Anugya received an American Phytopathological Society (APS) fellowship

Anugya’s quest for automating downy mildew phenotyping got a boost from the APS.

Anugya is now a recipient of the 2025 Steven C Nelson Early Career Development Fellowship from the APS. With the support from the APS, Anugya will visit Dr. Surya Sapkota’s lab at the USDA-ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, West Virginia. She aims to master high-throughput, quantitative screening of wild grapes for resistance to downy mildew disease using robotic infrastructure and deep learning algorithms. Anugya plans to apply this technique to understand the genetics of disease resistance in wild grape populations across Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Abby, Anugya(second from left), Dr. Sapkota and Gautam in Dr.Sapkota's newly established vineyards at the Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, West Virginia.

Anugya and Brayden sampling in Cherokee National Forest's Ocoee ranger district.