This time Scientific Bangladesh interviewed Dr. S M Sohel Murshed. He is a Professor, at Instituto Superior Tecnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal. Here is the recipient of the prestigious
Scientific Award (2022) from the University of Lisbon and the DUO-India Professor Fellowship Award (2020). Below are his experiences, insights, and suggestions for different stakeholders of the research ecosystem of Bangladesh.
1. Scientific Bangladesh: Would you like to tell us about your academic and research life? In another way, how would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: The journey to build my academic and research career started at Maijpara High School in Narail district and Dhaka Residential Model College where I attended SSC and HSC, respectively. Later I completed my B.Sc. Eng. from RUET (former BIT) and M.Eng. from BUET. In 2007, I obtained my PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) of Singapore. Then I worked as a postdoctoral fellow at NTU and UCF (USA). I was also a visiting professor at several universities such as Imperial College, London, RIT, NY, and IIT, India. I am enlisted in the rankings of the World’s Top 2% Scientists (both Career and single year of 2020 impact lists) that was published by Stanford University in October 2021. Currently, I am leading a centre and research group at the University of Lisbon.
2. Scientific Bangladesh: What has made you a researcher and/or a teacher? In another way, what is the story behind your becoming a researcher?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: Teaching is rooted in my family where my father was a college professor and principal (Narail Victoria College), my eldest brother is a professor (DU), and my fascination for scientific research and innovation can be traced back to my early age when I used to wonder and have many questions related to science and technology. Thus, besides transferring knowledge and educating young citizens, a strong desire to contribute to any scientific progress for the betterment of human being led to becoming a researcher and teacher. The journey mainly started in 2003 when I received a PhD research scholarship from NTU, Singapore.
3. Scientific Bangladesh: What is your research area? What type of research facilities/ infrastructures do you have or developed over years and how?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: My research works span a wide range of areas including nanothermofluids, nano- and micro-fluidics, energy storage, harvesting and conversion technologies, advanced thermal management like modern electronics and EV, and district heating and cooling.
4. Scientific Bangladesh: Tell us about your publications and patent, if any. Tell more about your most loved publication/s and/or patents.
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: Besides 14 books and 34 book chapters, I have so far authored/co-authored 200 scientific publications in leading international journals and conferences. Numbers of my research papers received distinctions and were classified as Highly Cited Papers by the Web of Science (Essential Science Indicators).
My first journal paper, which was a benchmark work published in 2005, is one of the most cited (current google scholar citation counts of ca.1650) and popular works in the research community.
5. Scientific Bangladesh: Tells us about research grants and awards you have obtained till now.
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: My total research grant from various entities such as national (FCT, Portugal), European Commission (e.g., COST action) and multi-governmental projects is about 1M Euros. I received the prestigious Scientific Award (2022) from the University of Lisbon and the DUO-India Professor Fellowship Award (2020).
6. Scientific Bangladesh: Do you have any research that has been commercialized or developed products What should Bangladesh do to encourage the commercialization of research outputs?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: My research areas are at lower technological readiness levels (TRL) and my group is yet to have any developed products. Commercialization of any research output is a result of long and extensive research of top quality. Bangladesh should focus on and encourage rigorous research works particularly in emerging and priority (nationally) areas.
7. Scientific Bangladesh: How do you manage funds for research? From where do you get funds for research?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: A big share of the obtained fund is spent hiring researchers like postdocs and developing research facilities mainly for equipment. As mentioned earlier my funds are mainly from National (Portugal) and EC.
8. Scientific Bangladesh: Do you think Bangladeshi researchers apply enough for international funds?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: I am not aware of this information. However, I think that not many researchers do apply for international funds.
9. Scientific Bangladesh: Inadequate fund for research is a major problem in Bangladesh. What would you say in response to pointing fingers by many at this basic problem worldwide, not only in Bangladesh?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: Except for some developed countries, most of the countries, particularly those least/underdeveloped ones, have this problem of allocating a very small amount of budget (% of GDP) for research and development. However, I blame Bangladesh universities/institutes/management authorities (like UGC) more for not being able to pursue the government to sufficiently increase the budget and facilities in this sector.
10. Scientific Bangladesh: How many researchers (PhDs and Masters) have you developed by this time? In other words, share your supervisory experience and story.
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: I have so far completed guiding about two dozen researchers including students and postdocs. Currently, 10 students and 3 postdoctoral researchers are doing research under my supervision.
