A Winning Nema Team

For the second time in three years, CTAHR students in the Dept. of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences won 1st prize in Cobb Bowl Jeopardy at the annual meeting of the Society of Nematologists, held August 4-9 in Park City, UT. Competing as “Aloha Nema,” our super-capable PEPS students Roshan Paudel, Lauren Braley, Benjamin Wiseman, Landon Wong, and Kekoa Larger joined Montana State University student Erika Consoli to test their nematology knowledge against other national teams.

Congratulations to our Cobb Bowl champs, shown in the photo below with Koon-Hui Wang and Brent Sipes. Koon-Hui offers some insight into why PEPS students have such a winning Cobb Bowl record and why our state is a great place to study nematology: “Plant-parasitic nematodes caused significant economic yield loss to key crops in Hawaiʻi, not limited to anthurium, banana, coffee, pineapple, and sweet potato. Warm climates in Hawaii allow different species of damaging nematodes to reproduce all year round and allow graduate students to test various impactful nematode management strategies in a short period of time.” Hawaiʻi growers and gardeners are sure to benefit from our students’ hands-on nematode know-how.