regional Award, Oklahoma Chemist award. Dr. Rahman held visiting faculty positions at Texas A&M, University of Rochester, Cal-Tech, UC Berkeley, Free University of Berlin and Fried Schiller University. He currently holds a endowed professorship and Sarkey’s Energy Foundation Chair at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics.
Dr. Azad Hossain
Azad Hossain was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and received his BS and MS degrees in Chemistry from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. After coming to the United States, he completed his PhD in Organic Chemistry under the direction of Professor William Donaldson, from Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He then completed two years of postdoctoral work at the University of California at Riverside with Professor Steven Angle; followed by an industrial post-doctoral assignment with Dr. Vittorio Farina, at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. (BIPI). In 1996 he joined the Chemical Process Development group at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago, Illinois. After a six-year career at Abbott, in 2002 Azad joined the then newly formed BIPI Chemical Development group in Richmond, Virginia, where he was responsible for the startup and operation of the Richmond group.
In 2004 Azad relocated to Ridgefield, Connecticut and assumed the responsibility of the Process Development Laboratories (PDL) as the Associate Director of Scale-Up. He is currently the Director of Scale-Up, where he is responsible for scale-up and the delivery of the Active Pharmaceuticals Ingredients (APIs) for non-clinical and clinical trials in support of BI drug development programs. Azad currently leads multiple sections of Chemical Development; namely New Technology (Catalysis & Continuous Flow Chemistry), Radio Synthesis, Kilo-Lab, Pilot Plant, Process Safety, Hydrogenation, Scale-Up Support Lab as well as the Technical Services.
Istiaque Uddin Ahmed
Istiaque Uddin Ahmed is an executive committee member of DUBANA—Dhaka University Biochemistry Alumni in North America and founding general secretary of Badhan—a voluntary blood donor’s organization in Bangladesh. He is currently working as quality assurance supervisor at CBC in Toronto, Canada. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. in Biochemistry from university of Dhaka. He received an Advanced Diploma in Biotechnology technologist– Industrial Microbiology (Fast track- Co-op).
Dr. Mahabub Rahman
Dr. Rahman received his B.Sc (honors) degree from Applied Chemistry of Dhaka University (DU). He was a member of the first honors batch from 1982-83. He then completed his M.Sc from Applied Chemistry and Chemical Technology. After graduation he joined Applied Chemistry and Chemical Technology of Dhaka University as a faculty where he taught for two years (from 1990 to 1992) until he went on to his higher studies in Canada with the Commonwealth Scholarship. Dr. Rahman earned both an M.Sc. and Ph.D in Analytical Chemistry from University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Both his M. Sc. And Ph.D studies were conducted under the supervision of Prof. Mike Blades with special focus on novel Plasma source (parallel Plate Capacitively Coupled Plasma) Design, Instrumentation, and Characterization.
After receiving his doctoral degree, Dr. Rahman joined ChemTrace in 2001, a U.S. based analytical company as a Research Chemist, where he was engaged in instrumentation of ICPMS and developing numerous analytical methods to determine ppt and sub-ppt level trace elemental analysis in high purity Chemicals, Wafers, UPW, and Semiconductor tool components. Dr. Rahman served as Lab Manager for Metron Technology and then Applied Materials until 2011, when Applied Material divested it’s Analytical division to Quantum Global Technology. Under Quantum Global Technology, Dr. Rahman served as Global Lab Manager from 2014 to 2018, where he was an integral part of building and then running three labs in three different countries (Taiwan, Korea, and Israel) in addition to two U.S. based labs. Currently Dr. Rahman is the Director of ChemTrace (a business unit of UCT) and provides technical and operational leadership to all International and Satellite labs including two US based labs under ChemTrace.
Dr. M. Mahmun Hossain
M Mahmun Hossain is the founding chief advisor of BACABANA. Mahmun Hossain received his MSc degree in chemistry from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 1985, he received his PhD from the University of South Carolina. After about three years of postdoctoral study with Professor Jack Halpern at the University of Chicago, he started his career as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In 1994, he received a research award from the UWM Foundation for his outstanding research and creativity. He is also a founding member of Milwaukee Institute for Drug Discovery and currently, working in the development of new organic molecules to treat cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Mohammad Rezaul Karim
Mohammad Rezaul Karim, the founding and incumbent general secretary of BACABANA, is a research scientist at PPD in Middleton, WI. A chemistry graduate from University of Dhaka, he finished his PhD in 2016 from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee under the supervision of Professor David Petering. His PhD thesis focused on the chemical biology of zinc fluorescent sensors and the intracellular zinc trafficking pathways. Following on, under the mentorship of Dr. Melissa Skala, Dr. Karim did his postdoctoral research on cancer metabolism using multiphoton fluorescence microscopy at Morgridge Institute for Research in UW-Madison.
