ICTP Connections: Nepal

During its more than 50-year history, ICTP has built strong connections with thousands of scientists, especially those in disadvantaged countries. In order to capture its far-reaching impact throughout the developing world, ICTP commissioned Trieste filmmaker Nicole Leghissa to make a documentary about these connections.

Leghissa spent two months in 2014 travelling around the world to explore how the lives of scientists have been positively impacted by ICTP, and how they in turn are using their experiences to build scientific capacity in their home countries. The resulting documentary, "From Theory to Reality", highlights the success stories of six scientists in six countries.

We are revisiting these stories because they are a reminder that ICTP's impact on scientific research in the developing world remains as relevant as ever.

Even during the uncertainty of the current global pandemic, ICTP is working hard to help scientists around the world to feel less isolated and go on with their research with access to free resources and online seminars. These ICTP success stories can inspire researchers and scientists and alleviate isolation during these difficult times.

We have created separate features for each of the six scientists who appear in the documentary. Here, we highlight Narayan Adhikari, full professor at the Central Department of Physics at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal. His connection with ICTP started more than 20 years ago, when in 1997 he was a Diploma Programme student in the field of Condensed Matter physics. ICTP has continued supporting his research during the years through the Associateship programme. Adhikari has been an ICTP regular associate from 2008 to 2015 and is now a senior associate until 2023.

Adhikari is a firm believer of the importance of the development of science in Nepal and in the creation of a strong cohort of young local physicists. Many of his students have come to Trieste to receive a deeper physics training and return to Nepal as valued, highly educated scientists. Among these students is Sadhana Chalise, who came to Italy in 2011 to attend a Masters degree in condensed matter physics at the University of Trieste, and Nurapati Pantha, who visited ICTP three times thanks to the Sandwich Training Educational Programme (STEP).

Adhikari now coordinates the Condensed Matter Physics Research Laboratory at Tribhuvan University, a modern computational physics laboratory created and run with the support of ICTP, where he works and does research with a group of students and young researchers.

To learn more about Professor Adhikari and his connection with ICTP, you can read this article published by Nature in 2014.