Women in STEM series III
Due to the success of our two previous series, here we have the third series of talks with new and exciting speakers!
We have scheduled four new online talks where women in STEM at different stages of their careers will be talking about their career paths and their work in STEM to inspire next generations.
A great opportunity to build confidence and celebrate the role of women in STEM!
Our speakers for this series:
7th July (4.45pm NPT/7am GMT-4/12pm GMT+1): Dr. Monika Oli – Master Lecturer, Undergraduate Coordinator and Microbiology lab supervisor (University of Florida, Florida, USA)
14th July (2pm NPT/9.15am GMT+1): Dr. Neena Gorkhali – Head of Livestock Breeding, Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC, Nepal)
21st July (2pm NPT/9.15am GMT+1): Jenny Shah – Immunology lecturer, Kantipur Valley College (Nepal)
28th July (2pm NPT/9.15am GMT+1): Lakshmi Mahato and Bidushi Karki – Secondary school students from Monastic school and Greenland school (Nepal)
Please note that all sessions start at 2pm Nepal time/ 9.15 am UK time, except the first session that starts at 4.45pm Nepal time/7am, Florida time. All sessions will last for 1 h with plenty of time for questions and discussions with the speakers!
To attend this new series of talks please register here.
Please find more information about the speakers below:
Dr. Monika Oli: Master Lecturer in Microbiology & Cell Science (University of Florida, UF, USA). Student-centered teaching, creating content that students relate to their lives and careers and creating defining moments in the classroom and online are important parts of her teaching philosophy. Since her appointment in 2010, she has created a novel laboratory curriculum, coordinated prep room logistics, organised and participated in teaching assistant training (graduate and undergraduate), and incorporated career preparedness modernisation of the microbiology labs at UF. She believes that all aspects of education should be hands on, creative and should include an international component. Over the last 10 years since teaching at UF, Dr. Oli has received several awards including CALS and UF mentor and advisor of the year, Online Education Excellence Award and the IFAS Global Excellence in Internationalizing Student Education Award. She believes that Education should be tailored and affordable for anyone who is motivated to learn and students should have access to high quality, free educational resources, whether in rural Florida or in a mountain village in Nepal ~ She will contribute to this endeavor and promote global microbial literacy!
Dr. Neena Gorkhali: Chief and Senior Scientist, National Animal Breeding and Genetics Centre (Nepal Agriculture Research Council, Nepal). Dr. Gorkhali has been working on Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction Sciences for the past 23 years, with involvement in farm animal genetic resources conservation, breed development and genetic improvement of farm animals. She is a pioneer in initiating molecular work in Animal Science in Nepal where she had performed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in indigenous goats. She is recently involved in genetic diversity, differentiation and relationship of Nepalese sheep breeds using molecular markers. She is actively participating as a collaborator in the development of dual-purpose breed of poultry program where she has produced the chickens from triple way crosses and evaluating different lines for more productive meat and egg. She is elected as the country representative for the International Goat Association (IGA) and her projects have been published in many reputed international and national journals such as Scientific Reports, Molecular Biology and Evolution, mitochondrial DNA. She enjoys reviewing scientific manuscripts of many international and national journals, including the Small Ruminant Journal. She has successfully lead and is leading many internationally funded and nationally funded projects on issues of national importance. She is working as a Visiting Professor in Tribhuwan University (IAAS, TU) and Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU) and she has supervised dozens of Master’s and PhD students and many undergraduate students (BVSc and AH) of IAAS, HICAST and AFU.
Jenny Shah: Immunology Lecturer, Kantipur Valley College (Nepal). Jenny did her undergrad at Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus with a major in microbiology. Furthermore, she completed her master’s in Biotechnology from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. She is currently working as a lecturer of Immunotechnology at Kantipur Valley College. Before that, she worked at a Pharmaceutical company as quality control officer and as a research assistant at the Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology (RIBB). Her research is mainly based on general microbiology and molecular biology, especially in bacteria and antibiotics. She is also highly interested in genetic engineering.
Lakshmi Mahato: Secondary school student at Monastic Higher Secondary school (Janakpur, Nepal). Lakshmi was born in a small village in Nepal, Harsar, located in Dhanusha district, Madhesh Pradesh of Nepal. When she was very small, she moved to Janakpurdham together with her family and started her journey at Monastic School. In 10th grade, Lakshmi was involved in making a movie on plastics for a national film festival on climate change. She then became a member of Monastic Eco Club and played a very active role in tree plantation and cleanliness programs at different places. She has also participated in several sessions of our Women in STEM series where she has learned a lot of things regarding the role of Women in STEM as well as the use of Science and Technology in today’s world. In the future she plans to study Agricultural Science, due to her passion for this field. In Nepal more than 60% of the people are engaged in agriculture and agriculture in the backbone of Nepalese economy. There is one saying in nepali ‘Hariyo ban nepal ko dhan‘ which means ‘green forest is the wealth of Nepal’. Lakshmi aims to reduce soil infertility and increase the number of crops, focusing on the use of local crops.
Bidushi Karki: Secondary school student at Greenland Public school (Chitwan, Nepal). Bisudhi was born in Bharatpur (Chitwan) and her academic journey started at Greenland Public school where she got engaged in various ECA bodies like the Eco club, Khusiko Sansar and Nepal Scouts. She always seeks to exploit opportunities that help her enhance herself. She enjoys helping people in need and loves mountaineering, visiting serene and dense woods and never misses a chance to show her love and gratefulness to mother nature. She has won the awards of best orator for five times in both inter and intra district competitions and also became runner up in the Chitwan Hidden Talent 2019 competition. Bidushi aspires to be a cardiologist and serve her country.
