Ataharul Chowdhury, PhD

I am an educator, a social scientist, and a believer in sustainable change. If you are in making change and impacting lives, I am here to listen up. I name this website ‘CAPINNOV’, which stands for capacity for innovation. Through research, teaching, and service I strive for enhancing and/or creating capacity that support social (e.g. new forms of organizations), institutional (e.g. new rules) and technological (e.g. adoption & uptake of new technologies in the society) innovation. You will find information about my research program, teaching, publication, service, reflection and updates shared on my news and blog.

Current Position & Academic Background

Associate Professor, Capacity Development and Extension at the University of Guelph. Multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary educational background e.g., four graduate degrees in natural and social sciences (agricultural science, communication and innovation studies, extension education and sustainable agricultural development)

Teaching development

Cross-cultural graduate and undergraduate, graduate, professional courses and degree program development experience (Caribbean, Canada, Austria, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) in areas related to agricultural extension, agricultural communication, research methods, data analytics, project management, communication for social and environmental changes, community engagement, digital development and artificial intelligence, ICT & digital media, information and knowledge mobilization, information disorder, participatory and community-based development, climate change and sustainable agricultural development

Leadership

Evidence of scholarly and organizational leadership and organizational skills, such as past secretary (2021-2023) and current president of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education, editor of the Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension and Frontiers in Communication.

HQP

Evidence of training Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP): 3 Post-doc including 2 Banting felows, 6 PhD (ongoing/past), 6 MSc (ongoing), 8 MSc (completed), 4 undergraduates (completed), 10 Interns (completed)

Funding Record

A strong track record of securing research dollars through competitive grants, fellowships and contracts (>$1M).

Awards and Recognition

Fellow (2022), Outstanding Early Achievement (2020) and Outstanding Leadership Award (2023), Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education, University Research Excellence Award (2023)

80
Publications
55
Conference
15
Invited Lecture
12
Media interviews

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