User talk:Dr.Zillur R. Khan

Introduction: Zillur R. Khan (middle initial stands for Rahman) was born in November 21, 1938 in Hoogly, West Bengal, India. He is currently Rosebush Professor Emeritus of University of Wisconsin. Dr. Khan is also the President of Bangladesh Foundation www.bangladesh-foundation.org ), Chairman of RC 37, International Political Science Association (IPSA) http://www.rc37.ipsa.org, and adjunct professor at Rollins College, USA (http://www.rollins.edu ). Dr. Khan also serves as a “Distinguished Fellow” at the Policy Research Institute (PRI), Bangladesh. Zillur’s early education commenced at Hare School, Calcutta (Kolkata), India. In 1948, Zillur’s father accepted a job as Principal at Jagannath College, Dacca (now Dhaka), thus relocating his entire family to East Pakistan. Having learned fluent Bangla and Urdu in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), he completed his Bachelor's as well as Master's Degree in Political Science from the University of Dacca (1954-1959). Zillur earned his first teaching job at Dacca College, a premier college in then-East Pakistan, from 1959-1962. In 1962, Zillur was selected for the Pakistan Superior Service. The following year, he won the Fulbright Scholarship. Supported by the Full Grant of Fulbright Scholarship, he enrolled at Claremont Graduate School (now University), USA, to earn his second Master's Degree in Government. From 1964-1967, Zillur earned a Master’s degree and a Ph.D from Claremont Graduate School and University Center within an unprecedented period of three years. During the same period Zillur was awarded Asian Studies Scholarship, Danforth Foundation Scholarship and National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant. His Ph.D dissertation was titled: Administrative Mobility in Comparative Public Administration: U.S.A. and Pakistan.

Career: Academic Dr. Khan is Professor Emeritus of the University of Wisconsin. He has served as President of Faculty Senate, University of Wisconsin (Oshkosh Campus), in 1990-91. He was the first Asian American to serve as President of Faculty Senate in the University of Wisconsin System. In 1987, Dr. Khan was elected as Chairman of the Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin (Oshkosh Campus) and re-elected thrice. At the World Congress of International Political Science Association (IPSA) in Durban, S. Africa, in 1993, Dr. Khan was elected Chairman of IPSA Research Committee (RC 37/IPSA) on Rethinking Political Development. After relocating in Orlando, Florida, Dr. Khan accepted the position of Adjunct Professor at Rollins College in 2006.

Academic Recognition Dr. Khan won the Rosebush Professorship Chair at the University level and Willard Smith Teaching Award at the department level respectively in 1991 and 1999. Twice Dr. Khan was recognized by American Political Science Association (APSA) for Excellence in Teaching and Research at the APSA National Conference in New York and Chicago, respectively in 1993 and 2003. Dr. Khan was awarded a Study Abroad Grant by US Department of State in 1973 to select six graduate students from different American Universites for a study tour of Bangladesh, which emerged as an independent nation (eightht largest in the world) in 1971 out of an intense Struggle for Freedom and a war between two largest nations of South Asia: India and Pakistan. In 1988 and 1999, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) awarded Dr. Khan a UNDP Consultancy Grant to help the Jahangir Nagar University of Bangladesh with needed curricular reforms. The International Political Science Association (IPSA) awarded Dr. Khan with Inter-World Congress Workshop Grants for organizing workshop-regional conferences in Bangladesh (2004, 2007, 2010, 2014 and 2015) and USA (2011 and 2015). IPSA honored Dr. Khan by selecting him to preside over Global South Award Session at the IPSA World Congress in Motreal, 2014. (http://rc37.ipsa.org). Dr. Khan served as a Member of the National Seminar on South Asia at Columbia University, 1972-74, by invitation of Professor Howard Wriggins, then-Director of its South Asia Program. In 1991, Dr. Khan was invited by the University of Manitoba, Canada, to serve as the Keynote Speaker at a special conference on South Asia. Books: Dr. Khan has published 13 books, contributed 10 book chapters and 50 scholarly articles in regional and international journals. His most recent was published in 2014, titled “Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujiber Shommohoni Nettritto O Shadhinatar Shangram” Tr. Bangabondhu Sheikh Mujib's Charismatic Leadership and the Struggle for Freedom (Dhaka: Mawla Brothers Limited). In 2011 he co-edited (senior editor) Democracy in Bangladesh, based on selected papers presented in a conference at Harvard University (University Press Limited, 2011). The following year, Dr. Khan’s co-edited volume on Regional Cooperation and Globalization: Bangladesh, South Asia and Beyond was published by University Press Limited to raving reviews. In 1983, Syracuse University published Dr. Khan’s book titled Leadership in the Least Developed Nation: Bangladesh. The following year the University Press Limited of Bangladesh published his much talked about book titled From Martial Law to Martial Law: Leadership Crisis in Bangladesh. Based on his participation as a delegate from the USA at an International Conference on the Security of Small States hosted by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) in 1986, Dr. Khan edited a volume of selected papers presented by delegates from several countries titled SAARC and the Superpowers (University Press Limited, 1991)

In 1996, Dr. Khan’s The Third World Charismat: Sheikh Mujib and the Struggle for Freedom (Dhaka: University Press Ltd.) was published. [For more information on his books, please go to: http://www.amazon.com/
In 2003, Dr. Khan co-edited a volume of selected papers on Bangladesh and India’s West Bengal titled Bengal Studies: A Collection of Essays (New Delhi: Allied Publishers Ltd.). Since then the book has been updated. 

For Dr. Khan’s other books, book chapters and journal articles (super link) publications as well scholarly papers presented at regional, national and international conferences, see (Super Link). Exra-Curricular Recognition In 1984, recognizing Dr. Khan’s expertise in South Asia, US Department of State invited him to the US Foreign Service Institute to discuss US Policy on Freedom Struggles and Military Takeovers of Bangladesh. In 1988, the Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee on Asia and Pacific of the US Congress (100th Congress), invited Dr. Khan to testify as an expert witness at the Hearing on Re-Democratization of Afghanistan and Bangladesh. In 1988, government of Bangladesh offered Dr. Khan a Cabinet Position as Senior Minister of Water and Power, which he respectfully declined. In recognition to his role as organizer of Inter-Congress Workshop/Regional Conferences of International Political Science Association (IPSA) Dr. Khan was invited by the Russian Federation in 2010 to participate as a Keynote Speaker at the Global Policy Forum in Yugoslavl (near Moscow). Dr. Zillur R. Khan is an accomplished public speaker and has been interviewed several times by many News broadcasting networks in USA, UK and Bangladesh. TV and Radio networks, such as ABC, NBC, CBS, VOA and NPR interviewed him on topics ranging from 911 and its aftermath, to US Foreign Policy in Asia and Middle East, to sectarian conflicts within Arab nations and between Saudi Arabia and Iran, to western efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, to Russian and Chinese Domestic and Foreign policies, to Democratizing processes in Bangladesh, Burma/Myanmar, India and Pakistan. BBC has also interviewed Dr. Khan on varying topics. Family: Dr. Khan’s father, Khan Bahadur Abdur Rahman Khan, was a mathematics teacher and textbook author. He eventually became the Director of Public Instruction in Bengal, India, and after retirement served as Principal of Jagannath College, Dacca. Under his guidance Jagannath College was transformed into Jagannath University College. For his unwavering service, a dormitory was named after him. His mother, Khadija Khatun was a housewife. Zillur’s family is originally from Madaripur district, Bangladesh. Zillur had two elder brothers and a younger sister. Dr. Zillur R. Khan is the younger brother of the famed Bangladeshi-American architect Dr. Fazlur R. (Rahman) Khan, the designer of the Sears Tower (renamed Willis Tower), the second-tallest building in the United States (and tallest in the world for many years) and the 100-story John Hancock Center. Considered the "father of tubular designs for high-rises”, Fazlur R. Khan was also a pioneer in computer-aided design (CAD). See Fazlur Khan-Wikipedia). Dr. Zillur R. Khan helped his brother Dr. Fazlur R. Khan (see Wikipedia) in mobilizing public opinion in the United States for the Freedom Struggle of Bangladesh. Together they established Bangladesh Defense League, and when the exodus of East Pakistanis into India to escape Pakistani military atrocities (called “Selective Genocide” by then-US Consul General In East Pakistan: Archer K. Blood) accelerated in mid-1971, they established a parallel organization named Bangladesh Emergency Welfare Appeal to provide humanitarian and material assistance to fleeing refugees. During this period Dr. Fazlur R. Khan gave his brother Dr. Zillur R. Khan unconditional emotional and fiscal support to narrate his and his American wife Margaret's eye witness accounts of the genocide being committed by the Pakistani Army and their collaborators in East Pakistan to US Senators and Representative at the US Congress. They received kind assurances from Senators Nelson and Proxmire of Wisconsin, and particularly Senator Ted Kennedy to try their best to prevent the Nixon Administration from continuing to arm Pakistan's military regime involved in “Selective Genocide” of its population. Following the emergence of Bangladesh as the third largest Muslim Majority nation (after Indonesia and Pakistan) rooted in inclusive Secularism, Dr. Fazlur R. Khan founded Bangladesh Foundation (BF) with his brother Dr. Zillur R. Khan (http://www.bangladesh-foundation.org ) in 1972 to help women's empowerment in the developing world focusing on Bangladesh. BF selected Dr. Muhammad Yunus as its First Representative in Bangladesh (http://www.bangladesh-foundation.org), providing him crucial support during 1972-74 which helped him start a microcredit bank known globally as the Grameen Bank for which he was awarded along with his Bank the Nobel Peace Prize by the Nobel Committee in 2006. The passing of Dr. Fazlur R. Khan in 1982 at the age of 52 was a great shock to the Trustees of BF who were trying to support different BF projects on technology transfers towards poverty alleviation, focusing on women's empowerment through health care-literacy and skill building training to uphold the basic ideals of BF (http://www.bangladsh-foundation.org). At the request of disheartened Trustees Dr. Zillur R. Khan agreed to lead the BF, and was elected President at Bangladesh Foundation in 1982. Ever since Zillur R. Khan (super link his email: zillurrkhan@gmail.com as well as zkhan@rollins.edu ) has been reelected President at Bangladesh Foundation several times and continues to the present.