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.

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.