Prominent economist Prof Nurul Islam, who headed the country's first Planning Commission as deputy chairman, has passed away.
He died of a heart attack at around midnight (local time) on Monday in Washington, DC, Prof Adnan Morshed of the Catholic University of America in Washington, US, confirmed on Tuesday evening.
Prof Islam served as an emeritus fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) until his death. He had joined the organization as a senior policy adviser to the director general in 1987.
During his long career, Prof Nurul Islam served as an assistant director general of the Economic and Social Policy Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
Apart from this, he was chairman of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Research (BIDS).
He was also a professor at the economics department of Dhaka University.
Prof Islam completed his bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from Dhaka University and did his PhD at Harvard University, US.
He served as a visiting academic at various reputed universities in the world. Notable among them are Yale, Oxford, Cambridge and the London School of Economics.