11. Scientific Bangladesh: What 1. qualities and 2. What skills do you expect in prospective researchers?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: I would expect highly motivated and hardworking researchers with good communication skills (particularly writing) in addition to honesty and integrity.
12. Scientific Bangladesh: Tell us about your experience and story as a journal or book editor and reviewer.
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: Since 2010, I have been serving different editorial positions for several international journals. For instance, I was an editor of the Journal of nanofluids (American Scientific Publishers) for about 10 years. Currently, I am serving as the specialty chief editor of Frontiers in Thermal Engineering and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (Springer, Impact factor 2021: 4.755). I also guest-edited several special issues of different journals like Nanomaterials (Impact factor 2021: 5.719) and Biosensors (Impact factor 2021: 5.743). Although it takes additional time, it helps enrich the knowledge about the publication process and management, research quality, and activities from across the globe.
13. Scientific Bangladesh: How important is the experience of working as an editor of a scientific Journal and reviewer? What is your experience in those cases?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: I think at an early stage of a career reviewing articles for journals is very important as it allows one to learn about research work and the writing quality of other researchers. It also helps to improve one’s research and writing quality. Due to time constraints, nowadays I don’t review any articles unless they are from very high-impact journals. However, I reviewed articles from more than 3 dozen journals including top journals like “Nature” and learned a lot from reviewing them. I think during mid-career it is important to take some editorial roles if there are such opportunities.
14. Scientific Bangladesh: What are the professional organizations of researchers you involved with? How important it is for researchers to join such professional bodies?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: I hold memberships of several organizations like the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers, International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer, and Institute of Nanotechnology. Since most professional organizations charge (monthly/annual) for their membership, I think it’s not very important, particularly for early career researchers.
15. Scientific Bangladesh: Do you think different professional bodies of scientists play their due role in Bangladesh? What are your suggestions for the leading professional organizations of scientists?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: Although I was a member of IEB which is mainly a club for engineers, to my knowledge it is not contributing noticeably to the research and development of the country. I am not in a position to comment on other professional bodies in Bangladesh.
16. Scientific Bangladesh: What would be your three suggestions for early career researchers?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: Early career researchers should be hardworking, ensuring research integrity and avoiding shortcut ways in research.
17. Scientific Bangladesh: If asked what will be your three suggestions for the Science Ministry of Bangladesh?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: I am very illiterate about the functions, actions, programs, etc of the government and ministries of Bangladesh.
However, I would suggest reshaping the Research and Innovation Development (R&ID) culture in Bangladesh first by removing/minimizing politics and bureaucracy from research (and educational) establishments, substantially increasing research funds and national research scholarships offering better facilities such as salary, and establishing multidisciplinary state-of-the-art research centre/institute in every public university.
18. Scientific Bangladesh: Would you like to give any suggestions to our university authorities?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: I am not qualified to provide any suggestions to them but do wish they keep their colors (politics) away and need to be visionary for the improvement of the quality of education, research, and lives of the university community.
19. Scientific Bangladesh: How important is leadership ability to become a great researcher? Should researchers take leadership training? Did you ever get training on Leadership?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: I think leadership ability is important to some extent for senior researchers and faculty members to lead research groups, projects, networks, and other management responsibilities. It’s not very important to take any such training as it’s a learning and improvement process. Nevertheless, it’s always good to take any training or course to learn and improve the skills in that field. I haven’t received any training on leadership.
20. Scientific Bangladesh: Doing Research is a stressful job. What do you do to manage stress? Do you exercise regularly?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: First, a researcher should love his/her research work not just to complete the degree or to earn money. Identify and change the situation or the response to the situation that causes the stress. It can be managed by developing healthy work habits and doing extracurricular activities and exercise or yoga. I regularly do some exercise although mainly for physical health.
21. Scientific Bangladesh? Would you like to add any more points for our readers?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: Researchers (at any level) should be passionate about research and must uphold high integrity in research.
22. Scientific Bangladesh: How important for researchers to maintain an updated profile in the different professional networks? Would you like to share your google scholar, LinkedIn, or any other profile?
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: It’s very important for researchers to maintain an updated profile in different professional networks. My google scholar link: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=M2xZj-kAAAAJ&hl=en
23. Scientific Bangladesh: Would you want to contribute regularly to Scientific Bangladesh and have a profile as an Author? If yes, then register at https://scientificbangladesh.com/registration-2/
Dr. S M Sohel Murshed: If time permits, I would be happy to contribute.
Scientific Bangladesh: Thank you for agreeing to write in Scientific Bangladesh. Readers will be waiting for your writing.