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.
- 22Years researching
- 84Papers published
- 3,100+Times cited
- 19PhD students guided
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
What I am working on
Tap a card to see what it means in practice.
Salt in the delta
since 2009In practiceMeasuring how far seawater pushes inland each year, and what that does to drinking water and rice yields in the coastal districts.
Flood prediction
since 2014In practiceBuilding 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 2017In practiceField trials with farmers in Khulna and Satkhira on rice varieties that still yield in salty ground.
Groundwater and arsenic
since 2011In practiceMapping which tube wells are safe, which have turned, and what makes a well go bad over time.
Climate policy
since 2019In practiceTurning the measurements into advice a ministry can actually use when it sets a budget.
Teaching and supervision
since 2003In practiceUndergraduate environmental science, plus nineteen doctoral students through to their defence.
Selected papers
- 2025Salinity intrusion in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, 2000-2024Nature Climate ChangeCited 214 times
- 2023Four-day flood warning from existing gauge networksWater Resources ResearchAdopted by the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre
- 2021Farmer-led trials of salt-tolerant rice in coastal BangladeshAgricultural SystemsCited 340 times
- 2019Why tube wells turn: a twelve-year arsenic studyEnvironmental Science & TechnologyCited 502 times
- 2016 — now
Professor of Environmental Science
University of Dhaka
Leads the delta research group. Nine researchers and nineteen doctoral students so far.
- 2010 — 2016
Associate Professor
University of Dhaka
Set up the coastal monitoring stations that the salinity work still runs on.
- 2006 — 2010
Research Fellow
International Centre for Climate Change and Development
Fieldwork across Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat.
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.







