{"id":535,"date":"2026-01-15T19:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.agrilife.org\/gadhavelab\/?p=535"},"modified":"2026-02-10T20:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:04:19","slug":"new-phd-students-join-the-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.agrilife.org\/gadhavelab\/2026\/01\/15\/new-phd-students-join-the-group\/","title":{"rendered":"New PhD Students Join the Group!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We\u2019re excited to welcome two new PhD students to the lab, strengthening our work across ecological and molecular dimensions of plant\u2013virus\u2013vector systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Richard Smith<\/strong>\u00a0joined the lab in August 2025 as a part-time PhD student in the Department of Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences at\u00a0West Texas A&amp;M University. Richard also serves as Assistant Vice President for Risk and Compliance at WTAMU. His doctoral research focuses on developing ecology-based integrated pest management (IPM) strategies for thrips and\u00a0tomato spotted wilt virus\u00a0(TSWV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Rohith Sasi<\/strong>, an\u00a0Erasmus Mundus Scholar, began his PhD in Spring 2026 in the Department of Entomology at\u00a0Texas A&amp;M University. His research focuses on molecular interactions within the TSWV\u2013tomato\u2013thrips pathosystem, with particular emphasis on the mechanisms governing virus transmission and host manipulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcome to the lab, Richard and Rohith\u2014we\u2019re excited to have you both on board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019re excited to welcome two new PhD students to the lab, strengthening our work across ecological and molecular dimensions of plant\u2013virus\u2013vector systems. Richard Smith\u00a0joined the lab in August 2025 as a part-time PhD student in the Department of Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences at\u00a0West Texas A&amp;M University. Richard also serves as Assistant Vice President for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_hp_alert_display_through":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"alert_level":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New PhD Students Join the Group! - Gadhave laboratory<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.agrilife.org\/gadhavelab\/2026\/01\/15\/new-phd-students-join-the-group\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New PhD Students Join the Group! - Gadhave laboratory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We\u2019re excited to welcome two new PhD students to the lab, strengthening our work across ecological and molecular dimensions of plant\u2013virus\u2013vector systems. 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