Researcher Profile

-  Conducting quality research to produce evidence for better child development in Bangladesh and other developing countries.

-  To assess impacts of various nutritional deficits, toxins, poor health and deprivation on the development of children.

-  To take to scale an innovative, low-cost and sustainable programme on early childhood development in Bangladesh..  

Membership of national/international committees

• Member of Technical Team ofthe Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) project under Bangladesh Shishu Academy(since 2007)
• Member, General Committee of Bangladesh Protibondhi (Disability) Foundation (since 2010)
• Member of the advisory board of the Bangladesh Government’s early childhood development (ECD) program (2005)
• Member of Research Review Committee of icddr,b from August 2003 to January 2004 and November 2009 till 2012.
• Member, Advisory Committee; SIEF Project: Building Parental Capacity to help Child Nutrition and Health: A Randomized Controlled Trial; 2013-2016
• Chairperson of Shishu Bikash (Child Development) Network which works at a national level to improve child development activities all over the country (2009-2012). Life member of Shishu Bikash Network.

Membership of national/international professional bodies

• Member of the Under-3 ECD MeasurementAdvisory Grouphosted in Harvard University(since Jan 2016)
• Member, Global Child Development Groupthat worked on the Lancet series on child development and is presently working to identify indicators of later IQ based on longitudinal data from 12 countries(since 2007)
• Member of the Technical Working Group to develop indicators and monitoring system for Early Childhood Development (ECD) program by UNICEF/ICMH(since 2005)
• Member of the Bangladesh ECD network
• Executive member of Bangladesh Society for Child Neurology, Development and Disability (since 2007)
• Member of Asian & Oceanian Child Neurology Association (since 2008)
• Member of Bangladesh Paediatric Association (BPA-1998)

Prizes, medals, awards etc.

• Received award for the 2^nd best poster presentation at the 1^st National conference of Bangladesh Society for Child Neurology, Development and Disability, March, 2008
• Best oral presentation at CAPGAN conference, Bangladesh; Feb. 2006
• Winner of the 1^st position of Bangla speech competition for the foreign nationals awarded by Japanese Universities Alumni Association in Bangladesh; Feb. 2006
• Young Scientist awarded by the Rank Prize Funds, UK; 2002
• Scholarship from DfID for PhD; 1999-2004
• Distinction in DCH course in 1^st position; 1996

Academic editorships

• Reviewer of several scientific journals e.g. Lancet, Child Care, Health and Development, JHPN, Rural and Remote Health, Pediatrics, Public Health Nutrition, PLOS ONE, and European Journal of Clinical Nutrition(since 2003)
• Editorial Board Membership
• Rural and Remote Health(since 2009)
• Bangladesh Journal of Child Neurology, Development & Disability(since 2009)

NOT journal, funding body reviewing

• Reviewer of proposals submitted to Grand Challenges Canada (since 2014)
• Reviewer of proposals submitted for core/Sida funding (since 2010)
• Chair of the Ad Hoc ethical review committee for Save the Children(since 2010)

Selected publications include:

• Hamadani JD,Tofail F, Huda SN, Alam DS, Ridout DA, Attanasio O,Grantham-McGregor SM. Cognitive deficit and poverty in the first 5 years ofchildhood in Bangladesh. Pediatrics. 2014 Oct;134(4)
• Jiang NM, Tofail F, Moonah SN, Scharf RJ, Taniuchi M, Ma JZ, Hamadani JD, Gurley ES, Houpt ER, Azziz-Baumgartner E, Haque R, Petri WA Jr. Febrile illness and pro-inflammatory cytokines are associated with lower neurodevelopmental scores in Bangladeshi infants living in poverty. BMC Pediatr. 2014 Feb 18;14:50.
• Hamadani JD,Nahar B, Huda SN, Tofail F. Integrating Early Child Development programs into health and nutrition services in Bangladesh: Benefits and challenges.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences2014 Jan;1308:192-203. doi: 10.1111/nyas.12319, 2013.
• Tofail F, Hamadani JD, Mehrin F, Ridout DA, Huda SN, Grantham-McGregor SM. Psychosocial stimulation benefits development in nonanemic children but not in anemic, iron-deficient children. Journal of Nutrition143:885-893, 2013.
• Nahar B, Hossain MI, Hamadani JD, Ahmed T, Huda SN, Grantham-McGregor SM, Persson LA. Effects of a community-based approach of food and psychosocial stimulation on growth and development of severely malnourished children in Bangladesh: a randomised trial. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2012 Jun;66(6):701-9. doi:1038/ejcn.2012.13. Epub 2012 Feb 22.
• Tofail F, Hamadani JD, Ahmed AZ, Mehrin F, Hakim M, Huda SN. The mentaldevelopment and behavior of low-birth-weight Bangladeshi infants from an urbanlow-income community. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2012 Feb;66(2):237-43.
• Hamadani JD,Tofail F, Nermell B, Gardner R, Shiraji S, Bottai M, Arifeen SE, Huda SN, Vahter M. Critical windows of exposure for arsenic-associated impairment of cognitive function in pre-school girls and boys: a population-based cohort study. Int J Epidemiol. 2011 Dec;40(6):1593-604.
• Hamadani JD,Tofail F, Hilaly A, Huda SN, Engle P, Grantham-McGregor SM. Use of family care indicators and their relationship with child development in Bangladesh. J Health Popul Nutr.2010 Feb;28(1):23-33.
• Hamadani JD,Huda SN, Khatun F, Grantham-McGregor SM. Psychosocial stimulation improves the development of undernourished children in rural Bangladesh. J Nutr. 2006 Oct;136(10):2645-52.
• Hamadani JD,Fuchs GJ, Osendarp SM, Huda SN, Grantham-McGregor SM. Zinc supplementation during pregnancy and effects on mental development and behavior of infants: a follow-up study. Lancet. 2002;360(9329):290-4.