Biography

Shamsuddin Illius is an investigative journalist based in Chittagong, Bangladesh. He has served as the Chittagong Bureau Chief at The Business Standard since July 2019. Before joining at The Business Standard, he was Chief of Chittagong Bureau at The Independent, another leading English newspaper in Bangladesh. His work has appeared in The Independent, The Business Standard, Agence France-Presse (AFP), The Thirdpole and other news outlets. Illius is an alumnus of the Thomson Reuters Foundation course on Reporting on Migration. He completed a short course on Refugees and Advocacy from Jain University, Bangalore, in India. Illius was also a fellow of Hong Kong Baptist University's (HKBU) Journalism Fellowship Scheme 2018. He is deeply interested in environmental and climate change issues since he lives in a city in the Bay of Bengal that suffers greatly as a result of sea level rise. As a field journalist, he frequently visits coastal areas of Bangladesh and reports on how coastal communities (their livelihoods, lifestyles, culture, and customs) are impacted by climate change. He also covers business and corruption in Chittagong and the plight of marginalized groups such as Rohingya refugees.