Shafee Family: Physics and Beyond

Permanent address:

Salam Summershine Resorta, Road No. 11 (old 32)

Dhanmondi Residential Area, Dhaka

Fariel Shafee

S.B. (MIT: Major in Physics and in Mathematics)

Ph.D. in Physics (Princeton)

Rebecca Shafee

B.S. (CALTECH: Major in Physics)

Ph.D. in Astrophysics (black holes) (Harvard)

Swartz Fellow at Center for Brain Science, Harvard University

Sultana Shafee

Maiden name: Sultana Razia

Matriculation of East Pakistan Secondary Education Board: Gold Medal for being the top female school-leaver of East Pakistan as well as a special prize for outstanding performance in Mathematics.

Intermediate Science of Dhaka University : 7th position in the combined top merit list.

B.Sc. (Honours in Physics Examination of Dhaka University: First Class.

M.Sc. in Physics of Dhaka University: first woman to stand First in First Class.

Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics (Cavendish laboratory, Cambridge University, England)

Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge.

Professor at the Physics Department of Dhaka University until June 2011, researching in Atmospheric Physics.

National Honours include being Secretary (twice) of Bangladesh Physical Society and Vice-President of BPS, Bangladesh Association of Scientists and Bangladesh Association for Advancement of Science; national contact person of Asian Physics Education Network presenting country papers on Physics Education in Japan, Philippines and Malaysia.

Provost of Shamsun Nahar Hall of Dhaka University 1996-2002.

Chairperson of the Physics Department of Dhaka University (until 29 June 2010 ).

Family:

Maternal uncles: Abu Naser Ahmed, the businessman, was President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce; Nazir Ahmed was the Founder-Director of the FDC (Dhaka's Hollywood) and a famous media man, working for BBC for many years; artist Hamidur Rahman designed the Shahid Minar dedicated to the language martyrs; Saeed Ahmed was a top civil servant and a pioneer playwright who introduced modern concepts into Bangla plays.

Ahmed Shafee

Only son among seven children of Abdus Salam, editor of the Pakistan (later Bangladesh) Observer, went to St. Gregory's School; secured top position among all school-leavers of East Pakistan; then to Notre Dame College, to create a new college record of 90% marks, retained top position in the I.Sc. Examination of Dhaka University; went to the Physics Department of Dhaka University, became the first person to get 80% in the Honours Examination; received the Award of the President of Pakistan for the Best Undergraduate student of East Pakistan.

After M.Sc., again the top student in the university, was awarded the overseas merit scholarship of the Government of Pakistan and went to Cambridge. Sultana joined a year later after their marriage.

Ph.D. was on phenomenological high energy physics and computing remains favourite pastime. Founder-Director of the Institute of Information Technology of Dhaka University, and then Chairman of the Physics Department (2002-2005); looked intermittently into string theory, partons, Complex Systems, chaos, computational plasma physics, stability of macromolecules, black holes 'with hair', and diverse topics.

Edited The Physicist - journal of Bangladesh Physical Society - for more than a decade, was Convener of the Physics section of the National School Syllabus Review Committee and also Convener of the Peer Review Committee of the Ministry of Science and ITC for projects in physical sciences for many years.

Ahmed Shafee is now serving as the Vice-Chancellor of East West University, Dhaka.

Early days : Album

email: shafee.a@gmail.com