Prof Rounaq Jahan has been honoured with the Graduate Society Award by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA recently, says a press release.
The award is presented to alumnae of Harvard and Radcliffe graduate schools for outstanding contributions to their profession.
Dean Barbara J Grosz presented the award in a ceremony held on Radcliffe Day attended by faculty, students and alumnae of Harvard and Radcliffe.
Prof Jahan was recognised for her groundbreaking research, her policy advocacy and civic activism, and her pioneering role promoting women's empowerment globally.
Prof Jahan received her PhD in political science from Harvard University in 1970 at the age of 26 and was the first Bangladeshi woman to receive a doctorate from Harvard.
Prof Jahan's PhD thesis on 'Pakistan: Failure of National Integration' that anticipated the break up of Pakistan, was published by Columbia University Press in 1972.
She has since published extensively on politics, and gender issues. Prof Jahan taught at Dhaka University during 1970-82, where she was chairman of the Political Science Department in the 1970s.
She is at present a senior research scholar and adjunct professor of International Affairs at Columbia University, New York, as well as a board member of Research Initiatives, Bangladesh (RIB).