Nabin: Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

? (Where did you grow up, where and

when you studied etc.)
Mukti: Thank you for choosing me for this interview Nabin ji, I appreciate it. This is a good
opportunity to share my academic experiences and about myself. I was born in Darlamchaur,
Isma Gulmi; a hilly region in western Nepal. I am from farmers family, one among nine kids of
my parents. Most small farmers like us used to hardly make their living from farming. However,
since my father was an elementary school teacher in our village, we had an additional income.
That meant we had a little more comfortable living since my father was educated and thats why
my parents were very much aware of importance of education. In my time, most parents in my
village were either unaware of importance of education or they would require their kids to help
them in the farms. Most kids used to help their parents in household work such as taking care of
cows, buffaloes, cutting grasses, chasing monkeys from corn field etc. while I did take part in
such activities and farming only in the morning and evening or in my free time.
I was curious and very disciplined in school and used to do my homework regularly. After I
passed grade five I had to help my parents at home and left school for one year. I started again
after my eldest brother got married and my sister-in-law came to help at home. One reason my
parents did not stop me from going to school was that I was doing excellent in my study from
very beginning. I am a PhD now and I want to say to school kids from village of Nepal who are
barely getting chance to go to school: kids! you can do it as I did!
Later, while I was in Kathmandu, I initiated to establish an organization among Ismali friends
which is now known as Ismali Samaj, Kathmandu.

I did my primary school (1-3 grade) nearby my home (15 minutes walk), sitting in the lawn
under open sky with two teachers and one of them was my father. Middle school was about 1
hour walking but had to leave home for grade 8 and up. I did my high school, SLC from
Mahendra Ma. Vi. Tamghas, Gulmi in 2045 B.S; I. Sc. from Tansen Palpa, neighboring district;
B.Sc. from Tri-Chandra College Kathmandu; master in Physics from TU Kritipur and finally I
did my PhD from University of Texas at Dallas in 2010. After PhD, I went to University of
North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill for post doc and finally I am here in California for industrial
job working as a process engineer/research scientist.
Nabin: What was your aim in life as a teenager? How did you decide to study science and then
physics? Did anyone, in particular, influence you?
Mukti: You probably meant professional aim. As a son of a farmer and a teacher, I had an aim to
be a good teacher and a good farmer following the footpath of my father. Every kid is naturally
curious. However, unknowingly parents or elders kill the curiosity by discouraging them from
asking questions and stopping them from exploring things. That did not happened to me, instead
my mom used to keep interest about what I read at school, wanted to know the stories from my
book while she was illiterate. I was always among top students in class so I was advised to take
science and major math in high school. One of my elective subjects was Agriculture. It was
exciting because I wanted to be a good teacher and a farmer. In school, I learned that traditional
agriculture system was one of the main reasons for poverty of villagers. I and my elder brother
and classmate Baburam were working together in farm to grow better. We really set example of
good farming growing crops in our fields using knowledge learned in class at that time.
My science teacher in high school once suggested taking science major in college and I liked that
idea. There was no science college in Gulmi district at that time. I went Tansen Papla to study
science. However, first college degree in science major (I. Sc.) was very tough for me and it is
tough for anyone whose SLC is from government school where courses are taught in Nepali
medium. Some of my schoolmates dropped science because they were not coming for their own
but were sent by parents. I had no choice but success because study science was my choice not
my parents. I had determination so I was patient and I could complete I. Sc. in physics and
mathematics.
As a scientist, of course, I advocate science. For new generation I would like to say that I. Sc.
was my greatest achievement and a financial freedom. I. Sc. was my reason for financial freedom
because I was not dependent on my parents anymore. For the first time I felt like I could stand in
my own feet. This is because it was relatively easy to get teaching job after I. Sc. at that time. I
might not find one where I wanted to, but there were so many schools looking for math and
science teachers in Nepal at that time. Even now, if you want to go villages or remote areas you
can get job after I. Sc. This can be a very good reason for one to study science. This should be
the real motivation for science major. There is still more chances of getting teaching jobs for
science major than other subjects.
If one has more choices, or one thinks that he can get job s/he could gain a lot of courage to
move forward and courage to take risk that applied to me as well. Though my parents were not
able to support my further education, I came to Kathmandu to see if I could still survive and
peruse my education. Otherwise I would take a break for teaching to make money for my study.
