Biographical note

Dr. Md. Nazrul Islam is a professor in the Department of Geography and Environment, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He earned his PhD from the Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Japan. He completed a two-year standard JSPS postdoctoral research fellowship with the Marine Ecosystems Engineering Laboratory at the University of Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Nazrul Islam has visited as a researcher and been invited as a speaker at several universities of Japan, the US, Australia, the UK, Canada, China, South Korea, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Taiwan , Vietnam, and many more. He received the Best Young Researcher Award from the International Society of Ecological Modeling (ISEM) for outstanding contribution to the ecological modeling fields, and the Best Paper Presenter Award by SautaiN in Kyoto, Japan in 2010. Dr. Nazrul Islam has been honored with the Young Scientist Financial Award by the Committee of International IOC/WESTPAC Science, Busan, South Korea. Dr. Nazrul Islam has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and authored 15 books and research volumes. He has published with CRC Press (Taylor & Francis) the handbook, Environmental Management of Marine Ecosystems, jointly with the late Professor Sven Erik Jorgensen. Presently, he is the executive editor-in-chief of the journal, Modeling Earth Systems and Environment, from Springer International Publications.

Dr. Steven Bartell is the technical director and senior principal of ecological and environmental modeling at Cardno, Tennessee, US. He is a broadly trained quantitative systems ecologist and environmental scientist with keen interests in the efficient and effective transfer of advances in basic research and development to practical applications in support of environmental assessments. Dr. Bartell offers extensive technical skills and experience in ecosystem analysis and ecological modeling. He demonstrates modeling capabilities that include individual-oriented models, demographic population models, bioenergetics-based models of populations, communities, and ecosystems, and spatially explicit watershed models. He is the originator of the Comprehensive Aquatic System Model (CASM). Dr. Bartell has applied these skills and models in assessing ecological risks posed by a variety of physical, chemical, and biological environmental stressors. He has also used his modeling skills to project the likely outcomes of large-scale ecosystem management and restoration actions. Dr. Bartell is the editor-in-chief of the CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Book Series, "Applied Ecology and Environmental Management" and has contributed to many publications.