Very impressive list altogether. Great to learn that so many Nepali academics are at various colleges/universities in the US. **** Arnico wrote: "And how will Nepal build world class universities without the contribution from people with a decade or two of experience at world class universities?" I am not so sure about this. I respect world-class universities (Harvard, Stanford et al), but Arnico I am sure you know that -- given the uniquely free-market nature of the American higher education (that is, they fiercely compete for top students, promising professors and research grants all the time) -- those universities and their peer institutions alone do NOT have an across-the-board monopoly on global excellence. Given the needs, Nepal needs Harvard-trained environmental scientists as much as it needs, well,University of Montana-trained development-studies scholars.And who are we to say who's world-class and who's not? More tellingly, in Nepal, in my limited view, I see that there's a shortage -- NOT of people with world-class credentials but of researchers who are hardworking, motivated and smart and who find creative, practical ways to deal with Nepal-related uncertainties and unknowns to continue their research and publish stuff. A few in Nepal are globally demanded - and I see them flying off to conferences abroad practically every month. Others continue to talk about their world-class credentials . . . long past such credentials are of any value to anyone else but their own obnoxious sons and daughters! So the question is NOT: How do you gather a bunch of Nepalis with world-class credentials in Nepal for research. Rather the question is: How do you find ways to keep smart Nepalis, regardless of where they are educated, MOTIVATED to produce research and teach their students in Nepal while minimizing the uncertainties and unknowns that working in Nepal necessarily entail for them? I don't know the answer. And I say all this NOT as an academic (that is, NOT in the sense of someone who proves theorems of living) but as someone who loves to quietly watch the Nepali (and American) academia. Please feel free to disagree. oohi ashu