Nurul Islam of Bangladesh joined IFPRI as a senior policy adviser to the director general in 1987. He is currently a research fellow emeritus. At IFPRI, Islam is conducting research on trade, macroeconomic policy, and agricultural development strategy. Prior to this he was the assistant director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, Economic and Social Policy Department, deputy chairman of the Bangladesh Planning Commission, chairman of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, director of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, and chairman of the Department of Economics at Dhaka University. Islam received a B.A. and an M.A. in economics from Dhaka University and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.

• Indo-Bangladesh economic relations
  Islam, Nurul. Economic and Political Weekly September 9, 2004. 13 pp. 2004.
• Making of a nation, Bangladesh : an economist's tale
  Islam, Nurul. xix, 482 p. -- Dhaka, Bangladesh: The University Press Limited, 2004.
• Exploration in development issues : selected articles of Nurul Islam
  Islam, Nurul. xi, 568 p. -- Hants (U.K.);Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2003.