Since our official inauguration (and even before!), we have brought - and continue to bring - top Bangla-desh scholars and public intellectuals to Berkeley. Events over the past year have included: a Chowdhury Center visit by a delegation of top ranking officials from the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP), Ministry of Education, Bangladesh; a reception in honor of Ambassador Marcia Bernicat, the U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh; a lecture by Michelle Murphy, University of Toronto, Dying, Not Dying, and Not Being Born: Experimental Exuberance in Bangladesh; and a book talk on Made in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka: The Labor Behind the Global Garments and Textiles Industries by author and Director of the Chowdhury Center, Sanchita Saxena. 

We are also training the next generation of scholars on Bangladesh by building a strong group of young scholars not only focused on Bangladesh as a part of their study, but supporting scholars from Bangladesh as well. The Chowdhury Center provides three scholarships to Berkeley students for conducting research to improve the lives of those in Bangladesh. The awardees of the Chowdhury fellowships for 2015 are: Yoshika Crider (Energy and Resource Group) was the recipient of the Subir Chowdhury Fellowship on Quality of Life in Bangladesh; Sheikh Waheed Baksh (Development Program) was awarded the Malini Chowdhury Fellowship on Bangladesh Studies; and Abhishek Dalal (BA, Public Health, South Asian Studies, Class of 2018) received the Subir Chowdhury Undergraduate Scholarship for his work in medicine, health behavior, and health care administration through two health-oriented non-profit student organizations.

Finally, the Center will focus on creating opportunities for collaborative research between UC Berkeley and top universities in Bangladesh, designed not only to simply impart knowledge or build capacity but to generate new research ideas, projects, and programs based on mutual understanding. As a part of this
endeavor, the Chowdhury Center will be sending four UCB faculty to BRAC University this winter to conduct workshops on undergraduate teaching and research methodology, as well as to engage with BRAC faculty on collaborative research. This will be the first step in strengthening our collaboration with BRAC University. 

We are delighted to announce the launch of an exciting new program called Cal@Bangladesh, a program through which Cal students participate in 8-weeks of fully supported internships based in Bangladesh. This past summer, three Cal students, Dorothy Kong (​Haas Business​), Laura E Boudreau (​Haas Business​) and Rezwana Abed (Public Policy), traveled to Bangladesh to spend the summer working at internships offered through our partners: Technohaven and Bangladesh's School of Business, Independent University. For 2016, we hope to expand our offerings to include opportunities with BRAC, The Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET), North South University (Department of Economics), Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, The Daily Star, and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B).