Physics Chautari

Dr. Prem Chapagain Received NIH Grant

Aug 25, 2011

Assistant Professor of physics at Florida International University Dr. Prem Chapagain received the National Institute of Health grant  for a period of four years for investigating fluorescent proteins.  Dr. Chapagain has been working on theoretical and computational investigations of protein folding dynamics, protein aggregation, and protein engineering.

Dr. Chapagain hold the Master degree in Physics from Tribhuvan University, Nepal and Ph.D. degree from Florida International University. He has authored several research articles in the field of biophysics.

Physics Chautari family would like to congratulate Dr. Chapagain.

Nepalese Physicist in APS March Meeting

More than 40 Nepalease Physicist participated in APS 2011 meeting held in Dallas, TX. The following are the list of participants.

If your name is missing, please write in comment box

Nobel Prize in Physics 2010

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 honors two physicist Andre K. Geim and Konstantin S. Novoselov from University of Manchester, UK for “groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”. Konstantin Novoselov, 36, first worked with Andre Geim, 51, as a PhD-student in the Netherlands. He subsequently followed Geim to the United Kingdom. Both of them originally studied and began their careers as physicists in Russia. Now they are both professors at the University of Manchester.
Graphene is a single atomic layer of carbon which has number of unique properties making it interesting for both fundamental study and possible future applications in nanotechnology. Graphene is very stretchable and stronger than steel and the electrical and thermal conductivity of this single layer carbon is even better than good conductor such as copper. One of the remarkable properties of graphene is that Quantum Hall effect has been observed at room temperature.
They used Scotch tape to repeatedly split graphite crystals into increasingly thinner pieces. The tape with attached optically transparent flakes was dissolved in acetone and, after a few further steps, the flakes including monolayers were sedimented on a silicon wafer. Geim and Novoselov published their results in Science in 2004.

Sources:  several internet sites

Dr. Dhamala Awarded NSF Career Grant

Assistant Professor Dr. Mukesh Dhamala has received a grant amount of $539737  from the National Science Foundation (NSF) career awards to study the “Brain Network Activity During Perceptual Decision-Making”.

Dr. Dhamala hold M.Sc. degree from Tribhuvan University (1994) and Ph.D. degree from University of Kansas (2000).

Physics Chautari family would like to congratulate Dr. Dhamala.

Physics Research Initiative in Nepal

Dear all,

I recently visited Nepal because of family reason and got back to work now. During my stay, I also managed to give three seminars at Tri-Chandra, Patan and Amrit campuses, and visited central department Kirtipur. In the seminar, I did spread the words about this forum- physicschautary and our effort to help Physics Research Initiative in Nepal. Two seminars at Tri-Chandra organised by NPS and Amrit Campuses are related to physics teaching as there were trainings for physics teachers going on. There are now many campuses running M.Sc. physics in Nepal including outside Kathmandu valley. The participants are physics teachers in B.Sc. and M.Sc. levels and are the target of effort to help physics research in Nepal. Seminar at Patan Campus was related to my research work and to the M.Sc. students. They were happy know about Nepalese physicists overseas are going to make a Physics Research Initiative Fund to help promote physics research in Nepal. There also some recent comments made from physicists from Nepal. I had actually very interesting and nice interaction with them. I believe I have conveyed the message about our interest to help physicists in Nepal.

Now, I think we need to move forward making a plan to collect the money for the FUND. I am sure everybody can give some time in the summer to participate in this discussion and finalize our plan. Please post your comments in the physicschautari.com. It will be also nice to post collective comments from the university that has many Nepalese physicists. In the mean time I will search the procedure to register our organization.

During the interaction, other constructive comments I got are

1.  It would be nice to put the area of research in the directory of Nepalese Physicists Overseas along with the institute. That way people from Nepal can find the person of similar interests, and contact the right person if they have any question or materials.

2. One of the problems in Nepal related to research work is journal articles. All the journals are not easily available in Nepal. Some professors are getting articles by email with the help of friends here. They appreciated the help who made and worried about too much load for the same person. So, their suggestion is to make a group of people for journal search so that the load will be distributed.

3. Make available of the publications and presentations made by Nepalese physicist in physicschautari website.

4. Put some information in the website for prospective students from Nepal such as research fields, admission requirement, no. of students and Nepalese students, contact persons in the department, tips to search universities, availability of financial support, etc.

I would like to request all Nepalese Physicists to give their opinions on how we can proceed forward and come up with the area where he/she can contribute or help. I also like to request Pashupati ji if he needs help regarding website upgrading and updating.

Mim Nakarmi

Brooklyn College, New York.

Science and technology in ANA convention

Prof. Dr. Sitaram Byahut (Central Department of Physics, TU) and Ganesh Shah (former minister of science and technology of Nepal)  gave a presentation on “Science and technology in the development of Nepal” during 2010 ANA convention in Boston. They presented the paper on the development of science and technology in new developed countries and compared with the situation of Nepal. They also suggested how  Nepalese living aboard can help to the development of science and technology in Nepal. The full presentation can be downloaded here.

New Thread

Nepalese Physicists Organization

Dear all,

I am posting this message to convey the decisions made in the meeting of Nepalese participants in APS March Meeting in Portland, and request your opinions and comments. There were 25 people present during the meeting (total participants 35). Although Nepalese participants in the March meeting is the biggest one, we would like to get opinion, comment from everybody in order to make final decision. Please post your comments at this website.

The discussion was mainly focused on to develop interaction and collaboration between Nepalese Physicists around the world, create a capital Fund to initiate Physics research in Nepal and establish an organization of Nepalese Physicists. The followings are the decisions.

