It’s really very great news to know that one of our friends Sailesh Malla recently completed his Doctoral course from Sun Moon University, South Korea with biochemistry major.
The title of his Thesis is “Genetic Engineering of Streptomyces peucetius ATCC 27952: Enhancement of Doxorubicin Production and Generation of Anthracycline Analogues” which deals with the development of most widely used anticancer drug Doxorubicin overproducing strains and establishing a new metabolic route for the development of hybrid doxorubicin analogues for clinical and commercial implication.
Congratulation Dr. Malla for your achievement and we all wish him for his bright future.
It is a matter of pleasure to announce that we have successfully collected donation of amount $1586 and had bought a projector for $767.18 and one laptop in $600.00 , one mouse and laptop case $34. Rest of the money is still in the payapal account. Initially we had planned to purchase a screen and some laser pointers but because of my schedule I couldn't do that, I beg your pardon for this.
Eventhough I had planned to organize a handover program on Asar 5th ,2066 but because of the conflict in schedules of Department Chief, I had to postpone it and later on I myself became very busy and had to organize a small program on Asar 19th right before by departure from Kathmandu.
ChemSA was asked to organize that program but it didn't show much interest. So Mr. Rishi Sapkota went there and asked students to be there and informed all the faculties. The program was chaired by Dr. Tulsi Prasad Pathak and addressed by several speakers like Dr. Mohan Bikram Gewali, Dr. Krishna Manandhar, Mr. Binod Prasad Pandey and Mr Mahendra Thapa. Our effort was praised by all the faculties and all professors have said thanks to all the donors. Dr. Tulsi Prasad Pathak has asked me to convey his appreciation to everybody and had said that was the pioneer donation work in the history of CDC done by alumni as a combined effort.
I do have some pictures but I forgot them in Nepal, I have asked Mr. Mahendra Thapa to bring them so I will upload few pictures after some time. Once again thank you everybody for your help and support. We take pride to be a part of such a good work in the history of CDC.
As being a Chemistry Graduate student, I wanted to attend the ACS meeting (National meeting of American Chemical Society). I got this opportunity this year to attend 237th ACS National meeting in Salt lake City, UT. A week long conference with more than 10,000 attendees is a very big meeting for me. It was a crowd of chemists. For me the meeting was an experience to expose with intellectual persons as well as to meet some of my friends who I had not seen for a while and know some new friends. In the meeting, I met some Nepalese friends who are working in Chemistry and related fields. I could not see all the Nepalese Chemists who were there but I saw most of them. I want to list those Nepalese Chemists who I met there.
Subin Adhikari: Clark University, MA
Dambar Hamal: Kansas State University, KS
Sunil Hamal: University of Nevada, Reno, NV
Raj Kumar Malla: University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO
Dr. Mohan Bikram Gewali-professor of Central Department of Chemistry (CDC) Tribhuvan University has written a new book entitled "Aspects of Traditional Medicines of Nepal". After his job as a director of RECAST (Research Center for Apllied Science and Technology) in Kirtipur, he went to University of Toyama, Japan as a visiting Professor and now he comes with this book. The book talks about the tradational medicines which are in practice for centuries in Nepal. The book gives more indepth about medicinal plants of Nepal. His past research focused on to finding chemical constituents of various medicinal plants of Nepal. One chapter of the book is devoted for folk medicines used in Manag district of Nepal which is more close to Tibet in terms of culture and geography. I liked the cover photograph of the book very much which is Thanka painting of 108 Meditating Medicine Buddha.
I was his student in my Master degree study at CDC and I have great honour and respect for him.
Everybody wishes the everything that is related to him /her should be good enough to take pride of it. We, as alumni are not exception and want to see and say CDC is a world class institution, we were a part of it and we are. We are millions of mile away from it but we are stuck to it in our identity and in our daily life as our career. It is a shame for us to watch the drama that is being played in our political stage but it is our weakness and out of our expertise to change the trend. The only thing we could do is wish good and hope good. We are seeing and listening the big slogan of New Nepal and we are pretty much clear that it is not going to be a New Nepal that way. The main mantra for new Nepal is everyone learns his/her duty and responsibility and thinks beyond his only own self interest. I know we may not make big difference but at least we can try. I came to realize this truth, as everyone, when I was away from home, away from my country. As everybody I also started to be more patriotic when I found the big gap between us and others in this world.
