Dr Rukumesh Paudyal is the Vice president of Himalayan Environment Research Institute (HERI), Kathmandu, Nepal. He completed his Post-doctoral and PhD degree in Physical geography from Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIEER, CAS). His research focuses on heavy metal pollution in freshwater, air and the cryosphere. His main focus is to study the composition, fate, sources and transport and deposition mechanism of mercury, other heavy metals, trace elements and major ions. He has published over 30 scientific articles and book chapters.