Dhaka: Bangladeshi origin scientist Dr. Shafiqul Islam won 7th Award of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) along with his team partner Dr. Rita Colwell.

Both Shafiqul, who is currently working at Tufts University in USA, along with his partner Rita, works at University of Maryland at College Park, are awarded with the creative prize for developing and testing a model that uses chlorophyll information from satellite data to predict cholera outbreaks at least three to six months in advance, says the official website of PSIPW.

Dr. Shafiqul Islam has applied Colwell’s findings to relate chlorophyll levels and cholera outbreaks in the Bay of Bengal. Using satellite data from NASA, he developed a satellite-based model to predict potential cholera outbreaks at least three to six months in advance. The model has been tested with chlorophyll information from satellites over the Bay of Bengal region to predict cholera outbreaks in Bangladesh. The team is currently working on testing the model with ground-based observations.

The 7th Award of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) was announced on 5 October. However, the awards ceremony will be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York on 2 November.