Dr Nazimul Islam PhD

PhD in Environmental Sciences, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, 2025 

MSc in River Basin Dynamics and Management with GIS, University of Leeds, UK, 2018 

PG Diploma in Remote Sensing and GIS Applications, Jamia Millia Islamia, India, 2017 

MSc in Geography, Jamia Millia Islamia, India, 2016 

BSc in Geography (Honours), Aliah University, India, 2014

Dr Nazim has earned his BSc, first MSc and a Postgraduate diploma from the Aliah University, Kolkata and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. After completing his studies in India, Nazim moved to the UK and attended his second MSc degree in River Basin Dynamics and Management with GIS at the School of Geography, University of Leeds. He then returned back to India and joined the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur as a Junior Research Fellow. In September 2020, Nazim was awarded the Swiss Government Excellence scholarship to pursue his PhD at the Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics (IDYST), University of Lausanne, Switzerland and he joined Professor Stuart Lane’s AlpWISE research group as a doctoral candidate and was co-supervised by Prof. Torsten Vennemann. His PhD focused on hydrological reconstructions in the high-altitude Alpine and Himalayan River basins. During his PhD, Nazim has received fundings from the Swiss Polar Institute and conducted field-expeditions in the Eastern part of the Indian Himalaya and in the Swiss Alps to collect tree rings and water samples for his stable isotope analyses. Nazim has also received several fellowships and spent two months at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research (LTRR), University of Arizona, USA (Haury Fellowship) and six months at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK (Doctoral Mobility Fellowship) as international visiting researcher during his PhD.

After completing his PhD, Nazim moved to the UK to start his postdoctoral research career at the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, and he is currently working with Prof. David Hannah on the NERC funded research project ‘The Big Thaw’ in collaboration with other UK partner institutions.

Besides his academic research, Nazim is keen in sharing knowledge through outreach and science communication. He has served the European Geosciences Union (EGU) as the Early Career Scientist Representative (ECS-Rep) for the Climate Division (2021-2024) and is currently acting as the ECS Co-Rep (2024-present). At the University of Lausanne, Nazim hosted institute’s weekly seminar-series during his PhD and earlier, he was the student representative for his MSc class and the International Students Ambassador at the University of Leeds.

Dr Nazim’s research focuses on improving our understanding of hydrological processes through better hydrological partitioning (i.e., accurate assessment of relative contributions from different water sources across the mountain river basins. He uses environmental tracers such as stable water isotopes, and other novel low-cost sensor techniques (lidars, trail-cameras). His current research project involves extensive field-expeditions in high-altitude Alpine catchments in the Austrian Alps to collect water samples, install lidars and trail-cameras, retrieve data in different seasons. His doctoral thesis focused on reconstructing streamflow and understanding how climate change induced snow and glacier dynamics influence water resources in the Alpine and Himalayan river basins using environmental proxy (e.g., tree rings and stable isotopes).

Dr Nazim is particularly interested in the interactions between glacier retreat and water dynamics for better estimation of available freshwater resources and mitigating water-related risks in the high-mountain regions across the globe. He is also keen to promote citizen science initiatives through active participation of indigenous communities living in mountains for developing polices related to glacier preservations and sustainable management of freshwater resources.