Bhushan Shrestha, PhD
Mycology Consultant
Dr. Bhushan Shrestha is a Mycology Consultant at Madan Bhandari University of Science
and Technology. He completed Master’s Degree in botany from Central Department of
Botany, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Nepal in 1994 and PhD in mycology (Cordyceps
biology and cultivation) from Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, South Korea in
2003. He pursued his post-doctoral research in Entomopathogenic Fungal Culture Collection
(EFCC) of Kangwon National University and Mushroom Research Division of National
Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science in South Korea. He has also worked as a Senior
Researcher in various universities and institutes such as Sungkyunkwan University, Catholic
Kwandong University and Mushtech Cordyceps Institute in South Korea and Green Energy
Mission/Nepal in Kathmandu, Nepal. He was awarded one-year Research Fellowship by
Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Khumaltar, Lalitpur under the Brain
Pooling Nepal Program from March 2020 to March 2021. Currently, he is also serving as a
Visiting Faculty at the Central Department of Biotechnology of Tribhuvan University,
Kirtipur. In connection with his duty as a Mycology Consultant at Madan Bhandari
University of Science and Technology, he has extensively travelled to Chitlang and
surrounding areas in Makawanpur district to explore local agricultural resources including
mushrooms in coordination with provincial and local institutions, and farmers’ communities.
He has surveyed agricultural farms for the promotion of organic farming and is currently
coordinating survey of plant diseases in Chitlang and surrounding areas and their biological
control in collaboration with Nepal Plant Disease and Agro Associates (NPDA), Kathmandu.
He is also involved in collection and conservation of local germplasms of Chitlang at the
National Genebank of Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC).
Dr. Shrestha has authored and co-authored 65+ peer-reviewed research articles that have been
published in international journals and has received invitations to present his work in Nepal,
Thailand, China, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam. He has also worked as a peer reviewer for many
international mycological journals. His public profiles are available online in Google Scholar
(https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4iJcrkcAAAAJ&hl=en), ResearchGate
(https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bhushan-Shrestha-2) and LinkedIn
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhushan-shrestha-61188ab9/) etc. His research interests include
in situ and ex situ conservation of Yarsagumba, cultivation and mass propagation of
Yarsagumba and other Cordyceps species, diversity, evolution and phylogeny of Cordyceps
including other entomopathogenic fungi, biological control of crop pests using
entomopathogenic fungi, and genomics and secondary metabolism of edible and medicinal
mushrooms.
Education
PhD in Agriculture with a major in mycology from Kangwon National University, South
Korea
M. Sc. in Botany from Tribhuvan University