Chanda Trivedi, an expert in bioinformatics and computational biology, has been named a Research Assistant Professor within Texas Tech’s Department of Plant & Soil Science, according to officials within the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources. She officially stepped into her new research post last spring.
Her research employs computational and mathematical methods to analyze large biological datasets and develop models to understand biological systems. By exploring complex omics and environmental datasets, Trivedi aims to dissect the molecular basis of adaptive traits that drive plant-microbiome-environmental interactions in a changing environment.
“I am committed to consulting on various aspects of data science, bioinformatics, and genomics applied to biological systems, benchmarking new tools and workflows for data analysis, and participating in teaching, training (including workshops), and supervising students,” Trivedi said.
Her long-term goals is to develop new computational tools and predictive models that enable plant breeders and ecologists to predict beneficial organismal interactions to achieve improved yields and plant resilience in changing environments.
Aligned with Trivedi’s research, her teaching interest lies at the intersection of computational biology, advanced statistics, and environmental systems science. “I hope that my efforts to improve biology education through the use of cutting-edge machine learning and statistics will aid the next generation of students in addressing urgent environmental challenges through data-driven approaches,” she said.
Before joining the Texas Tech faculty, Trivedi served as a bioinformatic and computational biology consultant, bioinformatic research scientist, and postdoctoral associate within Colorado State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences. Earlier, she worked as an associate scientist with the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University in Australia, a visiting research scholar with Chungbuk National University’s Department of Rural & Agricultural Engineering in Korea, and a junior research fellow within the Indian Council of Forest Research Education’s Department of Statistics in Dehradun, India.
Trivedi received her bachelor’s degree in botany, forestry, and zoology and her master’s degree in forestry, both from Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India. She earned her doctorate in soil ecology from Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University in Australia. Recent honors include a Colorado State University Professional Development Award (2021).
Led by Luis Rafael Herrera-Estrella, the high-profile Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance research group examines how plants adapt to thrive in the presence of environmental stresses such as extreme heat and cold, drought and in the presence of brackish water sources. Herrera-Estrella’s arrival at Texas Tech was made possible by a $5 million grant from the State of Texas Governor's University Research Initiative and matched by the university to bring the best and brightest researchers to Texas.
IGCAST was established in 2020 with a mission of conducting top-ranked research and graduate education on the use of functional and population genomics to understand the molecular mechanisms that determine resilience of crops and related wild species to adverse environmental stresses in the era of climate change.
The research group aims at integrating an interdisciplinary team of scientists to conduct internationally competitive, multidisciplinary research to study physiological, biochemical and molecular mechanisms and plant architecture underlying resistance to environmental stresses, contributing to the development of sustainable agriculture.
CONTACT: Krishna Jagadish, Interim Chair, Department of Plant & Soil Science, Texas Tech University at (806) 834-7953 or kjagadish.sv@ttu.edu
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