Amod K. Pokhrel, Ph.D., teaches (Faculty) Environmental Health Sciences in the MPH curriculum at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. Recently, he led the clean cooking alliance funded action research, “Maximizing the health benefits of clean cooking in urban Nepal,” and helped make Switch Energy Documentary “Modern Fuels (Episode 1),” which shows how Nepal is transitioning to modern cooking fuels. For the last twelve years, his research has focused on environmental and occupational health-related to household energy generation and uses in developing countries. His research involves exposure science, energy access and climate change, and environmental epidemiology studies. His research has appeared in many high-impact, peer-reviewed journals. Besides research and teaching, he has mentored many students at different universities in the U.S. and Nepal.
Aakarshan Dhakal spent his childhood years in a small remote village in far-western Nepal. During the Peoples’ war, fate brought him to Kathmandu where he studied in Brihaspati Vidyasadan High School as a boarder. While in 4th grade he met Pravin who had just returned from the US. Aakarshan considers this meeting a serendipitous event in his life. Pravin got Aakarshan and his friends excited about tinkering, and introduced them to the world of amateur radio, free and open source software, programming and more. Aakarshan came to the United States for undergraduate studies where he went to Stanford University. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and works in Schlumberger’s Software Innovation and Technology Center.
Aakarshan is excited about inspiring school students, especially in places like his village about technology, just like how Pravin inspired him and his friends. Aakarshan does not have a good formal picture for these kinds of bios.
Ioannis Kremitsas is a product manager at Google. He was born and raised in Athens, Greece, and came to the United States at 17, to do his undergraduate degree in Economics and Industrial Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. After graduation, Ioannis stayed in the Bay Area, spending a year in finance before joining Google as a product analyst. In 2018, Ioannis joined a volunteering expedition to Nepal, focused on combatting human trafficking by consulting with Nepali NGOs, which sparked a passion in finding ways to use technology to accelerate educational and volunteering initiatives. Outside of work, Ioannis enjoys playing chess and tennis, watching Champions League soccer, and visiting some of the many Greek islands.
Lakpa Sherpa was born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal and spent most of his childhood years deeply engaged in music and Astronomy. Despite his early childhood learning difficulties, Lakpa grew passion for science and engineering after stumbling on Astronomy. During his 7th grade in Nepal, Lakpa also personally wrote to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) institute of NASA seeking to expand his understanding of the universe. After receiving a box filled with learning materials from the SETI institute at NASA at his home in Nepal, Lakpa continued his passion for Astronomy.
After completing high school in Nepal, Lakpa moved to the US to continue his passion for Astronomy by pursuing Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. Lakpa also pursued research education at UC Berkeley under the guidance of some of the highly regarded professors Amod Pokhrel, David Levine and John Balmes. Lakpa strongly believes in curiosity-led-learning as a pinnacle for educational excellence in any domain of study. Lakpa was trained in classical vocals by a grammy nominated Indian Classical maestro Ustad Aashish Khan. Lakpa has also explored creative areas of film making, and assisted emmy-nominated director Liesl Clark in the making of a science documentary for the PBS NOVA called Himalayan Megaquake that investigated the science behind the 2015 Nepal earthquake.
Pravin Raj Joshi is a long time advocate of practical Science and technology education and self learning. He has been involved with the Free and Open source movement in Nepal from the late 90s. An amateur radio operator (9N1KK), Pravin has been involved with the satellite development in Nepal along with other innovative projects.
Pravin has also started many educational activities at school and college levels including ThinkInk, Scitrek, design thinking in schools and extreme affordability projects.
Team
Aakarshan is excited about inspiring school students, especially in places like his village about technology, just like how Pravin inspired him and his friends. Aakarshan does not have a good formal picture for these kinds of bios.
After completing high school in Nepal, Lakpa moved to the US to continue his passion for Astronomy by pursuing Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. Lakpa also pursued research education at UC Berkeley under the guidance of some of the highly regarded professors Amod Pokhrel, David Levine and John Balmes. Lakpa strongly believes in curiosity-led-learning as a pinnacle for educational excellence in any domain of study. Lakpa was trained in classical vocals by a grammy nominated Indian Classical maestro Ustad Aashish Khan. Lakpa has also explored creative areas of film making, and assisted emmy-nominated director Liesl Clark in the making of a science documentary for the PBS NOVA called Himalayan Megaquake that investigated the science behind the 2015 Nepal earthquake.
Pravin has also started many educational activities at school and college levels including ThinkInk, Scitrek, design thinking in schools and extreme affordability projects.
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