Asad Islam is currently the Director of the Centre for Development Economics and Substantiality (CDES), Professor at the Department of Economics at Monash University. He has extensive experience working in the field to implement academic and policy-relevant research including the economics of education and health, food security, energy, disaster and environment, technology adoption, gender, microfinance, social networks, and corruption. His research work spans several developing countries including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China, Cambodia, Uganda, and Tanzania. He has been a visiting fellow at universities such as Oxford, Cornell, and Chicago. He has previously worked at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and University of Dhaka. Asad has been published extensively in leading economics and public policy journals, and his work is supported by international grants, such as Australian Research council (ARC), UK Research Council (ESRC), DFID, AusAID (DFAT), International Growth Centre (IGC), European Commission, and World Bank.