| I completed my initial education form my hometown in Swabi, KP, Pakistan and then moved to Peshawar for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Agricultural University Peshawar, Pakistan in 1995. After completing my basic education, I started my career as Scientific Officer in Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Islamabad in 2002. For about 6 years, I worked for the National Potato Program in PARC and successfully completed various research projects promoting and disseminating potato crop production and protection technologies to farming communities. In 2007, I won the “HEC overseas PhD Scholarship” and proceed to Imperial College London, UK where I worked on my thesis titled “Multitrophic interactions in Potato-Aphids system under the influence of soil nutrition and nematodes herbivory” and graduated in 2010. I began my teaching career as Assistant Professor at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM) in 2011 and then at University of Swabi I in 2012. I was promoted to Associate Professor and Head Department of Agriculture in 2015 at AWKUM. In 2018, I was awarded the Talented Young Scientist Program (TYSP) by the ministry of science and technology, P.R. China and placed at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) for collaborative hi-tech research activities on the management of insect pest in rice. Alongside, teaching and research, I also involved in various academic and research administrations such as Director Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) at University of Swabi and Director Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization at AWKUM. Since 2017, I have also worked as a member, Accreditation Inspection committees (AIC) of the National Agricultural Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC), HEC, Islamabad to access the Entomology Program in Pakistan.
My primary tasks throughout my career at AWKUM are to teach at undergraduate and research supervision at postgraduate level. My main interests centre around biological pest control, particularly of aphids along with other pests of agriculture and medical importance. Multitrophic interactions in plant-insect-parasitoid system are my primary concern at the moment, examining the;
i. Host Plant Resistance (antixenosis & antibiosis) against aphids in cultivated crops (Potatoes and cereals),
ii. ii. Effects of various stress factors (nutrition, drought, belowground herbivore) on host plant resistance and tritrophic interactions between aphids (Myzus persicae) and their parasitoids (Aphidius colemani),
iii. iii. Effect of belowground herbivory by root knot nematodes in potato on plant vigour and cascade effect in aphis-parasitoids interactions.
In addition to these, I also work on evaluating the insecticidal potency of RNAi-based ecdysone receptor gene knockdown in Plutella xylostella and its development into bio-pesticide in the PARC funded ALP research project. Similarly, in collaboration with Jilin Agriculture University, China and Aksary University, Turkey, I have also been involved in insect bio-waste management research, particularly insect silk cocoons looking for their protein’s morphology, chitin structures as biomaterial and their applications in the medical science. I also worked with the Key laboratory of insect pest and disease management at the Institute of Plant Protection, CAAS, China During my stay at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, investigating the preference and performance of rice leaf folder on different life stages of rice and GSNOR mediated effects on the development and defence against brown plant hopper of rice. In a collaborative project with Prof. Lian-Sheng Zang at the Institute of Biological Control, Jilin Agricultural University, China, we focused on various basic and applied aspects of Tricogramma spp. as bio-control agent against the stem borer of rice, maize and sugarcane and its mass production and applications in the large acreage using drone technology.
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