1. In order to promote the interaction physicschautari.com will be developed as a forum to express the views, share ideas and populate the information of Nepalese Physicists abroad.  Pashupati Dhakal at Boston College will take the responsible to manage the website.

2. In order to promote physics research in Nepal, establish a “Physics Research Initiative Fund” (PRIF)”. The purpose this fund is to support enthusiastic physicists in Nepal who likes to initiate or extend research work in any institute of Nepal. Amount of support will depend on the strength of the fund and number of people interested in Nepal.

3. In order to increase the interaction and collaboration among the Nepalese physicists abroad, form a committee to establish an organization. The proposed name of the organization is “Nepalese International Physicist Society” (NIPS). Mim Lal Nakarmi will serve as a coordinator.

Pashupati Dhakal created a website www.physicschautari.com as per the decision of the Nepalese participants in APS meeting last year. He has maintained the site and developed a list of Nepalese Physicist overseas. Recently, he has changed the site as a blog where everyone can post the comments. Many thanks to Pashupati ji.

We should be proud that we already have about 50 physicists graduated with PhD degree in different field of physics and working in different educational institutes and companies. More than 200 are in the tracks towards this direction. We all know the importance of research being involved in research activities. In order to succeed Nepalese physicists in future, interaction and collaboration between us are necessary. It is also necessary to develop research activities and provide research experience to the students in Nepal. I have received requests from sirs, friends and colleagues from Nepal if physicists from abroad can help to promote physics research in Nepal. Phasing out of ISc program from TU and increasing the number of MSc campuses, should create an environment to initiate research activities in Nepal. At this moment, I believe, we are in a position to create a handsome capital fund collecting a tiny percentage of our earning from everybody which could have significant contribution to initiate research in Nepal. It is a give back to our country after all we are in this position after completing out study from TU. Currently, we do not expect to fund like NSF grants but intend to give ‘start-up’ which could generate publishable results and compete for bigger grants.

Many of you might remember several years ago (around 2001), Jagat Shakya, Bijaya Karki, myself, Anil Pyakurel and others had actively participated to establish Nepalese International Physicist Society. However we could not form an elected committee. Since the number of members has increased many folds, we should be able to materialize this time.

I request all sirs, friends from Nepal and abroad to post your views, comments and suggestions regarding the above mentioned decisions. Please post your comment in this website so that we can see the comments at one place.

Mim Lal Nakarmi

Brooklyn College

Brooklyn, New York.

Nepalese Physicist in Portland

The biggest gathering of Physicist around the world was held in Portland, OR from March 15- 19, 2010. The scientific program with more than 100 invited sessions and 550 contributed sessions at which over 7,500 papers were presented.  Large number of Nepalese Physicist presented  their research paper in various field of physics.

Photo Credit: Dr. LN Bhusal

List of Nepalese participants:

1. Dr. Mim Lal Nakarmi                                  Brooklyn College, NY

2. Dr. Prem Chapgain                                      Florida Int. University, FL

3. Dr. Hari Dahal                                                LANL, NM

4. Dr. Pradeep Manandhar                            LANL, NM

5. Dr. Tula Paudel                                              NREL, CO

6. Dr. Lekhnath Bhusal                                    NREL, CO

7. Dr. Ram Thapa                                               TexasState University,Pa, TX

8. Dr. Indra Dev Shahu                                    Miami University, OH

9. Dr. Ram Rai                                                     Buffalo State College, NY

10. Mr. Pashupati Dhakal                               Boston College, MA

11. Mr. Madhab Neupane                               Boston College, MA

12. Mr. Binod Rizal                                            Boston College, MA

13. Mr. Shyam Raj Badhu                               State University- Albany, NY

14. Mr. Sanjay Pravakar                                  State University- Albany, NY

15. Mr. Kamal Kadel                                         Florida Int. University, FL

16. Mr. Suman Neupane                                  Florida Int. University, FL

17. Mr. Dipak Rimal                                          Florida Int. University, FL

18. Mr. YubaRaj                                                 Florida Int. University, FL

19. Mr. Bill Pandit Chettri                              University of Utah, UT

20. Mr. Bhoj Gautam                                        University of Utah, UT

21. Mr. Subas Dhakal                                       Kent State University, OH

22. Mr. Naresh Shakya                                    Kent State University, OH

23. Mr. Rajesh Regmi                                      Wyane State University, MI

24. Mr. Amit Dongol                                        University of Cincinnati, OH

25. Mr. Keshab Paudel                                    University of Missouri, MS

26. Mr. Krishana Sigdel                                  Worcester Polytechnic Inst., MA

27. Mr. Madhusudan Ojha                             University of Tennessee, TN

28. Mr. Shyam Kattel                                       NewMexicoState University, NM

29. Mr. Som Dahal                                             Arizona State University, AZ

30. Mr. Kapil Adhikari                                     Universityof Texas,Arlington,TX

31. Mr. Mr. Hom Kandel                                 University of Arkansas

32. Dr. Priya Raj Chalise                                  Strionair, Senior Staff Scientist

33. Mr. Naresh Osti (Chemistry)                 Clemson University, SC

34. Mr. Umesh Shrestha (Chemistry)       Clemson University, SC

35. Mrs. Sabina Maskey (Chemistry)        Clemson University, SC

Also, following friends from Intel were present in the Nepalese reunion meeting
1.  Dr. Jagat Shakya                                        INTEL
2.  Dr. Dip Narayan Mahato                        INTEL
3.  Dr. Rajan Dhaubhadel

Help for Mr. Rabindra Palikhe