April 2022
Dr. Punya Nachappa received her M.S. in Entomology from University of Georgia, and Ph.D. in Entomology from Kansas State University. After completing her Ph.D., Dr. Nachappa held positions as a post-doctoral associate at Kansas State University and Texas A&M University. Prior to joining Colorado State University (CSU), she was an Associate Professor at Purdue University Fort Wayne. As an Associate Professor at CSU, the Nachappa Lab’s research focuses on understanding the interaction between plants, pathogens, and insect vectors in cropping systems that are of importance to Colorado agriculture, including hemp plants. Topics of interest include studying the biology and pest management options of some key pests of hemp such as the hemp russet mite and cannabis aphid and the ecology and epidemiology of the beet curly top virus (BCTV) and beet leafhopper in hemp. The lab is using hemp viral metagenomics to characterize the diversity of viruses/viroids in hemp.