Dr. Shahriar Hossain
Voicing Nature, Advancing Environmental Justice
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About Dr. Shahriar Hossain
Prof. Dr. Shahriar Hossain is an environmental scientist, journalist, social researcher, and global advocate against plastic pollution and toxic chemicals. He began his academic career at Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, and has since held faculty positions at Jawaharlal Nehru University (India), the University of Bath (UK), the University of Dhaka, and George Washington and Georgetown Universities (USA).
His research centers on the ecological and human health impacts of plastic pollution, with a focus on toxic and chemical exposure. Over several decades, he has combined research, journalism, and public advocacy to raise awareness about environmental challenges and promote sustainable policy solutions.
Dr. Hossain is widely recognized for his leadership in the campaign against plastic bag pollution in Bangladesh, which contributed to the country’s historic ban on thin plastic bags. His work has received international recognition, including the Environmental Leadership Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. He is also a Fellow of Ashoka for his contributions to social and environmental change.
Alongside his advocacy, he has published research and written extensively in newspapers on issues such as air pollution, waste management, and environmental sustainability in Bangladesh and the Global South.
This narrative is not a catalogue of achievements but a record of a continuing journey — from a small town in northern Bangladesh to international forums, from newsroom desks to negotiation halls, from protest lines to policy drafting tables.
The work remains unfinished. Guided by the convictions that truth matters, justice is worth pursuing, and responsibility to future generations is not optional, Dr. Shahriar continues to write, research, and advocate — mindful that the rivers still flow, the sky remains open, and the story of democracy is still being written.
“One of the top ten environmental figures of the last 36 years.”
The ENDS Report
Ecology
Ecology entered Prof. Dr. Shahriar Hossain’s life long before it became his academic discipline. He grew up observing how rivers shaped communities, how soil sustained families, and how environmental destruction quietly deepened poverty. His first lessons in ecology did not come from textbooks but from lived experience — from people whose lives were intertwined with land and water.
Over the decades, his work has centered on a clear conviction: development without environmental justice is not development at all. Whether confronting plastic pollution, advocating for safer chemical management, or participating in global environmental negotiations, his commitment has remained grounded in the realities of ordinary citizens.
The movement to restrict plastic bags in Bangladesh was not, for him, an abstract environmental campaign. It addressed clogged drainage systems that intensified floods, declining soil fertility that hurt farmers, and public health risks affecting vulnerable communities. In his view, environmental governance must respond directly to these lived experiences.
For Dr. Shahriar, ecology is about restoring balance — between policy and people, growth and sustainability, science and social justice. It is about protecting rivers, open skies, and the dignity of future generations.
Journalism
Journalism was Dr. Shahriar Hossain’s first platform for public engagement. He entered the profession in the mid-1970s, at a time when honest speech demanded courage. Reporting, for him, was never merely about headlines. It was about accountability — documenting truth even when that truth was inconvenient.
He worked with national and international media, writing on democracy, environment, governance, and development. Yet the stories that shaped him most were not confined to newsrooms. They emerged from villages facing erosion, communities suffering toxic exposure, and families navigating injustice.
Development journalism became central to his work because it bridged policy and people. It asked who benefited from decisions and who bore the cost. It insisted that marginalized voices be heard.
At its best, he believes, journalism strengthens democracy. It protects public memory and creates space for dialogue. He continues to hold that an informed society is the strongest foundation for justice.
Research
Research in Prof. Dr. Shahriar Hossain’s life has never been an abstract academic pursuit. It has grown out of lived experience — from riverbanks choked with waste, from neighborhoods exposed to toxic air, from workers handling hazardous materials without protection. For him, research begins with questions raised in the field and returns to the field with solutions.
With formal training in urban ecology and environmental studies, his scholarship centers on environmental governance, plastic pollution, chemical safety, climate change, air pollution, and sustainable urban development. Yet the unifying thread in his work is clear: how policies, markets, and regulatory systems affect real communities.
