Assistant Professor Chemistry, STEM
Dr. Uttar Shrestha completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. His graduate work in Nepal was mainly focused on isolating natural products from locally available medicinal plants. With the intent of getting higher education, he joined New Mexico State University (NMSU), Las Cruces where he completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry. His graduate work at NMSU involved the multistep synthesis of a natural product molecule “(+)-Taumycin A” which has an interesting biological profile. Under the supervision of Dr. William A. Maio, he published an article about synthesizing a natural product compound "(+)-Taumycin A". As a graduate student in the US, he had the privilege of learning how students from differing cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds assimilate knowledge. Shrestha's teaching career started in middle school in Nepal where he taught mathematics and science for 8-10th grade students. He found students more interested in the learning process while fusing teaching methods with different activities and experiments. He taught organic, physical and general chemistry along with labs for high school students at Little Angels’ College, Nepal, and taught organic chemistry lectures and labs for pharmacy students at pharmacy colleges in Nepal. He also had an opportunity to teach students to solve problems using simple and easy methods. Shrestha worked at the University of Michigan as a post-doctoral researcher where he enjoyed working with undergraduate students. The platform helped him to further strengthen his deeper understanding of working in a team. Besides chemistry, he enjoys watching sports, especially soccer, cricket, and tennis, and playing soccer. He also loves hiking, traveling, and spending quality time with his family. He stated, "I am thrilled to become a part of the National Park College family. Since my first day, I have found everyone very supportive, caring, and professional. I found myself lucky to be surrounded by such a helpful group of people. I am very excited about helping students develop, express and exchange their ideas so that they serve the local community." Sharing is caring, and caring is love is a motto by which he lives.