Therefore, I strongly recommend young generation to start college with science major. If you
succeed, you have so many doors open. You can always change your mind and move to arts and
commerce, you can find teaching job in schools, you can do tutoring to high school kids and so
on. Moreover, you can understand basic principle of natural phenomenon.
Finally, science major led me to physics. Physics is a beautiful subjects as we get chance to
understand the nature and express natural laws in mathematical relations. It requires a lot of
thinking. I used to love to read literatures but that I would understand without much effort and
without taking any classes. Physics requires brain exercise and more I read it more I get
interested. Moreover, I study physics as I saw more chances of getting job after graduation in
physics.
Nabin: 3. Sounds like you worked and studied together. So, how did you balance work and
study? How did you succeed?
Mukti: If there is a will, there is a way. I came to Kathmandu for my bachelors degree in science
(B.Sc.). Sometime teaching in boarding school, sometime tutoring math and science to high
school kids I managed to work and study. Sometime I had to skip my classes for work. The day
I completed my B. Sc., my confidence level reached to the highest level. I was encouraged by
my own success; I was interested in reading by more reading. Nothing extraordinary, I just kept
doing and I think this is the key to success.
I wanted to continue my study to masters in physics. Obviously I had to work and study for my
master as well and this time I had to support my younger brother too! By that time my
professional aim was changed and I wanted to be a physics professor in a university in Nepal. As
you know Master level courses in physics are very tough in Nepal. Basically, we learned taking
classes but that was not enough. Discussions among friends, collections of old questions and
solving them in groups, sharing class note among friends and finally memorizing formulas and
equations were major strategies to succeed the Tribhuvan University comprehensive exam,
which is very tough annual exam. I would suggest to new generations not to panic if you dont
understand at first, continue to ask and discuss with friends. Our teachers are so helpful, take full
advantage and success is in your hands. After you succeed there in Nepal, you can compete with
anybody in the world. All graduate from Nepal are doing excellent around the globe. Data show
that they are doing equal or better than the students from anywhere else.
Nabin: You said that you wanted to become a physics professor in Nepal. What makes you come
to USA?
Mukti: Well, it did not go as I thought. TU did not open professors positions for long time. I was
mostly teaching in English boarding school and as a part-time lecturer in TU. Though one could
get teaching position after MSc, a PhD would be recommended and most of physics professors in
TU were PhD holders. To that front, I was looking for options for further education as well. The
trend to come to USA for further study was just about there. I was in contact with Dr. Jagat
Shakya and Dr. Naveen Jha who were already in USA. I was not sure I would be able to come
but just took TOEFL exam and applied a couple of places. I got admission with scholarship at
Minnesota State University and got visa. To get chance to come to USA was considered a good
option and I had no many choices. So, I came for master program in physics to USA in 2003.
Nowadays, it is a lot easier. There are a lot of Nepalese around the globe now; you can find
information in Nepali Physicists around the globe in this website
here http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=203971682217583070710.000456d189b41ccc8f9
17&msa=0&ll=4.996952,24.82544&spn=179.310626,357.890625 . Thank you Nabin ji and team
for this good work. I really appreciate your effort. Internet access is easy nowadays, can get
connected via email, facebook, linkedin, twitter and most of the time you can get response
instantly. My advice to new generation is that please take full advantage of it.
Nabin: Could you please tell us about your research interest. What strategies did you use to be
successful in research? Any advice, website/URL/Linkedin etc.?
Mukti: I came to USA in 2003 and started first research at Minnesota State University, Mankato
Minnesota, USA in 2004. There I learned about doing research by preparing high temperature
ceramic super conducting samples, used X-ray powder diffraction and measured its magnetic and
heat capacity etc. My PhD research in UT Dallas was about organic solar cells (plastic solar
power) which have potential for low cost production and the flexibility would enable the solar to
wrap around any types of curved surfaces like clothing, cars etc.
Another area of my expertise is nanofabrication of photonic structures. In my post-doctoral
research I was able to fabricate photonic nanostructures of the butterfly wings, that are consider
most complex structures in nature. Using low cost method, there I demonstrated that the current
engineering technology was capable for mimicking the most complicated photonic structures in
nature. These photonic structures have several uses such as black wings for maximum light
absorption, other colors for chemical sensing, bank note counterfeiting etc. My publications can
be found in http://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=8_OeP4AAAAAJ.