I used to sit in a classroom with some 90 people, a lousy lecture used to be delivered in the far front stage without any enthusiasm and fun. Later I found that classroom is more fun and more lively just with some visual aids and just with a little effort. Even In this 21Ist century we were lacking even a simple projector not only in a classroom but even for some seminars and such events.
These were the some motives to force me to think something that will be at least a little help for a better CDC. I was thinking this and thinking if we could do anything?? I asked my friends and said what if we could write this and ask our friends tomakea little effort and collect money. It was not a big deal to collect money we could have asked 10 friends to donate some 100 dollars eachand have donated a projector and a computer or could have asked even some strangers for help but as we were making plans we have a wonderful idea to collect all chemistry alumni and bring them together in this event and made some conspiracy to make an “alumni association of CDC”. As we see alumni association even in a High school, a business oriented +2 but not in that big institute. so this became another motive for this project.
I made a initial plan, talked with friends in University of Missouri, Basant Giri , Bhanu Neupane and Lekhnath Adhikari and they said it is a good idea . I posted it in Hi5 where I had some 50 friends in CDC group and I got immediate response from Ritu Gurung and Arjun Poudyal. We sent emails from and got response and support from several friends.We were thinking and kind of silent but some friends were asking where is your plan? You just made it and left it?? Then I thought I should start it and with the suggestion from friends I opened a paypal account and deposited some dollars for initiation then immediately I got more money deposited from other friends. As soon as I sent emails I got immediate deposition from Dr. Durga Parajuli and some other friends. This all added additional energy and we reached here, where we are almost close to the set goal.The most exciting outcome of this project is that we all came to know we are equally devoted to see better CDC.
I was getting some comments likenobody there in CDC is really good, they already have some good instruments that also they never use they won’t use that projector also, there is a 16 our load shedding , there is birds poop in the seminar room, birds will poop in it and lot more but I have just one answer let’s try good and think good, it is not a big sacrifice to donate 10,20 or some box when you have got M. SC. degree for free yup absolutely free, you got recommendation from there that’s was also a great thing!!!! Lets try it, if we could that’s good, if not still we are not losing our life or our anything !!! Some friends trusted me, some did with some caution but they did. It was not only me behind this but we were a bunch of chemists, all those who have made donation and who are in the way to make. We can’t guarantee that it will be as good as we expect but at least it will be some.
We are still trying to get more people involved in it we have almost 50 people participated spontaneously. We were thinking we will call everybody and ask donation, this was a good idea because by this we will have direct contact with each other. We were also getting comments like how can we donate just based on that email? We had realized that money collecting or social service was not that easy as collecting for picnic or gambling but we were hopeful. The main reason we couldn’t call all is we didn’t have phone no and we asked friends to make personal requests to everyone. We tried to get email addresses from every possible source, we went to the college’s site to find it, we asked friends etc. We tried to include all and hoped that most of us got information and requested our friends to circulate emails. We did that and got more participation. We are not making any sacrifice by donating some bucks but we are making a big difference in the way of thinking, we are showing we have time to think for others and for new Nepal not only for our own career!!
This project is going on and now we are excited and curiously waiting to see an alumni association!! We will work on it and hope to get your support as for this project. There is no personal interest for me to get any additional advantage but it will be advantageous for all of us!! May god bless us!!
Retene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. It occurs naturally in the tars obtained by the distillation of resinous woods. It is one of the air pollutants.
This molecule is widely used as a bio-marker of wood combustion, specially forest fire. It is a major product of pyrolysis of conifer trees. Like some other chemicals, once it is released into the atmosphere, can travel to other places where it is not produced. For example one study shows the presence of retene in air at Marys peak, OR USA, which indicates there was some forest fire.
To know know more about Retene, click on following links.
