Dr. Mani Nepal is SANDEE Senior Program Coordinator and Lead Economist at ICIMOD, where he leads research and training programs. He has a long history of working in academia. Earlier, he worked as a distinguished visiting professor at Kyoto University, Japan, Associate Professor of Economics at Tribhuvan University; Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico, USA; Visiting Professor at Kathmandu University; and Adjunct Professor at Agriculture and Forestry University. He also held Senior Economist position at the Department of Finance and Administration, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA; and an Economist position at the Nepal Foundation for Advanced. He is an applied economist with research interest in the intersection of development and environmental issues. Dr. Nepal is a Fulbright scholar who received MS degree in Policy Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and PhD in Economics and Applied Econometrics from the University of New Mexico, USA.