SAJAG-NEPAL - Key Persons


Alex Densmore

Job Titles:
  • Professor
  • Professor Durham University
Alex Densmore is a professor in the Department of Geography at Durham University. He works on the evolution of seismically-active mountain landscapes. His research has demonstrated the role of landslides and debris flows in erosion and sediment transport in active mountain ranges around the world.

Alex Dunant

Job Titles:
  • Post Doctoral Research Associate Durham University
  • Research Associate at Durham University
Alex Dunant is a postdoctoral research associate at Durham University. Alex completed his PhD on novel multi-hazard risk methodologies at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. His current work focuses on the spatio-temporal complexity of natural hazard risk assessment in Nepal and how scientific input can foster better preparedness.

Amy Johnson

Job Titles:
  • Post Doctoral Research Fellow Northumbria University
Amy is a political and environmental anthropologist of South Asia with a particular interest in the restructuring of states and environmental relations. Amy joined Northumbria in March 2021 as a Research Fellow, exploring community perceptions and responses to earthquake and landslide environmental change in relation to Nepal's political transformation.

Anuradha Puri

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate Social Science Baha
Anuradha holds a Master's degree in Anthropology from Tribhuvan University. Her research interests are on disaster, social inclusion/exclusion and local governance.

Bina Khapunghang Limbu

Job Titles:
  • Student Northumbria University
Bina Khapunghang Limbu is a PhD student of Human Geography at Northumbria University. Her PhD research is titled ‘Unpacking the household blackbox: How rural households make decisions in relation to mountain hazards and risks in Nepal' exploring how households adjust to living in hazard-prone mountains of rural Nepal.

Boguslaw Obara

Job Titles:
  • Professor Newcastle University
Boguslaw's research focuses on the design and implementation of complex image analysis and processing, pattern recognition, computer vision and machine learning solutions applied to a wide range of domains

Dammar Singh Pujara

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate NSET

Dipak Basnet

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate Social Science Baha
Dipak Basnet holds master's degree from Kathmandu University in Sustainable Development. He received Motilal Dissertation Scholarship 2019 for thesis entitled Everyday life space in post disaster housing reconstruction: An ethnographic study of the Ghale people at Barpak from Center for Nepal Studies UK (CNSUK) in collaboration with Social Science Baha.…

Erin Harvey

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate
  • Research Associate at Durham University
Erin is a postdoctoral research associate at Durham University. Erin's research interests include post-earthquake sediment cascades, debris flow dynamics and organic carbon transfers. She recently completed her PhD at Cardiff University, UK, on the topic of post-earthquake debris flows in Wenchuan, focusing on their grain size and magnitude.

Ganesh Jimee

Job Titles:
  • Director NSET
Ganesh Kumar Jimee has been with the National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET) for the past 20 years and is the Director of the Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response (DPER) department. Jimee holds a PhD in disaster risk reduction and management from the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Tokyo.

JC Gaillard

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Geography at Waipapa Taumata Rau / the University of Auckland
  • Professor University of Auckland
JC Gaillard is Ahorangi / Professor of Geography at Waipapa Taumata Rau / The University of Auckland. His work focuses on power and inclusion in disaster and disaster studies. It includes developing participatory tools for engaging minority groups in disaster risk reduction.

Jeevan Baniya

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director of the Social Science Baha
  • Assistant Director Social Science Baha
Jeevan Baniya is the assistant director of the Social Science Baha in Kathmandu and a member of teaching faculty at Tribhuvan University. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Faculty of Social Science, University of Oslo, Norway, and an MA from Ajou University GSIS, South Korea.

Jonathan Rigg

Job Titles:
  • Professor Bristol University

Katie Oven

Job Titles:
  • Vice Chancellor
  • Vice Chancellor 's Senior Fellow
Vice Chancellor's Senior Fellow Northumbria University Katie Oven is a Vice Chancellor's Senior Fellow in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences at Northumbria University. Katie is a human geographer researching social vulnerability and resilience to disasters, with a particular focus on earthquakes and landslides. Katie's research cross-cuts social, political and development geography.

KC Sumitra

Job Titles:
  • BBC Media Action

Mark Kincey

Job Titles:
  • Post Doctoral Research Associate Durham University
Mark is a quantitative physical geographer, currently working as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Geography at Durham University. His primary research focus is concerned with large-scale landscape perturbations, both natural geomorphic events and intensive anthropogenic disturbances.

Maximillian Van Wyk de Vries

Job Titles:
  • Senior Research Associate University of Oxford
Max is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford. He completed his PhD at the University of Minnesota on the monitoring and modelling of geohazards in glaciated landscapes. His current work focuses on integrating remotely sensed, ground-based, and model datasets to improve disaster risk management in Nepal.

Mr. Amod Mani Dixit

Job Titles:
  • President of NSET NSET
Mr. Amod Mani Dixit is the President of NSET and, chairs the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN). Mr Dixit holds a Doctor of Engineering from Ehime University, Japan. With 49-year's professional service and 25-years as Executive Director of NSET, Mr. Dixit has received several national and international recognitions.

Nawaraj Parajuli

Job Titles:
  • Member of Department of Geology at Tribhuvan University
Nawaraj is a faculty member of Department of Geology at Tribhuvan University. Nawaraj's thesis is entitled; Stratigraphy and structure of tectonic window and adjoining area in Panchthar and Taplejung districts of eastern Nepal. Being born and raised in Kathmandu, Nawaraj found Geology interesting and wanted to learn more about it.

