Uttam Babu Shrestha, PhD is the founding director of the Global Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (GIIS), Nepal. He has completed a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Massachusetts Boston, USA and has two masters’ degrees, one in Geographic Information Technology from Northeastern University, USA and the other in Botany from Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
He has more than 10 years of experience in teaching, research, student supervision and project management. He has worked at Tribhuvan University, Nepal, Technical University of Munich, Germany, University of Maine and Harvard University, USA and University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
He was a recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Student Award for his PhD at the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2014 and the Graduate Academic Excellence Award for his Master’s degree at the Northeastern University in 2008. He also received PLoS One Early Career Travel Award from the Public Library of Science, USA. In 2021, he was bestowed with the National Science Award 2020 by the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Nepal.
Dr. Shrestha has published more than 65 peer-reviewed papers including in prestigious journals like Science, Nature, PNAS, one book, three book chapters, and several articles in the popular press. He has received competitive grants from USAID, National Geographic Society, Australian Government, Norwegian Environment Agency, Rufford Foundation, National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), University Grant Commission (UGC), Nepal. His research interests are climate change and its impact on ecosystems and species, biodiversity conservation, land-use change, and human use of natural resources.
He was a member (2015-2020) of the Global Young Academy—a global organization of young scientists around the world where he co-leaded a working group—Science Diplomacy in South Asia. He is a fellow for the global assessments of Biodiversity at the Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) from 2016-2019 and lead author for the assessments of sustainable use of wild species at IPBES from 2018-2021. He is a fortnightly columnist for Kantipur daily–the most widely circulated daily newspaper in Nepal. He is an avid traveller and an enthusiast photographer. His photos have won several national and international awards.
