About
Namaste, I am Aastha.
I came from one of the most naturally gifted nations, Nepal. I started my PhD degree in Spring 2021 in the Department of Plant Pathology at University of Florida, working with Dr. Erica Goss, Dr. Pamela Roberts and Dr. Jeff Jones. My journey in the path of plant pathology started during my undergraduate studies, when I work with brown spot disease in rice and was further set up when I got selected for “Erasmus Mundus Joint master’s degree in plant health”. I also took an amazing opportunity to explore my carrier in plant pathology in different countries in Europe (Spain, Germany, Italy, Sweden), where I worked on the characterization of Pythium spp, foot rot disease diagnosis, biomarkers for disease resistant potatoes.
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Education
2021-Present Ph.D. in Plant Pathology. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
2017-2019 Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Plant Health
Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Valencia, Spain- Plant health
Università degli studi di padova (UNIPD), Padova, Italy - Sustainable agriculture
Master Thesis - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Sweden
2012-2016 B.Sc. in Agriculture. Tribhuvan University, Nepal -
Research
I work with Bacterial leaf spot on pepper (BSP). My research is focused on the characterization and population genomics study of Xanthomonas strains associated with BSP.