Dr. Ruhnaz Kashfi
Dr. Ruhnaz Kashfi
Current position: Sr. R&D Scientist Analytical Chemistry
Enko Chem
PhD in BioAnalytical chemistry from Washington State University.
Expertise on LCMS method development for small molecules, metabolomics and GCMS.
Worked on pharmaceutical assay development, formulation of specialty polymers and resins, petrochemical formulation development support, plants and agriculture crop protection products.
Taught undergraduate and graduate level chemistry classes. Mentored undergraduate research.
Volunteered for future faculty building clubs and career coaching for six years.
Dr. Rowshon Alam
Dr. Rowshon Alam is currently working at Wave Life Sciences as Director of Process Development, Oligonucleotide Chemistry. He is serving to Wave since January 2016. In this role, he is responsible to develop the process for Wave’s stereo-defined oligonucleotides for scale up and cGMP manufacture.
Dr. Rowshon is one of the industry’s leading oligonucleotide chemists with approximately 20 years of oligonucleotide research experience. He has also authored numerous scientific publications and patents in the field.
Before joining to Wave, Dr. Rowshon worked at Nitto Denko Avecia as Group Leader of Oligonucleotide Process Chemistry for more than five years. Prior to joining to Avecia, he led siRNA delivery research at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. He served to Alnylam as scientist for two years.
Prior to Industry career, Dr. Rowshon worked at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as Research Assistant Professor for three years, where he studied for mechanistic pathways for the delivery of antisense oligonucleotides into the cells and tissues. He was an NIH research scholar at the National Institute on Aging (NIA/NIH) in 2003-2006. During NIH fellowship, he collaborated his oligonucleotide research with Professor Paul Miller of John’s Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
Dr. Rowshon Alam earned a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Kyushu University, Japan, and completed his JSPS fellowship (Japan society for the promotion of science) and JST, CREST (Japan Science and Technology) fellow at Kyushu University, Japan.
Dr. Ruhul Amin
Dr. Ruhul Amin is a Staff Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and leading a solid-state battery team for Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (EVTOL) battery. He obtained his B.Sc. (honors) and M. Sc. in chemistry from Dhaka University in 1995 and 1997, respectively. Immediate after M.Sc. Dr. Amin joined as a Scientific Offer at Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhaka. In 2000 he went to Germany with Max Planck Fellowship for Ph.D. studies. He did his Master and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Max Planck Institute (MPI) under Stuttgart University. Thereafter he joined as a Scientist at the same Institute (MPI). He took an industrial sponsor joint faculty position at the University of Montreal and Phostech lithium Inc., 2008 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Prior to joining ORNL Dr. Amin worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Qatar Foundation from 2012 to 2019 as a Senior Scientist. Dr. Amin supervised several Ph.D. and master students. His major field of research activities is energy storage and conversion. Particular-Interests: Ionic and electronic conductivities and diffusivity of electrode and electrolyte materials, defects structure of materials (defects chemistry), interfacial kinetics (electrode-electrolyte interfaces), safety and diagnostics of battery (cycle and calendar life), design of high energy density thicker electrode for advanced batteries.
Dr. Saiful M. Chowdhury
Dr. Saiful M. Chowdhury received B.Sc. (honors) and M.Sc. degree in Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Later, he served as a lecture in two public universities in Bangladesh. He completed another MS in Bio-organic chemistry from Florida International University (FIU), Miami, FL, USA in 2001. In 2006, he earned his Ph.D. in Bio-analytical Chemistry from the Washington State University, Pullman WA, USA under the supervision of Dr. James E. Bruce, who is now a professor of the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, USA. After finishing his Ph.D., he joined as a postdoctoral fellow in the world-renowned proteomics and mass spectrometry group of Dr. Richard D. Smith in Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA, USA. From Dec. 2009 – July 2012, he was employed as a research fellow in the laboratory of respiratory biology at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and conducted research under the mentorship of Michael B. Fessler MD, current division chief of the host-defense group. Dr. Chowdhury joined the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) in fall 2012 as an assistant professor and now a tenured associate professor in the dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UTA. His research focuses on mass spectrometry-based method development for protein-protein interactions and PTMs and its application to study inflammatory diseases impacted by innate immunity.
