Nepali geologist Bishal Nath Upreti has been selected as a winner of an international award for his contributions to the investigations of the tectonics of the Himalayas and improving public understanding of the geology of Nepal.

During the 26th general meeting of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) being held in Vienna in Austria from November 18-21, Upreti who is also the president of the Disaster Preparedness Network-Nepal (DPNet) was announced as the winner of the CNR Rao Prize for 2015. DPNet-Nepal is a network of more than 100 non-government organisations, UN agencies, government ministries and other agencies involved in the field of disaster risk reduction in Nepal. The prize was established in 2006 by CNR Rao, an eminent chemist who currently serves as the head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, to acknowledge dedication and high-impact research by scientists from the Least Developing Countries.

A statement released by TWAS mentioned that Upreti is studying past earthquakes to help shape future preparedness in Nepal and his work has implications in fields ranging from water resources to construction of dams, tunnels, roads and bridges.

The work he has carried out with his collaborators is unveiling the tectonics of the Himalayas in Nepal, starting 500 million years ago in Lower Paleozoic time. At that time, Upreti’s data suggest, a mountain belt existed long before the Himalaya was born. By investigating the Main Central Thrust—one of the three master faults of the Himalaya—Upreti wrote a chapter on the history of Himalayan uplift stating that it was caused due to the collision between India and Asia 55-60 million years ago.