Introduction | Archive | Apply | Contact Us
| This Week in Hall of Brain |

Born in Dang, Mr. Hemant Paudel moved to Nepalgunj with his family at a very young age where he completed his high school. Initial stage of his life never went easy. In spite of all turbulences, the young energetic boy who carried strong determination all the way from dang never gave up hard work. He believed in his ability and never loosed his hope to conquer peak height of success. The strength to fight any hardships finally led him to occupy the position of “Project Director” at the Lady Davis Institute for Research, Jewish General Hospital. Jewish General Hospital is one of the teaching hospitals of McGill University. McGill University is one of the fine universities of the world regarded as “Harvard University” of Canada.

After completing high school from Nepalgunj, he went to Kathmandu for college studies. In 1981, when he was a chemistry lecturer at the Kirtipur Campus, he won a Fulbright scholarship to pursue graduate Study in biochemistry in the USA. He obtained his MS in 1983 and a Ph.D. in 1985 and then moved to the University of Tennessee, Memphis as a postdoctoral fellow. In 1991, he took the position of a research associate at the University of Calgary, Canada. After 3 years in Calgary, he went to Montreal as an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology, McGill University. In 2004, he was promoted to Associate professor with tenure. His research laboratory is located at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital.

We asked him to tell us about the achievements he had so far in nearly three decades of his academic career. The details were full of intellectual milestones that would make every Nepali proud of him.

He was a chemistry teacher in Nepal. At the Oklahoma State University, he studied enzyme structure. His research at the University of Tennessee was concerned with the Structure and Regulation of an enzyme involved in glycogen metabolism in muscles. In Calgary, he developed an interest in biomedical research. After moving to McGill, he became deeply interested in brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Alzheimer's disease is the fourth human killer in developed countries after cardiovascular disease, stroke and cancer. This disease strikes especially the elderly individuals and causes dementia and finally death. Unfortunately, there is no treatment for Alzheimer's disease. A characteristic feature of Alzheimer's disease is the presence of two types of pathological lesions in the brain. One of the lesions is called Neurofibrillary tangles. His research at the McGill University is focused on to detect, prevent and suppress neurofibrillary lesion in the brain. His studies have been published in over 25 articles in various first rated biomedical journals. His research works have been funded by various government and non-government agencies of Canada and the USA. Currently, he has three Ph.D. students and two postdoctoral fellows working in his laboratories at the Lady Davis Institute.

We asked him what he thinks of what he has achieved as yet. This is what he has to say:
“I have gone through many ups and downs in my life and my journey was arduous. However, there are many Nepalese in North America and in Europe today. I am not sure if I work harder than many fellow Nepalese, who work very hard in much harsher work environments. They never complain, and are achieving their goals. Every Nepali is a success story. I know that I have been very lucky to get this far.”

We should be all proud of this Nepalese son. We take this opportunity to include him as a member of 'Nepalese Hall of Brain'.