Usha Panta

Usha is a graduate student from Nepal specializing in sustainable pest management. She is passionate about developing management practices that can simultaneously control soil-borne pests and minimize harmful impacts on soil health and ecosystem functioning. Her research interests include integrated pest management, host-mediated interactions, behavior and ecology of soil-dwelling arthropods, soil biological processes, and plant biochemistry.

Ph.D.       Entomology, Virginia Tech, August 2022- August 2026

B.S          Agriculture, Gokuleshwor Agriculture, and Animal Science College, Nepal, 2015 – 2019

Usha is working to understand the impact of biofumigation on non-target organisms like springtails and earthworms and how long it takes for them to recover from those impacts. Additionally, she is trying to assess the impact of biofumigation on overall soil macro and micro-communities.  Moreover, she is also looking at subsequent host-mediated impacts of post-biofumigation on above-ground herbivores like aphids.