Monowara Islam

Monowara’s research is about who becomes ill because of where they live and what they can afford — and what the data will and will not support about it.

She took her MPH in epidemiology at Independent University, Bangladesh, after a first degree in genetic engineering and biotechnology at East West University. The combination is an unusual one and a useful one: laboratory training in how disease works, and epidemiological training in how it moves through a population.

Since 2024 she has worked as a research assistant at IUB on an institutionally funded study of poverty-related disease in underprivileged communities. Her MPH thesis examined the effect of screen-time addiction on the mental health of young people — a question about which Bangladesh has a great deal of opinion and very little measurement.

She works in R, Stata and SPSS, and collects data with KoboToolbox and KoboCollect, which are the instruments we use in the field. She has completed training at IUB in Bangladesh’s health management information system and DHIS2, and in the application of qualitative and quantitative research methods.