Linkedin page www.linkedin.com/pub/mukti-aryal-

-/16/85b/b25/ .
There were challenges and opportunities to succeed and do research of my interest. To choose a
professor and a research topic is challenging and the success determines future career. It may be
helpful for beginner researchers if I go over a little bit detail on this. The choice of research
topics depend on several factors: research interest, availability of research and vacancies with the
professor etc. I think it is important to think what you want to do after graduation. I chose a
research which could open doors for industries and academia so that it might be easier to find a
job after graduation. As I understand today, the research skills such as sample preparations and
characterizations are more important than the research topic itself in industrial jobs. Academia
needs more publications and in depth understanding of the topic and creative ideas.
I got interested in solar energy, best renewable energy alternative to current fossil fuels and
coals. There have been solar power in the market but expensive to replace traditional electric
powers such as hydroelectricity and fossil fuels power plants. My research focuses on plastic
solar cells as mentioned earlier. The best part of my research was I could learn nanotechnology,
nanostructure fabrication and characterization and other related skills that could fit for academia
and industries. My research helps in fundamental understanding of conducting polymer.
Let me tell you about plastic solar cells. In high school, we learned that plastics are bad
conductors. First conducting polymer was discovered by Nobel laurel Alen Heeger and his team
in 1990s. Research in plastic solar cells was a hot topic when I was about to start my PhD
research. Plastic solar cells have potential for low cost but their efficiency is poor. One way to
improve efficiency was by controlling nanostructure morphology. In that front, my group
pioneered in nanostructured organic solar cells that I proved that nanostructured morphology can
be controlled by nanoimprinting. I presented my research in MRS Fall meeting. This was my
first conference presentation that happened in front of large audiences where one of which was
Nobel Prize winner Prof. Alen Heeger, all seats were full and people were standing on back of
the room. I published my first paper in 2008 which is cited 76 times as of today. The excitement
was high in the beginning. The efficiency of organic solar cells at that time was about 5% and we
were hoping to reach 10% with our techniques.
However, there are always likely to have ups and downs in research. Likewise, the efficiency of
our cells was much lower than we expected. Again, I did not give up but continued to explore
the reasons behind the low performances. Around that time I found an interview by Alen Heeger
http://esi-topics.com/conducting-polymers/interviews/Dr-Alan-Heeger.html on conducting
polymer. At the end of interview on the question of long term goal, Dr. Heeger said (2
nd
last
paragraph): Polymer chains are disordered like cooked spaghetti noodles , what you really
want, if you want very high performance, is more like spaghetti in the box before you cook it. I
started looking if I can really do that. Finally, I was able to show that that can possibly happened
by the technique we were using to fabricate organic solar cells. All I needed to show was, that
was really happening. In 2009, I published a paper on polymer chain alignment, which is my
biggest contribution in understanding of fundamental polymer science. This paper attracted many
researchers around the world (cited 122 times). We wrote a review in the topic after that. Very
recently I contributed in a paper published on the similar topic in April 2014. This is how my
PhD was so exciting and fun. My PhD advisor is Prof. Walter Hu who thinks that Nepalese
students are very bright.
After my PhD, I moved to University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, North Carolina for
new challenges and opportunities. My postdoctoral research was also nanostructured organic
solar cells but this time the focus was to maximize the light absorption. The concept of national
science foundation (NSF) funded project was to mimic black spot of butterfly wings and utilized
it in solar cells for maximum light absorption to increase solar cells efficiency. As a
nanofabrication expert, I had given a most challenging part of the project to mimic the butterfly
wings photonic structures or fabricate the similar nanostructures of butterfly wings. These
structures are of interest since 1970 after Helen Ghiradella, a pioneer in this field
http://www.albany.edu/biology/faculty/hghiradella/. Now the topic is interested to physicists and
engineers see examples here http://www.geglobalresearch.com/blog/butterfly-wing-
nanostructures-and-temperature-changes . However, the research is conducted using natural
wings of butterfly and nobody even knew if the current engineering technology is able to mimic
such complex photonic structures in nature. After several failure and frustrations, most exciting
time finally came. I was able to demonstrate that photonic nanostructures of the various butterfly
wings can actually be fabricated using existing conventional engineering technology over large
area in low cost. (Read my interview in Beneath the AVS Surface, Replicating Nature: A new
method to mimic the light-manipulating properties of butterfly
wings: https://avs.org/AVS/files/6f/6f052181-f991-41f1-83f9-ac963bd0507c.pdf in AVS
highlight at http://archive.today/RaHBx). In a very short period of time, I made breakthrough in
my major project and made several outstanding contributions in the team. Since I left too early
my post-doctoral research (left just after 1 year) to join a startup in California so I could not
continue my research in that topic for more breakthroughs.
