Howdy

I’m guessing those reading this are just friends and family… but it makes sense to give a little bio. I was born in Denmark, my mother’s homeland, and still speak Danish with mums. My father is from Sri Lanka. I spent the first four years of my life in Saudi Arabia, but pretty much grew up in Yorktown Heights, NY, 40 minutes north of Manhattan.

Since graduating from the University of Pennylvania in 2003 with a degree in environmental systems engineering, I’ve been working at the water resources division of an environmental consulting firm called Tetra Tech, Inc. A few months ago I was granted a Fulbright Scholarship to work/study/research in Dhaka, Bangladesh for 9-12 months. It’s not the most original of ideas. I’m the fifth Raheem to be granted a Fulbright, which includes my twin brother Zaki, who spent last year in the Philippines studying agricultural microfinance. But for years, I’ve wanted to get out of the country to somehow work in this field of environmental stuff within the international development sector. Upon college graduation, I’d been considering something like the Peace Corps but realized it wasn’t for me. So I put in my time in the corporate world for a couple years, and have now successfully finagled my way out of the country.

My stint starts at the end of September 2005. It will be in area of environmental-water resource-flood management and engineering. I plan on taking classes at the Institute for Water and Flood Management at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). I also have an internship set up a the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS). Planned individual research includes analyzing satellite imagery of the city of Dhaka to digitize and document the periodic encroachment of flood water retention areas by illegal development and squatter settlements over the last decade or so and thus attempt to quantify some of the increased flooding due to this encroachment.

OK... that's enough of my CV...