Faculty

Dr Tahmeed Ahmed is the current Executive Director of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. He has been working for the last three decades in simplifying the treatment of maternal and childhood malnutrition, childhood tuberculosis, and diarrheal diseases. Together with Dr Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis he discovered microbiota directed complementary food (MDCF) - a novel intervention for childhood malnutrition. This discovery was highlighted by the prestigious journal Science as one of the scientific breakthroughs of 2019. He is continuing the research on MDCF in other countries in South Asia and Africa. He led the BEED (Bangladesh Environmental Enteric Dysfunction) study that validated non-invasive biomarkers of environmental enteric dysfunction, an important cause of stunting in children.  

Dr Ahmed obtained his medical degree from Mymensingh Medical College and subsequently studied at the University of Tsukuba in Japan for his PhD. As a member of the Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group of the WHO, Dr Ahmed revised the global guidelines for management of childhood acute malnutrition. Dr Ahmed was awarded the Bangladesh Academy of Science Gold Medal for outstanding achievement in Medical Science in 2003. He has more than 400 articles published in international journals and books. He is also Professor of Public Health Nutrition of James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Dhaka as well as Affiliated Professor of School of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle.