Grantee

Dr. Menuka Maharjan is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Forestry, Tribhuvan University in Nepal, specifically within the School of Forestry and Natural Resource Management. Her areas of expertise include watershed management, soil conservation, climate change, and research methodology, as well as scientific writing. In 2018, she completed her PhD studies at the University of Goettingen in Germany, supported by an Erasmus Mundus PhD fellowship from the European Union. Dr. Maharjan has been chosen as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar for the 2023-24 program, during which she will pursue Environmental Science studies at the United States Department of Agriculture. 

Throughout her relatively short career, she has been awarded several international research grants from organizations such as APN (Japan), SANDEE/ICIMOD, IFS (Sweden), Nuffic (Netherlands), and DFID (UK). Additionally, she has received prestigious fellowships, scholarships, and conference travel grants, including those from DAAD (Germany), the American Geophysical Union (USA), ITEC fellowship (India), and NUFU scholarship (NORD, Norway). Dr. Maharjan has also published numerous research papers in internationally recognized peer-reviewed journals. She serves as an editorial board member for Forestry: Journal of Institute of Forestry and regularly acts as a reviewer for various international peer-reviewed journals. 

Dr. Krishna Prasad Timsina is currently serving as a Senior Scientist (S-4) and Chief at the National Agricultural Policy Research Centre (NAPREC) in Nepal. He obtained his PhD in AgriBusiness Management from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand in 2015. Dr. Timsina has received several prestigious awards, including the Endeavor Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in 2018, the Civil Society Scholar Awards, and the Global Supplementary Research Grant. He will be researching the impact of free trade agreements (FTAs) on Nepal’s trade at the Department of Agricultural Economics & Agricultural Business, New Mexico State University, USA. Specifically, he will be assessing the benefits derived from Nepal’s FTAs on overall sectoral trade and agricultural commodity trade at a detailed level, considering factors such as time and importers’ effects.  

Dr. Timsina has served as an editor and reviewer for national and international journals. His publications have appeared in reputable journals, including the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (AJARE). In addition to his research work, Dr. Timsina plays a guiding role for PhD students and actively contributes to professional societies. Currently, he holds positions as the Research Director of the Nepalese Agriculture Economics Society (NAES) and the General Secretary of the Society of Agricultural Scientists, Nepal (SAS-Nepal). 

Dr. Mahesh Kumar Joshi currently serves as an associate professor at the Central Department of Chemistry, Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal. He completed his MSc in Chemistry at Tribhuvan University in 2003 and obtained his Ph.D. from Chonbuk National University in South Korea in 2016. As a Fulbright Visiting Scholar for the year 2023-24, he will be conducting research at North Carolina A&T State University in the United States. His research focuses on the development of a biomimetic nanofibrous scaffold for applications in wound dressing and nerve regeneration. Specifically, he aims to explore the therapeutic properties of medicinal plants from Nepal and integrate their phytoconstituents into the nanofibrous scaffolds, offering potential benefits such as antioxidant, antifungal, antimicrobial, and bioactive properties. 

Dr. Joshi has held various academic positions, including visiting professorships at Kathmandu University in Nepal and Liaocheng University in China. He has also worked as a visiting scientist at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and as a post-doctoral fellow at Chonbuk National University. In addition to his academic contributions, he actively engages in research and holds the position of general secretary at the Nepal Chemical Society. Dr. Joshi has made significant contributions to the field, authoring numerous peer-reviewed articles, patents, book chapters, and books. He has also presented his research findings at various national and international conferences.