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University of Dhaka

Professor of Environmental Science 

Prof. Dr. Mahfuza Karim

I study what happens to a delta when the water changes. Twenty-two years of it, and the answers keep arriving faster than the funding.

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  • 22Years researching
  • 84Papers published
  • 3,100+Times cited
  • 19PhD students guided
About

What I actually do

I am an environmental scientist at the University of Dhaka. My work is about salt: how far it travels up the delta, how fast, and what it does to the people and the soil it reaches.

Research only matters when somebody acts on it. So half my time goes on papers and the other half on getting those findings in front of the people who decide where embankments are built and which crops get subsidised.

PhD (Cambridge), MSc, Fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences

Research

What I am working on

Tap a card to see what it means in practice.

  • Salt in the delta

    since 2009
    In practice

    Measuring how far seawater pushes inland each year, and what that does to drinking water and rice yields in the coastal districts.

  • Flood prediction

    since 2014
    In practice

    Building models that give a district four days of warning instead of one, using river gauges and rainfall data we already collect.

  • Crops that tolerate salt

    since 2017
    In practice

    Field trials with farmers in Khulna and Satkhira on rice varieties that still yield in salty ground.

  • Groundwater and arsenic

    since 2011
    In practice

    Mapping which tube wells are safe, which have turned, and what makes a well go bad over time.

  • Climate policy

    since 2019
    In practice

    Turning the measurements into advice a ministry can actually use when it sets a budget.

  • Teaching and supervision

    since 2003
    In practice

    Undergraduate environmental science, plus nineteen doctoral students through to their defence.

Publications

Selected papers

  1. 2025Salinity intrusion in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, 2000-2024Nature Climate ChangeCited 214 times
  2. 2023Four-day flood warning from existing gauge networksWater Resources ResearchAdopted by the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre
  3. 2021Farmer-led trials of salt-tolerant rice in coastal BangladeshAgricultural SystemsCited 340 times
  4. 2019Why tube wells turn: a twelve-year arsenic studyEnvironmental Science & TechnologyCited 502 times
Experience

Where I have worked

  1. 2016 — now

    Professor of Environmental Science

    University of Dhaka

    Leads the delta research group. Nine researchers and nineteen doctoral students so far.

  2. 2010 — 2016

    Associate Professor

    University of Dhaka

    Set up the coastal monitoring stations that the salinity work still runs on.

  3. 2006 — 2010

    Research Fellow

    International Centre for Climate Change and Development

    Fieldwork across Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat.

Get in touch

Working on something similar?

I read every email about the delta, and I answer the ones with a question in them. Students, journalists and ministries all welcome.

Emailhello@example.comPhone+880 1732 000000DepartmentUniversity of Dhaka