Jamilur Reza Choudhury at a glance

Jamilur Reza Choudhury

Birth : 15 November 1943

Death : 28 April 2020

Birthplace : Sylhet

Father : Abid Reza Choudhury

Mother : Hayatun Nessa Choudhury

Spouse : Selina Nowroz Choudhury

Children : Charisma Farheen Choudhury and Kaashif Reza Choudhury

His began his studies at Mymensingh Zilla School. After moving to Dhaka, he attended Nawabpur Government High School. Later he completed his matriculation from St. Gregory’s High School in 1957. He passed his intermediate (HSC) from Dhaka College in 1959. He finished his bachelor’s degree ranking first class first in Civil Engineering from then East Pakistan University of Engineering and Technology (now BUET) in 1963.

He then went to the University of Southampton in UK on a scholarship to complete his master’s degree in advanced structural engineering in 1964. In 1968, he finished his PHD from the same university. He was offered Commonwealth Staff Fellowship in 1975.

Right after completing his bachelor’s degree, Jamilur Reza Choudhury joined BUET as a lecturer. After completing his master’s degree in UK he returned to BUET again. He became a professor in 1976. He served as the head of the Department of Civil Engineering, BUET for a long time. Later, he also served as the dean of the department. At the same time, from 1982 to 1992, in these 10 years he served as the director of BUET’s Computer Centre (now Institute of Information and Communication Technology).

In 1996, he served as the advisor of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources as well as the Ministry of Water Resources in the caretaker government. He worked as the vice-chancellor of BRAC University from 2001 to 2010. Since 2010 till his death, he held the post of vice-chancellor of the University of Asia Pacific.

The Bangladesh government named him as National Professor on 19 June in 2018. Jamilur Reza Choudhury held vital posts in various institutes and organisations like Bangladesh Earthquake Society, Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA), Bangladesh Engineeres’ Institution, Bangladesh Freedom Foundation and Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad committee.

More than 70 research articles of Jamilur Reza Choudhury have been published in various local and foreign journals. During his PhD research, he discovered an easier way to analyse ‘sheer walls’ of multistoried buildings, which later became familiar as Coull and Choudhury’s Method. This method is now a part of the syllabus in civil engineering departments in universities of home and abroad. He has research on many subjects including construction of multistoried buildings, construction of buildings at low cost, designs of earthquake-proof buildings and construction of cyclone-proof buildings.

He received Bangladesh Engineering Institution Gold Medal and was awarded honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering by Manchester University as the first Bangladeshi to receive this honor from a British University. He received national award Ekushey Padak in 2017. In 2018, he was adorned with the Order of the Rising Sun: Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, highest international honor conferred by the Japanese Government.

Jamilur Reza Choudhury was involved in one way or other with the construction of every large scale physical infrastructure in the country following independence. He was involved with the planning and implementation of Bangabandhu and Padma bridge construction. He was also in the expert team of various mega projects including Dhaka Elevated Expressway, Karnaphuli Tunnel, Dhaka Subway and Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway.