Jigme Thinley, Bhutan

• Current position: Lecturer at the College of Natural Resources, Royal University of Bhutan, in Punakha, Bhutan
• Scholarship: Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development (APPEAR) – financed by the Austrian Development Cooperation
• Duration: 09/2011 – 09/2013
• Motto: “Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”

Curriculum Vitae

Jigme Thinley holds a MSc degree in Applied Geoinformatics from the University of Salzburg, Austria. After graduating from university in 2017, he became part of the Geology Engineering team at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland and worked as an external researcher on the topic “Slope instability and terrain movement at the higher mountains”. During this time he gained lots of skills and experiences, particularly in the field of landslide, rockslide and slope movement using remote sensing techniques and specific software. In 2019, supported by a grant from the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Jigme Thinley got the chance to spend three months at the Geoscience Department of Fribourg University, Switzerland, to perform research on glaciers. Currently he works as a lecturer at the College of Natural Resources (CNR) of the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB). His research focuses on landslide movement and glacier monitoring at the higher mountain regions using remote sensing.

Reflection

The scholarship support has given me the opportunity to develop on a personal and professional level: When I started my scholarship at the University of Salzburg I worked as a common employee in the IT department and in the end I became a lecturer and I was feeling self-confident. Without the experiences I gained in Austria, I would not be where I am now.