Editorial Team

Dr. Bharat Pokharel is a biometrician and applied statistician with extensive expertise in forest biometrics, sustainable natural-resource management, experimental design, and ecological data analysis. He earned a B.Sc. in Forestry with First Class Honours from the Australian National University and a Ph.D. in Forest Biometrics from Michigan Technological University. Between his undergraduate and doctoral studies, Dr. Pokharel worked for more than five years with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Nepal in several resource-management and conservation roles. He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences in the College of Agriculture.

Dr. Pokharel’s research focuses on developing and evaluating decision-support models that help resource owners, land managers, and policymakers advance sustainable forest management. His broader interests include designing experiments and conducting observational studies in agricultural, environmental, and biological systems. He also works with large and complex datasets generated through controlled experiments, field observations, and remote-sensing technologies, including Landsat imagery and airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), using SAS and R statistical-computing environments.

Throughout his academic career,  Dr. Pokharel has secured around $10 million in research funding as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator and has published more than three dozen peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters, and numerous professional reports and proceedings. Dr. Pokharel had been actively engaged in community service. His work includes leading a school tree-nursery project through Forests Without Borders, a Canadian Institute of Forestry initiative in Nepal, and helping rebuild a school damaged by Nepal’s 2015 earthquake through the Nashville Nepalese Association (NNA), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. In recognition of his contributions, he received the Canadian Institute of Forestry’s “Tree of Life” Award in 2013. He is an active member of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) and a life member of the Association of Nepalese Agricultural Professionals of the Americas (NAPA), the Nepal Foresters’ Association, and the Nepal Red Cross Society.

Dr. Acharya is data lead, Early Product Development for Inari Agriculture. He leads scientists and data analysts who specialize in solving complex genomics and bioinformatics data problems and move the gene edited plants through the product development and plant breeding. Before joining Inari, Ananta worked as a research scientist in Corteva Agriscience. Dr. Acharya's research interests are use of Bioinformatics and computational biology in Agriculture, esp. crop improvement. He has experience in working with plant breeding, genetics, genomics and computational biology while in academia and while working in the agriculture industry. He has published multiple peer-reviewed articles in the field of plant breeding, genomics and bioinformatics.

Dr. Vitalis Temu, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Virginia State University (VSU), where he leads a forage ecology and management research program. He received an associate degree in Range Management before earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in animal science from the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania and a Ph.D. in agronomy from Mississippi State University. He has dedicated decades to researching plant-animal-environment interactions in tropical and temperate agricultural systems. In his research at VSU, Dr. Temu has worked mostly on the enhanced establishment of native warm-season grass stands and their sustainable defoliation management for forage and wildlife habitat in agricultural landscapes.

He also works on forage-based strategies for controlling gastrointestinal nematodes affecting pasture-raised small ruminants to address growing consumer preferences for animal products with less or no chemical drug residues. As a member of the 1890 Agroforestry Consortium, an affiliate of the North American Agroforestry Association, Dr. Temu promotes sustainable agroforestry practices, including silvopasture, grass-legume mixtures, and rotational grazing for Climate-Smart ruminant livestock production. He also assesses ecological restoration of degraded agricultural landscapes, including revegetation of utility-scale solar installations. Since joining VSU, Dr. Temu has reviewed over 60 published manuscripts for over 10 scientific journals that follow a rigorous peer-review process. He has published at least 20 peer-reviewed Journal articles and given over 20 conference presentations.

He is a board member of the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council and the Southern United States Cover Crops Council, where he also serves on research and conference committees, the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, the Society for Range Management, and several other professional associations.

Dr. Sushil Paudyal is a faculty member in the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University. He received a bachelor’s degree in veterinary science and animal husbandry from Tribhuvan University in Nepal. Dr. Paudyal was a graduate research assistant at Texas A&M AgriLife Research in Amarillo, where he earned his master’s degree in animal science from West Texas A&M University. He obtained his doctoral degree from Colorado State University, specializing in dairy herd management.

Dr. Paudyal’s research interests focus on using herd and animal level data for decision making in dairy farms. His research utilizes innovative technologies to optimize production, health, and well-being of dairy cattle.

Dr. Ghimire is a Professor of Cropping Systems and Soil Management and the Director of the Carbon Management and Soil Health Center at New Mexico State University. His research program aims to improve the efficiency and profitability of agricultural systems while enhancing environmental quality by deepening our understanding of soil and ecological health, nutrient cycling, carbon storage, greenhouse gas emissions, and sustainable crop production practices. Dr. Ghimire has published over 300 research articles, including >140 peer-reviewed journal papers and book chapters, and >20 extension publications.

He has collaborated on over 30 successful externally funded grants and contracts, totaling $60 million, and served as lead PI on $6 million in funding. Since 2024, Dr. Ghimire has been included on the list of the world's top 2% of scientists, as published by Elsevier and Stanford University.

He is passionate about developing sustainable agricultural techniques and training students and scientists to address challenges in sustainable soil management. Dr. Ghimire received various awards from the university and professional societies, including the Mobley Family Endowed Distinguished Award in 2024 and the Emerging Scientist Award of the Western Society of Crop Science in 2020.

Dr. Mohan Acharya serves as an Assistant Professor of Animal Science at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, with duties spanning research, extension, teaching, and mentoring students. He completed his M.S. and Ph.D. in Animal Science from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR. With more than a decade of professional experience, his work focuses on animal parasitology, reproduction, nutrition, and sustainable small-ruminant production.

Dr. Acharya has played a key role in obtaining various external funds as both Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator. His current research focuses on identifying gastrointestinal nematodes, studying anthelmintic resistance, and exploring metabolomics, proteomics, and genomic strategies for disease resistance in sheep and goats. He has extensive experience in creating producer education programs, field days, webinars, fact sheets, and hands-on training sessions. He is a dedicated educator and mentor who encourages active learning, critical thinking, scientific communication, and practical skills. He has numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and acts as a reviewer for scientific articles and grant applications.