Mr. F H Abed, Chairperson, BRAC and President Governing Board, BU and Professor J R Choudhury, VC, BU attended the first meeting of the Academic Board of James P Grant School of Public Health, BU on December 2, 2003. The meeting took place at Columbia University, New York. The meeting was chaired by Professor Allan Rosenfield, Dean, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University and was also attended by Dr. Richard Cash, Harvard School of Public Health, USA, Dr. Anwar Islam, School of Public Health, Carleton University, Canada and Dr. David Sack, Director ICDDR, Bangladesh, Dr. Jon Rohde, Dr. Bert Hirschorn, Mr. Cole P Dodge, Former Country Director UNICEF Bangladesh, Mr. Ian Lapp, Columbia University, USA, Dr. Sadia Chowdhury, World Bank and Dr. M R Chowdhury, Visiting Professor at Columbia University.