Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  University of Maryland

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I am a 2019 graduate of the University of Maryland with a bachelor's degree in Horticultural Sciences. I am interested in sustainability in agricultural systems, with a focus on outreach and disseminating information, research, and materials to improve the management of cultivation systems. Interested in IPM, biocontrol, pathology, and research-based approaches to minimize environmental damage and maximize productivity in said cultivation systems.
  Enthusiastic, curious, and adaptive individual, I am endlessly cheerful working in a variety of environments- where it is research labs, public gardens, community gardens, herbariums, I always make my experiences a learning opportunity!

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is the coolest thing you have discovered or learned about plants?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

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• Profile Question 2

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• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

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• Profile Question 3

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• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

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• Help represent the outreach efforts of your societies. Please click all those organizations you are a member of:

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• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

aakoppendrayerspring2021 project 6 Nurani Illahi Apr 23, 2021

Hey there to David, Katherine, and Elise of the Koppendrayer class!

My name is Nurani and I am a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park, Maryland. I studied horticulture for my bachelor's degree with a soft focus on…

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Hey there to David, Katherine, and Elise of the Koppendrayer class!

My name is Nurani and I am a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park, Maryland. I studied horticulture for my bachelor's degree with a soft focus on entomology.  Horticulture is the study of growing plants. Horticulture majors focus on what "inputs" benefit a plant the most so that we can optimize its health and productivity. Inputs are the different things in an environment that you tweak to affect plant growth. This includes soil composition (what's inside the soil? What nutrients does it have? What kind of minerals? How coarse or fine are the substrates (big or small particles?)), light conditions (how long do plants need to be in the light? how long do they need to be in the dark? how intense should the light be?), nutrients (how available are the nutrients to the plant? are the plants able to absorb the nutrients in the form they take shape within the soil?), and many other factors that affects plant growth and development. 

Entomology is the study of insects. I got to work in different labs with different insects. Some of the insects I've worked with are honeybees, fruit flies, dragonflies, and leafhoppers. Most of these insects are agriculturally relevant insects, which means that they interact with plant species that we often use in our day to day lives-- think fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and animal feed.

Currently, I work in a private company that cultivates plants in a greenhouse.

A greenhouse is a "closed system", which means that plants are grown indoors, where you can adjust the environment to make sure the plants are getting all of their needs met. This means that we are able to control the amount of nutrients a plant gets, the amount of water, the amount of light, the temperature, humidity, and so on. This is also what is called a "controlled environment", as you can see from all the parameters (settings) you can control.

Feel free to ask me any questions! As I work for a private company, there may be certain questions I can't answer, but I'll try my best to respond any that I can! 

 

Do you guys like the project so far? What are your predictions?