Nothing is impossible. You can do anything if you dare to!
A lifelong scholar of Science, Geeta Shrestha Vaidya, Ph.D., is a retired Chief Senior Scientific Officer at the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). A botanist and a maker of Ayurvedic Face Products, she is an awardee of Nepal’s prestigious Gorkha Dakshin Bahu ‘KA’. She has also been featured in the annual list of top 100 people to watch by Business360 magazine.
Born and brought up in Kathmandu, Dr. Geeta completed her high school education at Kanya Mandir. Progressive right from her childhood, she used to find ways to do the things she wanted regardless of what others thought. She loved playing games like ‘guchha’, ‘dandibiyo’, ’ghwai’ and even mastered them. Seeing Dr. Geeta dedicated and passionate about her studies, her father encouraged her to study Science.
The first person to secure a job in her class, she served as the head of the medicinal plant museum Thapathali. There, she worked to identify medicinal plants all over Nepal and researched their usage in disease curing. She then served at NAST as Chief Scientific Officer, where she initiated a research collaboration with the eye department of the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
As a Botanist, she has worked for various biotechnologies including organism bank — collecting and identifying microorganisms and medicinal plants for research, bio-composting, mushroom production, and numerous researches and scientific paper publication. Her team trained many farmers from Thimi and Thankot about mushroom production and composting.
In 1991, she was awarded as a Young Scientist by Sweden’s International Foundation for Science. Funded on the research of Ectomycorrhiza for three years, she had to travel all around Nepal’s pine forests. For her fieldwork in Dadeldhura, she had to cross nine rivers carrying her ten-month-old infant daughter in a jeep which had to traverse through the riverbanks and uneven pathways. Her fieldwork was at the time of Maoist Insurgency. She had to go deep into the forests to experiment if the Invasive Plant — Lantana Camara ‘banmara’, could be used as a bio-fertilizer. There was a risk of getting ambushed which made it more challenging, her office transportation staff wouldn’t easily agree to assist her with the transportation. Also inside the forests, she along with her assistants had to walk for 1.5 hours inside the jungle of Panchkhal — Kavre at those times of crisis, still she managed to work with utmost dedication and enthusiasm.
Dr. Geeta believes that we should make ourselves skilled and eligible such that no one can disrespect or dominate.
“Yes, gender-based stereotypes exist but I was lucky I didn’t face gender biases in my life. I was very confident and competent at my work. I received utmost support from my seniors, and neither my male juniors disrespected me because of my gender. My mantra was always to respect my seniors and ensure that I treated my juniors without them feeling less.”
Once, Dr. Geeta couldn’t make it to one of the Ph.D. programs she had applied for.
“I was depressed after this incident. However, I learned that you shouldn’t keep thinking about what you couldn’t achieve in your past. If you keep letting your past drag you, you won’t be able to move forward in life. And luck isn’t all about fate. To get lucky, you need to apply some effort on your part too.”
She was offered to pursue her Ph.D. at Jawaharlal Nehru University, however, leaving her infant daughter for 3 years didn’t seem right to her. Later, she was offered a Ph.D. program where she could perform fieldwork in Nepal and just a few months of lab work in Sweden that looked ideal as a working mom.
Dr. Geeta strongly advocates that gender doesn’t determine the mental abilities to pursue Science, Engineering, and Tech.
“My mathematics was strong and I had plenty of female friends who had a strong grip on math too. Sometimes girls aren’t willing to come forward, the mentality is so created that they always need to seek help from boys and validate with them regardless of their capabilities. Anyone can be good or weak at something, it is not about gender!”
“If you talk about technology, I too have competed with many to come to this place today, so this idea of women lacking strong mental abilities to outperform males is not the fact, it is just a mythical idea that is being imposed upon along with the time. Women are just as capable as men, there’s no doubt about it.”
Dr. Geeta has received numerous accolades and has stunned international communities with her work and research findings multiple times. Once in a presentation at an international conference, she stunned the international community with her research findings on “how to use the invasive green manures rather than eliminating them”. Where she stood out among her fellow researchers.
“I gave a presentation on how to use it for our betterment, and I was appreciated and I received accolades, it was a moment of pride for our nation as well.”
At another international conference, she presented her research on the Agaricus species of wild mushroom that turned out to be a potent anticancer drug. The Japanese got interested in her research findings and proposed her work on it further, which she did.
Dr. Geeta deeply believes that age is not an excuse to stop doing things.
“If you stay idle citing your age, you will only age. Instead, why don’t you do something while you age? I am 66 years old. I recently took Zumba classes. I have been supervising the thesis work of my students, I am also the maker of Ayurvedic Face Products. I support my husband’s work of medicine production too. See, we just need to be active as long as our health allows.”
Dr. Geeta credits her husband and her daughter for all she is today. She believes anything is possible if we get support from within our family.
As a working mom, she had to go through plenty of hurtful things. From being gossiped about how she didn’t have time to care for her child, to being tattled about being career-oriented, she faced it all. Amidst all this, her husband constantly had her back. He gave her all the support she needed.
“I have a lot of research findings which can create a lot of value, but the government needs to prioritize our work too. For the women to come forward, the government should bring the women role models in the front so that other women get inspired. This is how a nation can help increase the presence of women in every sector — valuing and highlighting their works, bringing them to the forefront.”
As a woman scientist and a working mom, Dr. Geeta believes in infinite possibilities.
“Nothing is impossible. If you dare, you can do anything, you just have to learn to manage time. We can contribute a lot if we apply a little effort to learn about things. We just need to see what can be done.”
“We need to have a positive attitude. If we’re doing good work and working for what’s needed, we should never think of what other people would think, instead, we should use that energy to enhance our work. Anything is possible then.”
This article was written by Dipti Gyawali, a member of Nepali Women in Computing for Nepali Women in Computing — CELEBRATE.