Nick Rosser

Job Titles:
  • Professor Durham University
Nick's primary research is focused upon the recognition of the role of material deformation characteristics in controlling the spatial and temporal nature of rockfalls and landslides. Nick is interested in exploring theoretical models which underpin recent developments in the understanding the mechanics of slope failure.

Nyima Dorjee

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate Social Science Baha
Nyima Dorjee (Bhotia) holds a Master's degree in anthropology from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, and a Bachelor's degree in history from University of Delhi. His research interests include migration, borderland citizens, road and infrastructure, and trans-Himalayan trade across the Nepal Himalaya.

Rachel Middleton

Job Titles:
  • Project Administrator Durham University
  • Project Administrator for Sajag - Nepal
Rachel is the Project Administrator for Sajag-Nepal and is based within the Geography Department at Durham University. Rachel has worked at Durham University for the last ten years in a variety of administrative roles and has over seven years' experience in supporting externally funded research projects.

Ram Shrestha

Job Titles:
  • Engineer
  • Research Associate NSET
Ram is a geomatics engineer who graduated from Kathmandu University. Ram has worked at the National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET) for the past 6 years. Since the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, he has contributed to the development of an inventory of landslides for the most earthquake-affected districts in Nepal.

Rita Thakuri

Job Titles:
  • Executive Secretary at National Society for Earthquake Technology - Nepal
  • Executive Secretary NSET
Rita is an Executive Secretary at National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET) and a Network Coordinator for the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN) working in DRR and humanitarian response in 20 countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Rita holds a master's degree in Crisis Management and in Business Studies.

Sara Shneiderman

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor University of British Columbia
  • Socio
Sara is a socio-cultural anthropologist with long-term ethnographic commitments in the Himalayas and South Asia and emerging research in British Columbia, Canada. Sara is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and School of Public Policy & Global Affairs. Her research explores the relationships between political and environmental transformation.

Sarah Beaven

Job Titles:
  • Senior Lecturer University of Canterbury
Sarah's research interests include the active management of tensions within cross-sector collaborations in disaster risk management, response and recovery contexts, with a special interest in boundary organizations and collaborative governance.

Sarmila Paudyal

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate NSET
Sarmila Paudyal has been working with National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET) for last three years. Sarmila hold Master's degree in Engineering Geology from the Central Department of Tribhuvan University Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal. She has experience in developing the 3D landslide demonstration model as awareness tool and hazard, vulnerability and…

Shobhana Pradhan

Job Titles:
  • Country Director of BBC Media Action
Shobhana is the Country Director of BBC Media Action in Nepal. She has been leading the work on Nepal on building resilience and tackling climate change through media and communications for almost a decade and has worked extensively on disaster risk response and lifeline communications especially following the 2015 earthquake.

Simon Dadson

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Hydrology University of Oxford
  • Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Oxford
Simon Dadson is Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Oxford. Simon leads the Hydro-JULES project which combines a three-dimensional model of the surface and subsurface water cycle with weather and climate models to predict future floods, droughts and water scarcity.

Subash Duwadi

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate Tribhuvan University
Subash is a Faculty Member of the Department of the Environmental Sciences, Trichandra Multiple Campus. Subash is a Ph.D. scholar researching cascading hydrological hazards in the Himalayan range; A case study from the Melamchi watershed of Sindupalchowk, Nepal. Interests include geo-disaster management, early warning systems, flood, landslides and climate change.

Sunil Tamang

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate Social Science Baha
Sunil Tamang holds a Master of Applied Science with First Class Honours in Disaster Risk Management from Lincoln University, New Zealand. His research interests include indigenous practice and knowledge to build resilience, participatory disaster governance, computational social science and geospatial technologies.

Surya Narayan Shrestha

Job Titles:
  • Executive Director of NSET
Surya Narayan Shrestha is the Executive Director of NSET. Mr. Shrestha holds a master's degree in Structural Engineering and has two decades of experience in Disaster Risk Management. Specific skills include natural hazard assessment, disaster risk assessment, DRM Planning and DRM advocacy at the national and local levels.

Sweata Sijapati

Job Titles:
  • Environmental Engineer
  • Researcher
  • Research Associate NSET
Sweata Sijapati is an environmental engineer and researcher involved in DRRM and its advocacy, urban climate and its effect on the local scale. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Disaster Mitigation and Management Studies from Ehime University, Japan. Sweata's current role is Research Associate in Disaster Preparedness and Response.

Tek Bahadur Dong

Tek Bahadur Dong Research Associate Social Science Baha Born in a Temal village of Kavre district, Nepal, Tek Bahadur Dong completed his Masters of Philosophy in Anthropology from the Central Department of Anthropology, Tribhuvan University. His areas of research interest are around tourism, disaster, caste, ethnicity, and affirmative action issues.

Tom Robinson

Job Titles:
  • Lecturer University of Canterbury
Tom's research focusses on developing a greater understanding of earthquake hazards and disaster risk. Tom is interested in modelling earthquake-triggered landslides and consequent impacts on people and critical lifelines. Tom works on understanding how landslides change and evolve following an earthquake and how this affects the longer-term post-earthquake recovery.