Short Biography

Barnali Chakraborty is trained as a public health nutrition scientist and has approximately 17 years of research experience in this area. Her research interests include exploring the socio-cultural dimensions of food and nutrition in general, and of child growth in particular, using the capability approach. She conducts mixed method studies, including qualitative and quantitative research. Barnali received her MSc in Food and Nutrition from Dhaka University of Bangladesh, and MPH from the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She has a PhD from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. In her PhD trajectory, she pioneered the operationalisation of the capability approach for child growth in hard-to-reach haor areas of Bangladesh using a participatory approach. She is currently employed as an associate scientist at the BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health (BRAC JPGSPH). She coordinates the "hub" on ‘qualitative research and inquiry’ that provides technical support for qualitative research and training . She also supervises the MPH students at JPGSPH in the realm of nutrition science. Before joining the BRAC JPGSPH, she worked at the ICDDRB (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh), UNESCO, Dhaka office, and BRAC, Bangladesh. She is a member of the IUNS (International Union for Nutrition Science) Taskforce on ‘Multidimensional Index for Child Growth (MICG)". Barnali received a number of fellowships and grants for her academic work, such as the Eric Bleumink Fund, Groningen University, the Netherlands, LANSA (Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia), funded by UKAid, and NUFFIC. She has authored or coauthored over 50 publications, including peer-reviewed articles, book, chapter and working papers.