At ICIMOD I worked to build a regional network of atmospheric scientists who become friends, trust each other, share data and knowledge, and build a scientific consensus on key issues of air pollution and climate change that transcends borders and geopolitics. In 2013 I was able to bring to Kathmandu the first international workshop on
Atmospheric Composition and the Asian Summer Monsoon (ACAM), serve on the steering committee and start a process that would convene ACAM meetings and training schools in
Bangkok (2015), Guangzhou (2017) and Kuala Lumpur (2019). I also organized ICIMOD’s First Regional Atmospheric Science Workshop in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2013, and the Second Regional Atmospheric Science Workshop in Pokhara, Nepal in 2014. In 2017 my team at ICIMOD hosted a
workshop and science policy dialogue on air pollution, climate and health in southern Asia and the Hindu Kush Himalaya, bringing together junior and senior scientists and policy makers from ICIMOD member countries, along with Iran, Maldives and Sri Lanka, as well as additional participants from the United States, Japan and Rwanda. We organized sessions to increase not just cross-border connections and understanding between scientists and between policy makers, but also between scientists and policy makers in each country.