Sachi G DastidarDr. Sachi Ghosh Dastidar, Distinguished Service Professor of the State University of New York, has been teaching and working in the fields of urban and regional planning, public administration, and economic development for almost five decades. Partiton of India, independence of decolonized lands and subsequent socio-political change in newly independent nations are of special interest to him. He has taught at the Florida State University, Alabama A&M University, Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Studies, Indian Institute of Management at Calcutta. Dr. Dastidar has lectured at a number of institutions in five continents. He has worked with the Higher Education Commission of Ireland, Calcutta Metro Planning Organization, India, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, and in Florida and Tennessee. He has served as a policy maker as an elected Board Member of New York City School District 26 with 225,000 people making him the first of Subcontinent-origin to hold a popularly elected position in New York. He has a doctorate in Urban and Regional Planning, Masters in City Planning and B. Arch. Dr. Dastidar has authored twenty books and journals, including many related to Bengal and India partitions, and the first issue of the first English language journal from Central Asia: Central Asian Journal of Management, Economics and Social Research. He has authored over 150 articles, essays, short stories and travelogues. Since 2010 he is editing the yearly Partition Center Journal. He is the recipient of many awards and honors including two Senior Fulbright Awards, Distinguished Service Professor Award of the State University of New York, honors from New York City Comptroller, New York City Council Speaker, residents of Mahilara Mott ashram, Madaripur Ashram and Uzirpur Surjyo Sen Orphanage, all of Bangladesh, Assam Buddhist Vihar in India and from Sri Chinmoy of New York. He has traveled to 110 lands, in all seven continents, including Antarctica. He is the founder of Probini Foundation that helps education in thirty-three orphanages and schools for the poor in Bangladesh, and Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Mizoram. He is a founder of the Indian Subcontinent Partition Documentation (ISPaD) Project located in New York City. His current research interests include economic development, state and local government, the rise of religious nationalism and socio-political change, and human rights. Read More Read Less