They have a lot in common—starting with the fact that they are brothers. Farhan Khan came to Georgia Tech from Bangladesh to begin his Ph.D. studies in 2021. Farshid Khan followed in 2024, beginning his first semester assisting a doctoral student in the very same lab as his older brother.

“Georgia Tech undoubtedly has one of the best programs in this field,” Farshid Khan said. “Also because of the fact that my brother is here, when I got the admission offer, it was the perfect place to come.”

Their journey to Georgia Tech is deeply rooted in their experience growing up in Bangladesh.

“One of the major problems in Bangladesh is textile effluent pollution,” Farshid Khan said. “It is one of the largest textile exporters in the world. But the problem with the textile industry is they do not treat the water well. All of their effluents come into our rivers and they are highly polluted.

“I always wanted to work on that, and it is still my plan after going back to Bangladesh to work on that.”

Read more about their story on the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering website.