Nabin: How was your experience in joining Rolith, Inc. as a Process Engineer?
Mukti: Rolith Inc. is a startup nanotechnology company (see application page for here
http://www.rolith.com/applications/transparent-conductive-electrodes ). I am here almost from
the beginning of the company. A startup company has to develop from the proof of concept to
manufacturing level. Of course, a small company has limited resources and a fixed target as
compare to research institute where one can have freedom for various researches and access to
many instruments. Working in Rolith, a startup company is more or less similar to research
institute with limited facilities and certain research goal. There was not any cultural sock for me
after I moved from my postdoctoral research to Rolith. It is also because of my research interests.
My research interests of nano-fabrications for various applications such as anti-reflecting
surfaces etc. are well match with the interests of this company. After I joined Rolith Inc, I made
some breakthroughs, contributed US patents and several conference papers. In academia I was
highly appreciated by my PhD advisors, post-doctoral advisors and the people in the field. I
could present in several conferences in front of large audiences. Here probably not as much, but I
am happy from what I could contribute to the company for moving forward.
Nabin: A general perception is that industry experience is very demanding. How do you balance
life and work?
Mukti: It has been great so far. Though work hours are long, I don't need to work from home.
While I am at home, I give time for my family. I live with my wife, a nine year old son and a
five year old daughter. Evening time and weekends are mostly for family. I think a professor has
to be much busier than an engineer in industry. We don't need to worry about a grant proposal,
publications, and class preparation and so on. There are of course pros and cons in everywhere.
For example university jobs are stable, while people tend to move frequently from one job to
another in industries.
Nabin: Could you please give us a snapshot of your one day in office? How much of table
research versus the experimental work is involved?
Mukti: The short term and long term goal of the company are discussed in the meeting and the
work is assigned for the week. As an employee my goal is to complete the assign tasks in timely
manner, find the solution of the problem by designing experiments and performing them, and
report the progress or difficulties in the meeting. Everyday is not the same but in general more
time is assign for experimental work than literature search. Working hours are flexible but its
about the feeling responsibility and performing as much as I can to complete the task. In general
my office starts around 8:30 in the morning and end at 6 PM. In between, I come home for lunch
as I live about 5 minutes drive.
Nabin: Could you please share one or two interesting aha moments in your research career or
industrial job?
Mukti: Yes, I can share a couple of interesting moments with you. In 2008, my team published
concept paper of nanostructured organic solar (plastic solar) cells and we applied US patents as
well. So there was lot of excitements. Pretty soon we realized that the efficiency was much lower
than we expected. Life is full of ups and downs like sinusoidal curve. It happens almost
everywhere in life. The best scenario was to get high efficiency but it was not happening. When
I was trying to find the reason behind the unexpected results, I discovered a fundamental
polymer behavior due to Nanoimprinting. At that moment I was so excited that then I could get a
good publications and my PhD.
Next time it happened when I was doing post doc at UNC. Several times I hoped to get pine tree
structures similar to butterfly wings in the sample while observing under scanning electron
microscope (SEM). It had not happened several times for long. It was November 2010 and I was
imaging. I saw pine tree structures under microscope and I shouted and jumped high like a
soccer player had made a goal! I was alone that time and right after I saw my co-worker at the
door and I showed him the results. I and my team finally proved that we could fabricate most
complex structures of nature, photonic structures of butterfly wings.
7. The technology evolves fast, are the requirements and qualifications/experiences/skills for a
new hire changing in the similar rate? Any words of wisdom for the new comers into the
industry, or in general which kind of skill sets are on demand?
Mukti: Technology evolves fast is true and the requirements for new hire are also changing.
