Tufts Professor Shafiqul Islam Named Harvard Radcliffe Fellow

Shafiqul Islam, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts, has been selected as a 2025–2026 Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. He joins a class of 50 fellows chosen from a pool of 1,627 applicants representing top scholars and public leaders from around the world.

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University is one of the world’s leading centers for interdisciplinary exploration. It brings together students, scholars, artists, and practitioners to pursue curiosity-driven research, expand human understanding, and tackle questions that require insight across disciplines

At Radcliffe, Islam will focus on Engineering Diplomacy, a problem-solving framework that synthesizes science, policy, politics, ethics, and negotiation. His fellowship work includes writing a book and developing case studies that show how this framework can address complex challenges like climate change, energy transition, and water security.

“In our interconnected and uncertain world, we are not looking for perfect solutions,” says Islam. “We need principled pragmatic interventions that are scientifically defensible, socially acceptable, and politically feasible for desirable outcomes.”

Islam’s work explores how data and diplomacy can lead to desirable and actionable solutions. He shares these ideas through public talks and a weekly Substack newsletter. His writing on engineering diplomacy has appeared in The Guardian, 360Info, and The Daily Star.

In 2023, Islam gave the Distinguished Lecture at Krea University in India. In 2025, he delivered the keynote address at the Engineering Diplomacy Workshop hosted by BUET in Bangladesh. His insights are shaping BUET’s new Center for Excellence in Engineering Diplomacy.

Islam joined Tufts in 2004 and served as associate dean of research from 2006 to 2009. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and editor of Water Resources Research. His work spans water diplomacy, climate adaptation, and principled pragmatism.

Learn more about Professor Shafiqul Islam.