Webinar Series Committee (2022-2024)
Chair
Khusi Ram Tiwari, PhD
Dr. Khusi Ram Tiwari grew up in a farm in Jita-3, Lamjung, (currently Madhya Nepal Municipality-1) Nepal. He received his high school education from Shanti High School, Kunchha, Lamjung and undergraduate education from Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS) Rampur, Chitawan. He joined Department of Agriculture- Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) as an agronomist and worked for 10 years as an Agriculture Officer in Gorkha, Parsa (Birjung), and Chitawan districts. In Chitawan, he was focused on pulse crops breeding programs with National Grain Legume Research Program (NGLRP), Rampur during 1987-1991. In 1992, he was successful to win International Development Research Centre (IDRC) scholarship to study in Canada and completed M.Sc in 1994 and Ph.D. in 1998 from University of Manitoba, Canada in Genetics and Plant Breeding. Dr. Khusi Ram Tiwari is a senior Plant Breeder focused on Genetics and Plant Breeding Research for the last 20 years in the USA. He collaborates with scientists globally from Asia, Africa, Europe, South America to develop new crop varieties which are high yielding and disease resistant. He worked for Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. (now Corteva Agriscience) as a Research Scientist during 1999-2010 and developed several high yielding corn hybrids for the Southern USA. Currently, he is working as a Principal Plant Breeder for Bayer Crop Science and leads team on developing new crop varieties for the Southern USA. He is also an adjunct Professor at Mississippi State University, Mississippi and Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), Rampur, Nepal. Dr. Tiwari has published several research articles in peer reviewed journals and books. He has been granted more than 50 US patents from the US patent office in crop plants. Dr. Tiwari is a member of Crop Science Society (CSSA), American Society of Agronomy (ASA), National Association of Plant Breeders (NAPB) and a life member of Association of Nepalese Agricultural Professionals of Americas (NAPA). Dr. Tiwari enjoys working with Nepalese community in the US including Florida Nepal Association (FNA), Nepalese Association of Southeast America (NASeA) and Non-Resident Nepali (NRN) USA teams. He worked as president of Florida Nepal Association (FNA) during 2004-2006.
Members
Dilip Panthee, PhD
Dr. Panthee is an Associate Professor and Tomato Breeder in the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University. He joined the Department in 2008 and is leading the tomato breeding program since then. Dr. Panthee earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 2005, and MPhil from the University of Birmingham and Reading in 1997. He graduated from IAAS, Rampur in 1990. Before coming to the US in 2001, he was a Lecturer in IAAS, Rampur. He also worked as a Seed Technologist/Plant Breeder at Lumle Agriculture Research Center for almost eight years. His breeding objectives in the current position include developing fresh-market tomatoes for disease resistance, fruit quality, and heat stress tolerance. Dr. Panthee has published more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, several abstracts, and research reports. He has also released ten hybrid tomato varieties and 14 tomato breeding lines.
Rajan Shrestha, PhD
Dr. Shrestha is an early career research scientist, receiving his doctoral degree, majoring in Agronomy from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA in 2022. Currently, working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate starting May 2022 at Texas A&M AgriLife Research located in Amarillo, TX, his research specialization and focus includes Agronomy, Crop Physiology, and Cropping systems. In 2018, he earned his Master’s degree in Plant, Soil, and Environmental Science from West Texas A&M University, Canyon, TX, USA. During his graduate studies, he has been successful in publishing 8 peer-reviewed journal articles, 2 editor-reviewed research articles, and currently, 4 manuscripts under review for publication including >20 presentations in regional, national, and international scientific meetings. Dr. Shrestha has been awarded the Excellence Fellowship, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, Texas A&M University (2018), B.A. and Jane Ann Stewart Dryland Agriculture Scholarship, West Texas A&M University (2017), and Fellowship with Anne van den Ban Scholarship, Wageningen University & Research Center, 2016. Since the early school days, he was able to stand alone as a well-disciplined bright student with excellent academic achievements. Later, Dr. Shrestha completed his undergraduate studies in a Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Agricultural Sciences, Purbanchal University, Nepal, ranking as one of the top among students in the University. Between 2013 to 2016, he served as an Instructor for Junior Technician Agriculture Course, and Agricultural Program Officer/Interim District Coordinator in USAID funded agricultural project in Nepal. Presently, he is an active member of the Agronomy Society of America, the Crop Science Society of America, the Soil Science Society of America, and NAPA, serving as a Webinar Committee member starting 2022 with roles of preparing narrative reports on NAPA’s webinar series to be published in the quarterly newsletter “Agri-Connection”. Recently, he is also engaged as a reviewer for a few American Journals and has already reviewed several manuscripts.
Sujata Bogati
I am Sujata Bogati. I am originally from Gorkha, Nepal. I did my bachelors from IAAS, Lamjung, TU, Nepal. I graduated from the University of Georgia in December 2021 with master's in Crop Sciences. My research during my masters was focused on comparing the water-use efficiency of peanuts grown in different management systems in southeastern Georgia, which involved using high-tech micrometeorological instruments such as eddy-covariance instruments. Besides these, I was involved in several modeling projects in Pecan and planting date experiments in peanuts. I am currently a first-year Ph.D. student at Purdue University in the Department of Agronomy. Currently, I am working with Soybeans. I am looking at several genotypes' phenotypic and physiological aspects to access the genotype by environment interaction. Besides academics, my hobbies are visiting new places, cooking Nepali foods, and listening to Nepali music.