Those who graduated from Central Department of Chemistry, Tribhuvan University Nepal now feel that there is something they can contribute back to CDC. Lately there are hundreds of Nepalese Chemists working and studying in different parts of the world. There is no alumni association of CDC yet.
Central Department of Chemistry, Tribhuvan University is the oldest institution in Nepal that started M.Sc. or Ph.D. degree courses in Chemistry. Now it has 180 students with ~35 faculty.
I came to know that former students of CDC have started collecting money to donate to CDC. They want to buy at least a multi-media projector. I know that CDC doesn't have its own MMP. It has couple of overhead projectors-OHP (assuming they are still working). Teaching and learning is still based on chalk and marker board. This is kind of shame but it is the reality of developing world. Use of multimedia and internet in teaching and learning process is vital in 21st century world. There are many things that couldn't be taught or learnt without these modern tools. When we have to give a seminar presentation-either we need to borrow the projector from others or have to present using overhead projector. There are dozens of master students who present their thesis each year, but they have to rely on OHP.
The fund raising campaign initiated by Mr Binod Pandey will help to solve this problem little bit. I hope so. Because there are lot of problems the CDC is facing. Many problems are common with other institutions and people faccing in Kathmandu. I think it would be great, if we could help one laptop with the MMP, so that they can use wherever they want.
If you are interested, you can just click on the donate bottom on up-right side bar of this blog. I did my part. Your small contribution is valuable. Money is collected to the Paypal account of Mr Binod Pandey. His Paypal email is binod_panchem@hotmail.com You can write cheque or give cash too. If you want to contact him his phone number is 314-229-5619. What do you think about this? Write comments on the comment box below.
In the video series of elements, I am presenting one of the most reactive metal called Sodium (Na). It has one electron in its outermost shell, so it is very reactive. That is why it is stored in mineral oil like Kerosine. It is soft and light.
It reacts with water very quickly and explosively. This is interesting to show students. I used to show my high school students (+2 students in Nepal) how reactive this metal is by dropping a small piece of sodium on water. It generates hydrogen gas, producing orange flame. Students were always excited and interested to see the experiment.
The video in this post explains about fundamentals about Sodium. Enjoy the video and leave your comments on the comment box below.
Lophine (2,4,5-triphenyl-1H-imidazole) exhibits lemon yellow chemiluminescence in solution and is one of the few long-lasting chemiluminescent molecules.Chemiluminescence (sometimes "chemoluminescence") is the emission of light (luminescence) with limited emission of heat as the result of a chemical reaction.(wikipedia)
It forms dimers that have piezochromic and photochromic properties. It has been proposed as an analytical reagent for trace metal ion detection.
Lophine’s chemiluminescence was discovered by B. Radziszewski in 1877.
If you are in the field of Environment and planning to graduate soon with PhD, this might be one option after graduation.
What:1 to 2 year postdoctoral fellowship Where: Atmospheric Science & Technology Branch of Environment Canada, in Toronto. Qualifications: Completed a PhD in chemistry, chemical engineering, environmental science or related field, in a recognized program within the last 5 years of the starting date of the PDF. Assets : Experience in air and water sampling methods for persistent organic pollutants (POPs). - Experience in trace analysis of POPs by LC/MS and GC/MS - Good oral and written communication skills Your Job:
The position will involve research and monitoring of emerging/priority substances identified under Environment Canada's Chemicals' Management Plan.These include persistent, toxic and bioaccumulative compounds that are present in airand water. Research will be conducted under the supervision of Drs. Mahiba Shoeib and Tom Harner and will include several related projects and collaborators. The projects will involve adapting/designing new sampling/analytical techniques for investigating emerging chemicals in air and water and for measuring air/water flux. This will yield new information to support policy decisions and chemical regulation efforts in Canada.
Start date: Spring/summer 2009. Salary: Approx. $40 000 Cdn(note: based on NSERC guidelines)
Interested? Send cover letter and CV electronically (before January 18, 2008) to:Maiba Shoeib - mahiba.shoeib@ec.gc.ca
hotograph of the book very much which is Thanka painting of 108 Meditating Medicine Buddha.
