Mr. Shamsuddin Ahmed, Director, Bangladesh Meteorological Department 

Mr. Shamsuddin Ahmed has been the Director, Bangladesh Meteorological Department since March 20, 2017.

Mr. Ahmed, a Meteorological Scientist, was born in a respected family on 1st November, 1962. Mr. Ahmed is the 1st son of Nazir Ahmed, a government official of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. 

Mr. Ahmed was very brilliant in his student life. He secured first place in B.Sc (Hons) in Physics and stood first class first in M.Sc (Final) in Physics (Thesis/Research group) in 1985 from Chittagong University. Mr. Ahmed joined in the Government service on 09th November, 1989 after qualifying in the competitive examination conducted by the Public Service Commission as an Assistant Meteorologist in the Bangladesh Meteorological Department. He was allowed to pursue postgraduate course on Meteorology including Numerical weather prediction, Dynamic Meteorology, Physical Meteorology, Climatology, Environmental Science and Air-pollution Meteorology at the Department of Meteorology & Oceanography, University of Philippines, Diliman, Manila obtaining World Meteorological Organization fellowship after joining in the Government service. He participated in the Programme on "Leadership & Management" for Senior Official at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in National University of Singapore. 

Special Contribution: 

He was one of the key contributors in drafting the Meteorological Act, 2018.  He has introduced a new generation, non-hydrostatic and modular structure meteorological model designed to execute multi-task Operational Numerical Weather Forecasting for Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD). The domain of the weather forecasting systems cover Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, a part of China, India, Thailand, the Himalaya Mountains range and the Bay of Bengal. Now, Tropical cyclone track over Bay of Bengal, Rainfall, Temperature, Wind gust forecast can be prepared by Meteorologist of BMD using operational  NWP with a lead time of 10 (Ten) days in advance with improved skill and reliability.

Mr. Ahmed is a pioneer of access to Meteorological information, modernization & automation in Meteorological Observation Network over land, North Bay of Bengal and upper air of  Bangladesh e.g.  real time automatic soil moisture network, rainfall network and buoy meteorological observations over maritime area of Bangladesh. He also has introduced online climate data purchasing system to reduce time, cost and visit for users community of the Globe. Now a days climate data of Bangladesh can be purchased online sitting from any place over the world.

Professional Experience (National):

Part time Faculty, Department of Oceanography, Dhaka University.

He has been engaged in the following activities of National Weather Forecasting Center of Bangladesh:

1. Looks after technical as well as general administration of the Centre.

2. Renders supervision and guidance in all operational matters of the Centre and its field offices.

3. Renders supervisions on analyses of various weather charts such as sea-level surface charts, Upper air charts, Thermodynamics charts, etc.

4. Renders supervision in the issuance of all routine weather forecasts such as --

            a. Special forecast for the Honorable President.

            b. Special forecast for the Honorable Prime Minister.

            c. Bangladesh Daily Weather Summaries.

            d. Farmers Weather Bulletins.

            e. Inland River port Warnings.

            f. Sea Bulletins.

            g. Fleet Forecasts.

            h. Sea route forecast for Chittagong and Sandwip, etc.

5. Issues special weather Bulletins for Tropical Cyclones (2-6 times a day) according to its severity.

6. Issues long range forecasts.

7. Implements effective management techniques to improve efficiency of the centre.

8. Deals with queries from Government/Semi-Government organization/agencies and the general public.

9. Submits periodic progress reports of the centre.

10. Member, Board of Governors of National Oceanographic and Maritime Institute(NOAMI)

Professional Experience (International)

Mr. Ahmed is the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh with World Meteorological Organization(WMO) since April 29, 2016.

Mr. Ahmed is associated with the Maintenance of liaison with WMO and other international organizations like ICAO, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP etc. in respect of Meteorology and Planning, execution of policies to evolve an effective Meteorological Service in Bangladesh as per WMO standard.

Mr. Ahmed has earned outstanding reputation in the WMO/ESCAP panel on tropical Cyclones (Member countries are- Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand) for the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea and was the Chairman of the working group on meteorology of the panel for three years. He is the focal person for SAARC Storm Programs. Mr. Ahmed is the Alternate GEO Principal of Bangladesh Government for Group of Earth Observations.

He is also associated with the activities of the following international institutions in the field of weather and climate sector. He is:

   (1) Member, Governing Board, Center for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP), Affiliated to the United Nations (Member Countries are Bangladesh, DPR Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Netherlands.)

   (2) Council Member, Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES).

   (3) Government Representative of Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).

   (4)  Member, Asia-Oceania (AOGEOSS) Coordination Board.

Projects:

Climate change in Bangladesh is an extremely crucial issue and Bangladesh ranks first as the nation most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in the coming decade. Weather forecast has a great impact on the economy of the country because every year a huge loss is caused by severe weather. Forecast help to minimize the losses, therefore forecast is an essential before planning project. Weather and Climate services play a key role in saving lives and enhancing the economy. Mr. Ahmed is directly associated with designing and implementing in the following scientific and technical projects:

 (1) WMO-BMD: Coastal Inundation Forecast Demonstration Project- Bangladesh (CIFDP-B)

 (2) "Institutional Support and Capacity Building for Mitigation of Weather and Climate Hazards in Bangladesh"Technical support by Norwegian Meteorological Institute (Met.No).

 (3) Bangladesh Weather and Climate Services Regional Project.

 (4) Climate Services for Resilient Development(CSRD) in South Asia And Bangladesh

Research and Publication:   

He has published articles, scientific research paper on meteorology, weather, climate change and disaster management in different journals and news paper. He is at present Editor of the" Dew-drop(ISSN 2414-6056)" & "The Atmosphere(ISSN 2311-486X)", scientific journal on Meteorology and Geo-physics.

Computer skills:

Operating system:   Windows, Linux.

Programming Language:  BASIC, R.

Countries visited:

Mr. Ahmed represented Bangladesh Govt. in many international forums. He had opportunities to take part in many seminars, symposiums, workshops, negotiations in abroad. He has visited different countries of the world including Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Singapore, Thailand, India Myanmar, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Philippines,Oman,China, Spain, Russia,USA and Australia.

Mr. Ahmed is married. His wife Ms Dilruba Begum is an Agro-meteorologist of Bangladesh Meteorological Department. They are parents of a son and a daughter. Their son Shams Shariar is a student of B.Sc in Economics and Daughter Sharika Tasnim is a student of Bachelor of Architecture in the University.