College of Agriculture welcomes three new faculty members this spring
Moriah Bilenky, assistant professor of sustainable horticulture, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Moriah Bilenky joins the HLA department this spring from Penn State University, where she conducted post-doctoral research on sustainable and organic cropping systems. Bilenky plans to continue exploring low-input, sustainable cropping systems in her research program at Purdue, with particular interest in the use of cover cropping, reduced tillage and animal-crop integration to reduce off-farm inputs. One of her personal career goals will be to find an equine related connection to her work and research.
Kyle Cottrell, assistant professor of biochemical pathways and metabolism, Biochemistry
Kyle Cottrell joins the Biochemistry department from Washington University in St. Louis, where he began his graduate studies in 2012. Cottrell completed his PhD in molecular cell biology in December 2017, staying on at the university to conduct post-doctoral research in several aspects of post-transcriptional regulation in cancer, including RNA editing. Cottrell’s past research has focused on post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression, including control of mRNA translation and stability as well as RNA editing. In his current research, Cottrell is focused on RNA editing, how it is regulated in cancer and the potential of targeting an enzyme involved in RNA editing to treat breast cancer.
Pratishtha Poudel, assistant professor of digital agroecosystems and agroecosystem modeling, Agronomy
Pratishtha Poudel joins the Agronomy department from Kansas State University, where she completed her post-doctoral fellowship with research focusing on the development and application of crop models. In her current work and research, Poudel seeks to bring together the disciplines of crop physiology, data science and mathematical modeling to advance cropping system models. Striving to be a lifelong learner, Poudel enjoys learning about other countries, languages and cultures.
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