The Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS) organized a seminar titled “Dominant Role of Statistics in Contemporary Science and Technology” in the Bangladesh Science Museum Buildings in Dhaka October 1. Shahjahan Khan of the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, and founding chief editor of the Journal of Applied Probability and Statistics (JAPS) served as the seminar speaker. Khan was elected an Expatriate Fellow of BAS last year.

Shahjahan Khan (standing) speaks during a statistics seminar while BSA president, Mesbahuddin Ahmad (sitting), listens at the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences.

The seminar, attended by a record number of people, covered contemporary problems in health, medicine, engineering, climate, environment, and Big Data and highlighted how statistics is playing an increasingly dominant role in state-of-the-art research solving complex issues of our time.

The president of BAS, Mesbahuddin Ahmad, presided over the seminar, and the secretary of BAS, Khawaja M. S. Aziz, introduced the speaker. In addition to members of the BAS executive committee, a number of scientists—including immediate past president of BAS, M. Shamsher Ali; a former president of the Bangladesh Statistical Association, M. Kabir; and vice-chancellor of the Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, Liaquat Ali—senior biostatisticians, and statisticians participated in the event.

BAS was established in 1973 with Kudrat-e-Khuda as the founding president and 13 fellows to promote research in pure and applied sciences and enhance their practical application to the national welfare in Bangladesh. The academy is the leading scientific organization of the scientists of eminence in Bangladesh and represents the scientific community of the country. Currently, there are 112 elected fellows.