However, the requirements for a new hire may not be changing in the similar rate. I think
evolution of new technology is the results of mostly advancements in thoughts or creativities. In
other words performance of new jobs may not always require new skills just like using same pen
and paper we can write different stories. However, competition increases more and more over
time. The more skills we have more the chances of getting hired. The skill sets depends on the
types of jobs so it is hard to say what kinds of skills are required in general. It is good to have
access in modern characterization tools such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), tunneling
electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD)
among others in nanotechnology research. Nowadays it looks like if you dont have some basic
computer programming skills, you are lacking something.
8. There have been talks about supporting research activities in Nepal by Alumni of TU. What
could be the best way to start/support/foster such activities?
Mukti: Sharing research ideas and activities we are doing here, providing literatures that are not
available/not accessible from Nepal, financial support to purchase some instruments can be some
among others. Theoretical research ideas may be more useful than those requires high cost
instruments. We can update new publications in common forum, share thesis etc. I had an extra
copy of thesis for physics department, TU and dropped there last December when I visited
Nepal. One idea I am thinking that we can discuss about conducting yearly conference meeting
of Nepalese scientists in USA. There, we can discuss more about opening industries and
research centers in Nepal.
Nabin: Earlier you told about your professional aim. How was your aim in life developed?
Mukti: To elaborate more, professional aim is what kind of profession we want to choose for
living a comfortable life. I think life aim and professional aim are two different things. One can
choose to be a doctor, a teacher or a farmer etc. Yes, earlier was just talking about professional
aim. It has been changing over time. In the beginning I wanted to be teacher and a farmer. Later
it was changed to university professor in Nepal. Now I am working in industry. Certainly, as a
teenager, my aim in life was not to be a scientist and work for USA. No one probably makes
aim in life to escape from country when he becomes successful in some area. It is really
important to think about our aim in life. Engineering or research is my profession and it can be
changed too. However, life aim is developed over time through learning by experience and
realizing the purpose of life, knowing the meaning of life, why I am in this earth, what makes
difference if I am not here, what make difference if I die now, what kind of legacy I can leave
after me etc. When one achieves this aim, s/he can gain inner satisfaction. Then one can see the
meaning of life. My aim in life is to help others and that was developed since I was a teenager
and it is still growing and taking shape. I think that my life will be successful if I can make
society move forward even a little bit.
When I was teenager, I was very much impressed by life of our great poet Laxmi Prasad
Devkota.

| Translation:
Where is happiness if everybody is looking for it? There where you make yourself empty giving
to others. I take opportunity to tell you that I am really a person who really wants to help other,
want to do social work, help society. The types of questions where I grow up, where I studied
etc. make all of us emotional. We are not there where we grow up, we are not there where we
learn to be human or learn to be a good citizen, where we got life. So many of us grown up, and
left. Some of us left village and go to cities, some of us left country. When we thought we were
successful and we left our country. If we were not successful we wouldnt. This is a kind of
selfishness. I like to add here that I am glad to see increasing number of Nepali physics PhD
every year. My request to my senior, colleagues and junior is that doing PhD is great but does
not mean we become a good citizen by doing PhD. Lets hope Nepal will not just be a man
power producer for USA or other developed countries. As I mentioned earlier, we can help
recent graduate for the opportunities abroad. However, lets not hope it become
counterproductive for the country or indirectly as we help brain drain in the country. In the other
hand we cannot stop brain drain if there are no opportunities in the country. Therefore we have to
think two things here. First: help new graduate for higher education abroad, second: do
something for the advancement of the country and develop that trend.
Nabin: It seems you have a plan to do some social work for your society, could you please
elaborate?
To talk about myself, after I completed my M. Sc., my aim is to encourage and help younger
generation for higher education. I and my friends from Isma established and organization named
Ismali Kosh (now Ismali Samaj) with aim to help loan anybody specially students from our
area in financial need.
Five years ago, we (I and my wife) established Premnath Memorial scholarship Fund in my
fathers name. Now the fund has been utilized through Ismali Samaj Kathmandu so that the
Samaj gives prize for three top SLC students from Isma village every year. We are hoping we
can do more in the future. One example that I recently learned is about initiative in anti-
corruption, poverty alleviation and several inspirational programs by Hemsarita Pathak Academy
founded by our friend Hem Pathak and team. Any work that can help our society move forward
is appreciated.
Thank you Nabin Ji for this opportunity to express my views in your site!