Grantee

Shiva Prasad Gautam is a researcher in Statistics/Biostatistics at the University of Florida, U.S. He has been teaching and conducting research for over three decades. His teaching experience includes various formats, such as regular in-class teaching, one-on-one teaching for postdocs or junior faculty who received grants to learn new techniques, and teaching in community settings, especially for medical students. He is trained in problem-based learning and has used this method to teach medical students. 

Shiva Prasad Gautam has authored more than 185 papers, both collaboratively and as a sole author, covering various fields like biostatistics, medicine, computer science, environmental science, and urbanization. He has held faculty positions at prestigious institutions such as Harvard University, Vanderbilt University, Ohio, and the University of Vermont. 

As a Fulbright Scholar awardee for 2023-24, he will spend five months, from August 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023, at the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) in Dharan, Nepal. During this time, he will teach Biostatistics to medical and other biomedical students. Additionally, he will collaborate with faculty and research staff on a pilot research project. The project’s focus is on studying the distribution and frequency of prescription patterns in BPKHIS affiliated health centers, with a special emphasis on diagnosing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in relation to the Government of Nepal’s Free Drug (FDL) policy and the World Health Organization (WHO) Essential Medicine List (EML). The pilot study aims to generate preliminary data, which can be used to design and conduct a more rigorous future study. 

Dr. Bownas is a Political Science researcher affiliated with the University of Northern Colorado. As a Fulbright Scholar, he will collaborate with the Governance Lab on a significant project. This endeavor involves conducting a large-scale oral history project that spans across all provinces of Nepal. The project aims to gather testimonies from senior Nepali citizens, delving into their experiences of democratic transition and social changes that have occurred throughout their lifetimes. 

Having completed his PhD at Cornell University, Dr. Bownas has been actively engaged in research in Nepal for several years. His areas of focus have encompassed diverse topics such as the long-term impact of the civil war, post-earthquake reconstruction, and the evolving attitudes towards caste and religious changes. 

Trevor Williams is a Research Scientist in Molecular Genetics at the University of Colorado, USA. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Trinity College, Cambridge University in the UK in 1981, specializing in the study of infectious diseases. Later, in 1986, he earned his Ph.D. from Kings College, London, where he studied the interactions between viruses and the genetic material (DNA) present in mice and humans. He then moved to the University of California, Berkeley, for his post-doctoral studies, where he focused on a specific group of genes known as the AP-2 transcription factors. These genes ensure that the right genes are activated in the right place and at the right time. Subsequently, he took this project with him to his faculty position at Yale University and later at the University of Colorado, where he ran his own laboratory. 

As a Fulbright U.S. Scholar at Kathmandu University, he will work directly with surgeons, dentists, and basic scientists in Nepal for six months to examine the unique factors responsible for clefting in the country. He is also looking forward to spending time with students and researchers at all stages of their careers, so he can discuss his research findings through academic presentations, assist in planning experiments, and help with writing grants and manuscripts.