Meet the Team

Theodore McAvoy

Dr. Ted McAvoy leads and manages the South Georgia Vegetables team at the University of Georgia. He is an Assistant Professor & Vegetable Production Extension Specialist in the Department of Horticulture.

Dr. McAvoy’s applied field research focuses on all aspects of vegetable production in Georgia. Areas of interest include variety performance, disease resistance, fertilizer, irrigation and alternative crops.

His extension goal is to serve the vegetable industry by disseminating relevant information and providing practical data driven recommendations that increase productivity, sustainability and profitability.

Connect with Dr. McAvoy: Email

Robert (Bob) Brooke

Research Professional

Hometown

• Sycamore, Georgia, USA

Academic Background

• Turner County High School -1986

Work Experience

• University of Georgia – Research Technician – (2022 – Present)
• University of Georgia– State Variety Testing – (2001-2021)
• International Forest Company – (1994-2000)
• Scotty Raines Farms – Cotton, Corn, Peanuts, Watermelon – (2003-2014)

Current Role

Bob is the best technician at the University of Georgia. He has extensive work and farming experience that are utilized to procure, operate and maintain equipment. His certifications include commercial driver and pesticide applicator licenses.  In addition, he plants, manages and harvests various vegetable crops.  He is responsible for designing research trials, implementing treatments, and collecting and entering data. Lastly, he maintains crop records for planting/harvest dates, as well as pesticide and fertilizer applications.

Connect with Bob Brooke: Email

Manisha Kumari

Post Doctoral Researcher

Hometown: Sikar, Rajasthan, India

Academic Background

• Ph.D. – Genetics & Plant Breeding, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture & Technology, Udaipur, India – 2023
• M.Sc. – Genetics & Plant Breeding, Agriculture University, Jodhpur, India – 2019
• B.Sc. – Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Gujarat, India – 2017

Work Experience

• Assistant Professor (Genetics & Plant Breeding) – School of Agricultural Sciences, JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth University, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.

Current Project

Dr. Kumari is a postdoctoral research associate under Dr. Theodore McAvoy and she is currently focused on the dissemination of the research and production technology information of different vegetable crops in South Georgia through publishing different research articles and extension reports along with writing grant proposals. Additional responsibilities include maintaining the South Georgia Vegetable Lab Website and data analysis along with coordinating projects, ordering supplies, assisting students, providing data summaries/graphs for presentations, and presenting at regional and national meetings.

Connect with Manisha Kumari: Email

Nirmala Acharya

Ph.D. Student – Whitefly and Whitefly Transmitted Viruses in Vegetable Crops

Hometown: Pokhara, Nepal

Academic Background

• Ph.D. – Horticulture, University of Georgia (August 2022 – Present)
• MS – Agriculture (Horticulture), Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences (IAAS), Tribhuvan University (TU), Kathmandu, Nepal – (2019-2021)
•  BS – Agriculture Sciences Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), Chitwan, Nepal (2013-2018)

Work Experience

• Graduate Research Assistant, University of Georgia, Tifton, GA (August 2022 -Present)
• Research Assistant, Nepal Development Research Institute (NDRI), Lalitpur, Nepal (Apr. 2021 – Oct. 2021)
• Agriculture Instructor: Shree Seti Devi Panchakanya Secondary School, Sindhupalchok, Nepal (Jul. 2018 – Mar. 2019)
• Agriculture Intern, Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project (PM-AMP), Bajura, Nepal (Dec. 2017 – Jun. 2018)

Current Project

Nirmala’s research project aims to manage whitefly and whitefly-transmitted viruses (WTVs) in cucurbit vegetable crops grown in South Georgia. In this project, she evaluates commercial varieties of yellow squash, zucchini, cucumber, winter squash, pumpkin and watermelon for tolerance to whiteflies and WTVs. She is also studying the effects of whitefly and WTVs infestation on physiological attributes of cucurbit crops using LI-COR in open-field production systems. She is conducting qPCR and RT-qPCR to detect and quantify viruses in leaf samples collected from field experiments. She is also monitoring for novel viral symptoms in the field experiments to detect viruses yet to be identified in the region through next-generation sequencing.

Connect with Nirmala Acharya: Email