Dr. Hossain has served as faculty at the University of Dhaka and Jawaharlal Nehru University of New Delhi, contributing to teaching and research in environmental studies and governance. He has also engaged academically with George Washington University and Georgetown University in the United States, and with the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. In addition, he has maintained research associations with the University of Portsmouth and the University of Ankara. These engagements have enabled him to bridge scholarship across regions, connecting South Asian realities with global academic discourse.
A significant portion of his research has focused on PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) contamination, examining their presence in consumer products, industrial processes, and environmental pathways. He has analyzed regulatory gaps, health implications, and the challenges developing countries face in monitoring and managing these persistent chemicals. His work on mercury in products and waste streams has contributed to understanding compliance challenges under global mercury control regimes, highlighting exposure risks in informal recycling sectors and vulnerable communities.
His research on climate change has addressed urban vulnerability, adaptation governance, and the intersection of climate impacts with pollution burdens. In the field of air pollution, he has examined urban air quality, public health consequences, and policy responses, emphasizing how poor communities bear disproportionate exposure. Across these themes, he has consistently linked scientific findings with regulatory reform and institutional accountability.
Dr. Hossain maintains that research must move beyond journals and conferences. It should inform legislation, strengthen negotiation positions, guide advocacy strategies, and support implementation at the national level. Data, in his view, must lead to action — otherwise it remains incomplete.
His methodology integrates field-based inquiry, policy analysis, interdisciplinary collaboration, and community engagement. He views knowledge production as a shared process. Communities are not passive subjects of study but partners in generating insight. When scientific evidence is grounded in lived experience and translated into policy, research becomes more than scholarship — it becomes an instrument of change.
Where environmental truths meet public policy,
Empowering decisionsthat protect our world.
Public Policy
Public policy, for Dr. Shahriar Hossain, is where ideals are tested against reality.
Over the course of his career, he has served as a member of Bangladesh government delegations in major global environmental negotiations. His engagement has spanned the ongoing Global Plastics Treaty negotiations under the United Nations system, sessions of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), Climate COPs under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Conferences of the Parties to the Basel Convention, Rotterdam Convention and Stockholm Convention (BRS Conventions), as well as the Minamata Convention on Mercury. He has also contributed to discussions under the emerging Science-Policy Panel on chemicals, waste, and pollution prevention, and the Global Framework on Chemicals.
In these forums, his role has extended beyond attendance. He has supported the development of national positions, provided technical inputs grounded in field experience, and worked to ensure that Bangladesh’s perspectives reflect both scientific evidence and community realities. In plastics negotiations, he has advocated for upstream measures, lifecycle approaches, and binding obligations that address production, design, and waste management. At UNEA, he has contributed to resolutions on pollution, chemical safety, and environmental governance, emphasizing implementation capacity for developing countries.
Within Climate COP processes, he has highlighted the intersection between climate vulnerability and chemical and plastic pollution — arguing that adaptation and mitigation strategies must not create new toxic burdens. At the BRS and Minamata COPs, he has focused on strengthening compliance mechanisms, promoting safer alternatives, and ensuring that financial and technical support reaches countries with limited capacity. His engagement in the Science-Policy Panel discussions reflects his long-standing belief that science must be policy-relevant, independent, and accessible to developing nations. Under the Global Framework on Chemicals, he has supported ambitious targets, transparency in supply chains, and protection of vulnerable populations.
Though these processes are often framed in technical language, he consistently brings the discussion back to human consequences. A clause negotiated in Geneva or Nairobi can determine whether a child is exposed to mercury, whether informal waste workers handle toxic plastics without protection, or whether rivers in delta regions continue to serve as lifelines rather than dumping grounds.
He advocates for inclusive environmental governance — governance that integrates science, respects national circumstances, ensures civil society participation, and aligns local realities with global commitments. For Dr. Shahriar Hossain, public policy is not an abstract exercise. It is a responsibility. If it does not protect people and ecosystems together, it has failed its purpose.
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